106 BAILLY. 



BAILLY s LITERARY WORKS. nis BIOGRAPHIES OF 



CHARLES V. OF LEIBNITZ OF PETER CORNEILLE 



OF MOLIERE. 



When Bailly entered the Academy of Sciences, the 

 perpetual secretary was Grandjean de Fouchy. The 

 bad health of this estimable scholar occasioned an early 

 vacancy to be foreseen. D Alembert cast his views on 

 Bailly, hinted to him the survivorship to Fouchy, and 

 proposed to him, by way of preparing the way, to write 

 some biographies. Bailly followed the advice of the 

 illustrious geometer, and chose as the subject of his 

 studies, the eloges proposed by several academies, though 

 principally by the French Academy. 



From the year 1671 to the year 1758, the prize sub 

 jects proposed by the French Academy related to ques 

 tions of religion and morality. The eloquence of the 

 candidates had therefore had to exercise itself succes 

 sively on the knowledge of salvation ; on the merit and 

 dignity of martyrdom ; on the purity of the soul and of 

 the body ; on the danger there is in certain paths that 

 appear safe, &c. &c.. It had even to paraphrase the 

 Ave Maria. According to the literal intentions of the 

 founder, (Balzac,) each discourse was ended by a short 

 prayer. Duclos thought in 1758, that five or six volumes 

 of similar sermons must have exhausted the matter, and 

 on his proposal the Academy decided that, in future, it 

 would give as the subject of the eloquence prize, the 

 eulogiums of the great men of the nation. Marshal 

 Saxe, Duguay Trouin, Sully, D Aguesseau, Descartes, 

 figured first on this list. Later, the Academy felt itself 

 authorized to propose the eloge of kings themselves ; it 



