310 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



Fontenelle was superior in extent 

 of knowledge, with which he has 

 had the art to adorn his writings, 

 and which renders his philosophy 

 the more worthy of being recollect- 

 ed and quoted ; but La Motte has 

 made his reader sensible that, in 

 order to be equal in wealth and 

 value to his friend, he only wanted, 

 as Fontenelle himself said, " eyes 

 and study." Both received from 

 nature a flexibility of talent which 

 fitted them for various kinds of 

 writing; but they had the impru- 

 dence, or secret vanit)', to try their 

 powers in too many. Thus they 

 weakened their reputation by at- 

 tempting to extend it too far; but 

 Fontenelle has solidly established 

 his glory by his immortal "History 

 of the Academy of Sciences," and 

 especially by those interesting eulo- 

 gies, full of refined and profound 

 sense, which inspire the noblest 

 emulation in rising genius, and will 

 transmit to posterity the name of 

 the author with that of the celebra- 

 ted society whose worthy organ he 

 was, and of the great men whose 

 equal he rendered himself in be- 

 coming their panegyrist. 



To conclude the parallel of these 

 two celebrated men it will not be 

 useless, after having displayed them 

 in their works or in the society of 

 those of their o\vn class, to paint 

 them as they were in common soci- 

 ety, and especially amid those two 

 classes of it which demand the great- 

 est caution in order to avoid giving 

 offence — the sometimes formidable 

 class of the great, and the always 

 troublesome class of fools, so copi- 

 ously diffused among all the others. 

 Fontenelle and La Motte, always 

 reserved, consequently always dig- 

 nified, with the great, always on 

 their guard before them without 



shewing it, never displaying more 

 wit than was necessary to please j 

 them, without shocking their self- ' 

 consequence, " save themselves," 

 according toMontaigiie's expression, 

 "from undergoing effectual tyranny 

 from them, by their care in not 

 making them undergo talking tyran- 

 ny." Sometimes, however, in this 

 society, as in their style, they gave 

 way to a kind of familiarity ; but 

 with this difference, that La Motte's 

 familiarity was more respectful and , 

 reserved; Fontenelle's more easy I 

 and free, yet always so circumspect 

 as not to tempt any one to abuse it. 

 Their conduct with fools was still j 

 more studied and cautious, as they ' 

 too well knew that this kind of men, 

 internally and deeply jealous of the 

 splendour of those talents by which 

 they are humiliated, never pardon i 

 persons of superior understanding, 

 but in proportion to the indulgence 

 they experience from them, and 

 the care taken to conceal this indul- 

 gence. Fontenelle and La Motte, 

 when in companies not made for 

 them, never gave way to absence 

 or disdain; they allowed the freest I 

 scope to folly of every kind, with- 

 out suffering it to fear a check, or 

 even to suspect that it was observed. 

 But Fontenelle, never forward to 

 talk, even among his equals, was 

 contented with listening to those 

 who were not worthy to hear him, 

 and only studied to shew them a 

 semblance of approbation, which 

 might prevent them from taking his 

 silence for contempt or weariness ; 

 La Motte, more complaisant, or even 

 more philosophical, recollecting the 

 Spanish proverb, "that there is no 

 fool from whom a wise man may 

 not learn something," took pains to 

 discover, in persons the most void 

 of parts, the favourable side, either 



