118 BAILLY. 
quence. If in the beautiful work we are alluding to, 
Astronomy unavoidably assigns to man an imperceptible 
place in the material world, she assigns him, on the other 
hand, a vast share in the intellectual world. The writ- 
ings which, supported by the invincible deductions of 
science, thus elevate man in his own eyes, wit find grate- 
ful readers in all climes and times. 
In 1775, Bailly sent the first volume of his history to 
Voltaire. In thanking him for his present, the illustrious 
old man addressed to the author one of those letters that 
he alone could write, in which flattering and enlivening 
sentences were combined without effort with high reason- 
ing powers. “I have many thanks to return you, (said 
the Patriarch of Ferney,) for having on the same day 
received a large book on medicine and yours, while I was 
still ill; I have not opened the first, I have already read 
the second almost entirely, and feel better.” 
Voltaire, indeed, had read Bailly’s work pen in hand, 
and he proposed to the illustrious astronomer some que- 
ries, which proved both his infinite perspicacity, and 
wonderful variety of knowledge. Bailly then felt the 
necessity of developing some ideas which in his Aistory 
of Ancient Astronomy were only accessories to his prin- 
cipal subject. This was the object of the volume that 
he published in 1776, under the title of Letters on the 
Origin of the Sciences and of the People of Asia, ad- 
dressed to M. de Voltaire. The author modestly an- 
nounced that “to lead the reader by the interest of the 
style to the interest of the question discussed,” he would 
place at the head of his work three letters from the 
author of Merope, and he protested against the idea that 
he had been induced to play with paradoxes. 
According to Bailly, the present nations of Asia are 
