ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF PARIS. 351 



to us. Hence we have not been disposed to defer our acknowledgment of the 

 loy and gratitude with which we accept the place yoii ofiV-r us therein, having 

 nothing at heart more than to make eveiy effort in our power to promote, in 

 our estates, the advancement of the sciences and fine arts, so as thereby to 

 render ourselves more Avorthy of being a member of your society." And 

 he adds : " As there had never yet been any very exact chart of the Caspian 

 sea, we despatched competent persons thither to construct one, Avith all possible 

 care, upon the spot, and we send it to the Academy in the confidence that it 

 will be kindly received as a memorial of ourself." 



There is an art common to all the EJoges of Fontenelle, and a special art in 

 tlie portrait which he traces of each academician. Thus he graphically pre- 

 sents to us the physician and botanist, Morin : " Retiring to rest at seven 

 o'clock and rising at six, throughout the year, he then gave three hours to his 

 devotions. He now repaired to the post of his duties, the Hotel Dieu, going 

 thither at five or six o'clock in summer, and between six and seven in winter. 

 Mass he generally heard at Notre Dame. After his return home he read the 

 Holy Scriptures, dined at eleven, and, when the weather was fair, spent till 

 two in the royal garden, where he gratified his earliest and strongest passion 

 by the examination of new plants. After this, if there were no poor Avhom be 

 was called upon to visit, he shut himself up and spent the rest of the day in 

 reading books of physic or erudition, chicfiy the former, as his profession 

 required. [This likewise was the time at which he received visits, if any were 

 paid him. He often used this expression : ' Those that come to see me do 

 me honor ; those that stay away do me a favor.' It is easy to conceive that a 

 man of his temper was not crowded Avith salutations ; there was only now and 

 theji an Antony that would pay Paul a visit."] * 



He thus paints to us the great astronomer Cassiui, '• Whose spirit Avas even, 

 taanquil, exempt from those vain disquietudes and senseless agitations which 

 aa-e the most afflicting and the most incurable of all maladies. A vast fund of 

 religion, and, Avhat is still more, the practice of religion greatly promoted this 

 perpetual calm. The heavens, which declare the glory of their Creator, had 

 never more discoursed of it, nor ever carried more conviction to any one than 

 to him." 



He paints to us La Hire : " All his days, from beginning to end, Avere occu- 

 pied by study, and his nights often interrupted by astronomical observations. 

 No diversion for him but that of a change of labor ; no other bodily exercise 

 but going from the observatory to the Academy of Sciences, to that of archi- 

 tecture, to the royal college, of Avhich also he Avas a professor. Few 

 persons can comprehend the happiness of a recluse, Avho is such by a choice 

 which is every day rencAved." 



After indulging himself in the praise of his saA-ants, Fontenelle seems to 

 feel new pleasure in transferring his praises to the sciences themselves. He 

 says, in the memoir of Lemery : " We are almost Aveary of noticing this merit 

 in those of Avhom Ave have to speak. It is a praise which A-ery generally 

 appertains to that particular and not numerous class of persons Avhom couA-ersG 

 with the sciences separates from that with men." In reference to Varignon 

 he says : " His character Avas as simple as his superiority of intellect would 

 imply it to be. I have already given this same praise to so many members of 

 this Academy, that it might be thought the merit of it belongs rather to our 

 sciences than to our savants." 



Portraying others, he portrays himself. He well says of the Theodicoia of 

 Leibnitz : "This Avork of itself would sufficiently represent its author;" and as 



* The words between brackets are an addition to the rather meagre extract of the text, and 

 are taken from a translation of Fontenelle's Elogo of Morin, by Dr. Johnson, first printed 

 ia the Gentleman's Magazine for 1741. — Tr. 



