178 BAILLY. 
the proposition of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld and of 
the Archbishop of Bordeaux, the National Assembly 
sent a deputation to their illustrious ex-president, to 
thank him (these are the precise words) “ for his noble, 
wise, and firm conduct.” The electoral body of Bor- 
deaux had been beforehand with these homages. The 
Chamber of Commerce of that town, at the same time, 
decided that the portrait of the great citizen should deco- 
rate their hall of meeting. The Academy of Sciences, 
the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, did not 
remain insensible to the glory that one of their members 
had acquired in the career of politics, and testified it by 
numerous deputations. Finally, Marmontel, in the name 
of the French Academy, expressed to Bailly “how 
proud that assembly was to count among its members an 
Aristides that no one was tired of calling the Just.” 
I shall not excite surprise, I hope, by adding, after 
such brilliant testimonies of sympathy, that the inhabi- 
tants of Chaillot celebrated the return of Bailly amongst 
them by fétes, and fireworks, and that even the curate 
of the parish and the churchwardens, unwilling to be 
surpassed by their fellow-citizens, nominated the histo- 
rian of antediluvian astronomy honorary churchwarden. 
I will, at all events, repress the smile that might arise 
from such private reminiscences, by reminding the reader 
that a man’s moral character is better appreciated by his 
neighbours, to whom he shows himself daily without dis- 
guise, than that of more considerable persons, who are 
only seen on state occasions, and in official costume. 
