354 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF PAEIS. 



amused, finds himself in some sort an astronomer without having thought of 

 being so." 



Voltaire writes to Fontenelle : " You know how to render things attractive 

 wliich many other philosophers scarcely render intelligibhi ; and nature owed 

 to France and to Europe a man like you to correct the savants, and give the 

 ignorant a taste for the sciences."* No one more than Fontenelle possessed 

 that " subtle and dexterous art " which he admired in Leibnitz, " the art not 

 only of arriving at truth, but of arriving at it by the shortest paths ;" of occu- 

 pying always those elevated points of view w^hich command wide horizons, and 

 of separating or disentangling ideas, wdiich was constantly with him an object 

 ot the greatest solicitude. 



The life of Fontenelle is so generally known that we shall recall but few 

 particulars of it. Born at Rouen, he there composed most of his earlier works, 

 and afterwards established himself in Paris, lie w^as a nephew of the great 

 (Jorneille, who gave the Cid to France the year before that in which Descartes 

 pt esented to it the Discourse npon Method. Much has been written about Fon- 

 icneile, and the tone adopted has not seldom been sufficiently censorious, 

 (rrimm, for instance, strongly reproaches him for his famous expression, "If 

 I had my hand full of truths, I would take good care how I opened it." But 

 (h-imm need not have been troubled ; Fontenelle, in spite of the phrase, opened 

 ins hand often enough. Voltaire sarcastically calls him the discreet Fontenelle. 

 Was it necessary that he should be as indiscreet as Voltaire ? The following 

 >.'ayiugs of his seem better to paint his character: "I have never permitted 

 u)yselfto cast the slightest ridicule upon the least of the virtues ;" and his 

 njply to the llegent, who pressed him to accept the perpetual Presidency of 

 ihe Academy, " Ah, Sire, do not deprive me of the pleasure of living with ray 

 (•quals." 



Fontenelle was born the 11th of February, 1G57, and died 9th January. 

 1131, having thus lived almost exactly a century. His birth and death con- 

 nect two remarkable epochs, the death of Descartes and the meridian fame ot 

 Voltaire. 



APPENDIX TO THE FOEEGOING SKETCH. 



" Fontenelle," says Arago, "had so brilliantly fulfilled the functions of sec- 

 1 etary of the Academy of Sciences, that at his death no one was willing tu 

 succeed him. v^fter much solicitation, I»Iairan consented to exercise those 

 I'unctions, provisionally, in order to give the learned body time to make a 

 choice which it should not afterwards have occasion to regret. It was felt at 

 last that the only means of avoiding all injurious comparison would be to give 

 to the nephew of Corneille a successor content not to imitate him, and who 

 KJiould disarm criticism by the modesty of his pretensions. Under these cir- 

 cumstances Grand-Jean de Fouchy became, in 1743, the official organ of the 

 old Academy. 



•• Fouchy had occupied this place more than thirty years, when Oondorcet cn- 

 U'r(!d the learned company. The age and infirmities of the perpetual secretary 

 made him desire an assistant, and he cast his eyes on this the youngest of his 

 colleagues. As this measm-e seemed equivalent to the creation of a survivorship. 

 i;, proved distasteful to that portion of the Academy which usually allied itself 

 with the views of Buftbn, while another portion, acting under the leadershij) 

 of d'Alembert, with equal ardor supported the nomination." The oppo- 

 sing candidate was Bailly, the astronomer, certainly a noble and worthy com- 



« Voltaire terms Fontenelle: "The first of men in the new art of diffusing light and 

 g-iace over the abstract sciences ;" and he .adds : " That ho stand.s first among all the savants 

 who have cot been gifted with the faculty of invention." (Siecle dc Louis XIV".) Fonte- 

 nelle, it is true, made no discovery in the sciences, but he discovered the style for difiusing 

 them. That new art of which Voltaire speaks is his invention. 



