ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF PARIS. 347 



crowned by tlic Academic francai.se, says of the preface of IGOl) : " Tliis ])r(;face, 

 wLicli comprises but a few pages, has yet made good its chiim to be ranked 

 among the distinguished works of the century. It is the most vigorous and 

 compreliensive survey of human knowledge from Bacon to the preface of the 

 Encyclopedia." This is well and justly said; but of the preface of IGGG there 

 is not a word. "Wherefore this silence? Had Garat not seen it? This 1 can- 

 not believe ; and yet the preface in question is quite as line as that of 1699. 

 Perhaps it is even more so, for there prevails in it a graver strain of elofjuence, 

 and, for that reason, a more excellent one. 



Fontenelle, not having been nominated as secretary until 1G97, might very 

 well have acquiesced in the terms of the ordinance, which only exacted of him 

 the history of the Academy after the year 1G99 ; but the monument which ho 

 raised to the sciences would have thus been incomplete, and he undertook the 

 entire history from 1GG6 to 1G99. Duhamel had already Avritten in Latin the 

 history of these thirty-two first years, (Regies Scientiarum Acadcrniff; ITistoria, 

 1698.) Fontenelle, through a considerate delicacy, did not publish the French 

 history of these years until after the death of Duhamel, and long after. The 

 latter died in 170G ; the history appeared in 1733. 



Duhamel had relinquished the functions of secretary in 1G97. The lustre of 

 the sciences, every day augmenting, demanded for them a more brilliant inter- 

 preter, and Fontenelle succeeded him, Duhamel, a most learned, laborious, and 

 unpretending man, recalls, by his tone and by his Latin, the ancient period of 

 the sciences. Fontenelle, by his original genius, his vivacity of thought, his 

 language, and above all by his French style, represents their new period. To 

 see the two eras, so diflferent, yet so little distant, we need but compare the 

 Latin history and French history of the Academy of Sciences, Duhamel and 

 Fontenelle. 



We must still recur to Fontenelle to learn how to speak of others and of 

 himself. "At the commencement of 1697," he says, "M. Duhamel resigned 

 the pen, having represented to M. de Pontchartrain, chancellor of France, that 

 h(^ had become so infirm as to stand in need of a successor. It would be lo my 

 own interest to conceal here the name of him who had the temerity to take the 

 j)lace of such a man ; but the gratitude which I owe him for the goodness with 

 which he accepted me, and for the care which he took to form me, does not 

 ))crmit me to do so." — Elogc de Duhamel. 



In 1737 Fontenelle, at the age of eighty years, and having been secretary for 

 i'orty, felt, in his turn, the necessity of retiring. He Avrote, therefore, to Car- 

 dinal de Fleury, asking anew the superannuation (vetcrance) which he had 

 already applied for seven years before. "It is just seven years," he said, 

 " since 1 obtained from your eminence permission to abdicate the only dignity 

 which I hold in this world, that of secretary of the Academy of Sciences. I 

 then yielded to the instances of several of the members and remained, though 

 compliment, no doubt, had its part in their remonstrances. Seven more years 

 greatly strengthen the reasons Avhich I then had. It is very far from being 

 the case that every one is exempt from the danger of self-d(?lusion. Whatever 

 diftereuce there may be between France and the Academy, I njneAv my earnest 

 prayer, and am, with very profound respect, &c." The cardinal, who had his 

 own reasons for not admitting that one is old at eighty years, (he was himself 

 seventy-seven,) returned but an evasive reply, Fontenelle was therefore 

 obliged to write to him a third time, three years after, in 1710 ; and this time 

 the cardinal yielded, not, however, Avithout reservations. "You are," he re- 

 ])lied to him, "only an idle fellow and a libertine; but still it is necessary to 

 have some indulgence for characters of that sort." 



Fontenelle Avas nominated at the beginning of 1697 ; and, as he retired at 

 the close of 1740, was, consequently, secretary for nearly forty-four years. 



