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110 BAILLY. 
eloquence proposed by the Academy of Rouen. The 
subject was the éloge of Peter Corneille. In reading . 
this work of our fellow-academician, we may be some- 
what surprised at the immense distance that the modest, 
the timid, the sensitive Bailly puts between the great 
Corneille, his special favourite, and Racine. 
When the French Academy, in 1768, proposed an 
éloge of Moliére for competition, our candidate was van- 
quished only by Chamfort. And yet, if people had not 
since that time treated of the author of “Tartufe” to 
satiety, perhaps I would venture to maintain, notwith- 
standing some inferiority of style, that Bailly’s discourse 
offered a neater, truer, and more philosophic appreciation 
of the principal pieces of that immortal poet. 
DEBATES RELATIVE TO THE POST OF PERPETUAL SEC- 
" RETARY OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
We have seen D’Alembert, ever since the year 1763, 
encouraging Bailly to exercise himself in a style of liter- 
ary composition then much liked, the style of éloge, and 
holding out to him in prospect the situation of Perpetual 
Secretary of the Academy of Sciences. Six years after, 
the illustrious geometer gave the same advice, and per- 
haps held out the same hopes, to the young Marquis de 
Condorcet. This candidate, docile to the voice of his 
protector, rapidly composed and published the éloges of 
the early founders of the Academy, of Huyghens, of 
Mariotte, of Roémer, &c. | 
At the beginning of 1773, the Perpetual Secretary, 
Grandjean de Fouchy, requested that Condorcet should 
be nominated his successor, provided he survived him. 
T)’Alembert strongly supported this candidateship. Buf- 
fon supported Bailly with equal energy; the Academy 
