350 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF PARIS. 



ing of a certain day ; no explanation of the reason of this order ; a silence 

 which might well cause some alarm. Father Sebastien fails not to an-ive at 

 the hour ; presents himself, confused and apprehensive ; the minister praises 

 him on account of the watches, tells him for whom he had worked, exhoi't? 

 him to cultivate his great talent for mechanics, and in order still more to 

 encourage him, and speaking still more to the point in his capacity of minister, 

 confers on him a pension of six hundred livres ; the first year being paid, 

 according to the custom of those times, in advance." " Father Scbastien," 

 adds Fontenclle, " was then but nineteen years of age ; and with what a desire 

 of meriting approA-al must he have been inspired ! Princes and ministers who 

 do not obtain suitable agents for every purpose, cither do not know that there 

 is need of men, or have not the art of finding them.'' 



I have said that Fontenelle forgets nothing which was done by Colbert. 

 " It was in 1GG.5," he tells us, " that for the first time appeared the Journal des 

 Savans, the idea of Avhich was so novel and happy, and which still subsists 

 with greater vigor than ever, accompanied by a numerous progeny, dissemi- 

 nated throughout Europe, under the different names of Nouvelles de la repub- 

 lique dcs Icttres ; ITistoirc dcs ouvrages des savants; Bibliotlieque universclle ; 

 Bibiiotkeque choisie ; Acta eruditorum ; Transactions j^^idosophiqties ; Me7noires 

 pour Vhisloire dcs sciences et des beaux-arts, &c. M. de Sallo, ecclesiastic 

 councillor to the Parliament, had conceived the design of it, and had associated 

 with himself the Abbe Gallois, Avho, from the vast variety of his erudition, 

 seemed born for this laboi% and, what is more, and by no means common with 

 those who know everything, who knew French, and wrote it well." 



I find, from Fontenclle, that the Journal took at first a tone somewhat too 

 bold ; that it censured too freely most of the works which appeared ; that the 

 republic of letters, thinking its liberty menaced, revolted, and the publication 

 was suspended at the end of three months. It reappeared in 1666, under the 

 sole direction of the Abbe Gallois, "and immediately," says Fontenclle, "M. 

 Colbert, struck with the beauty and utility of the Jotirnal, took a taste for the 

 work." From that moment the fortunes of the Journal were secured ; a happy 

 event, not only for letters and science in general, but for the Academy in 

 particular." "The Abbe Gallois," says Fontenelle, " enriched his Journal 

 with the principal discoveries of the Academy, which were then made known 

 to the public only through this medium." 



" In 1683, M. Colbert was lost to letters." Fontenelle says but these few- 

 words ; but what do not these few words convey after all that precedes ! 



By the side of Colbert, who renovated by means of the sciences the face of 

 the most civilized empire of the world, I place the memorial of the Czar Peter, 

 who carried them into countries the most barbarous. 



The czar came to Paris in 1717; he came with the curiosity of genius; he 

 visited everything and penetrated everywhere, and especially did he observe 

 the Academy of (Sciences. " No sooner," says Fontenelle, " had he returnc<:l 

 into his own dominions, than he wrote to the Abbe Bignon, through M, 

 Erskine, a Scotchman, who was his first physician, that he desired to become 

 a member of this company ; and when acknowledgments Avere made him with 

 all the respect and gratitude that were his due, he wrote with his own hand a 

 letter to the Academy, which we will not venture to call a letter of thanks, 

 though coming from a sovereign who had long been accustomed to regard 

 himself as a man." " It was thenceforth obligatory," continues Fontenelle, 

 " to send him, each year, the volume due to him in his quality of academician, 

 which was always graciously acknowledged as an attention on the part of his 

 colleagues." — Eloge of the Czar Pierre J. 



In the letter, which Fontenelle does not venture to call one of thanks, thet 

 Czar said to the Academy : " The choice which you have made of us personally 

 to be a member of your illustrious society could not but be highly agreeable 



