106 BAILLY. 
BAILLY’S LITERARY WORKS.—HIS 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, amd chose as the subject of his 
studies, the éloges 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 éloge of kings themselves; it 
