254 Ve BAILLY. 
the Communion two or three times in one day. “The 
accusation is undoubtedly false,” said the Mayor of Paris; 
“but if it were true, the public would not have a right’ 
to inquire into it. Every one should have the free choice 
of his religion and his creed.” Nothing would have been 
wanting in the picture, if Bailly had taken the trouble to 
remark how strange it was, that these violent scruples 
against repeated Communions emanated from persons 
who probably never took the Sacrament at all. 
The reports on animal magnetism, on the hospitals, on 
the slaughter-houses, had carried Bailly’s name into re- 
gions, whence the courtiers knew very cleverly how to 
discard true merit. Madame then wished to attach the 
illustridus academician to her person as a cabinet secre- 
tary. Bailly accepted. It was an entirely honorary title. 
The secretary saw the princess only once, that was on 
the day of his presentation. 
Were more important functions reserved for him? We 
must suppose so; for some influential persons offered. to 
procure Bailly a title of nobility and a decoration. This 
time the philosopher flatly refused, saying, in answer to 
the earnest negotiators: “I thank you, but he who has 
the honour of belonging to the three principal academies 
of France is sufficiently decorated, sufficiently noble in 
the eyes of rational men ; a cordon, or a title, could add 
nothing to him.” 
The first secretary of the Academy of Sciences had, 
some years before, acted as Bailly did. Only he gave 
his refusal in such strong terms, that I could not easily 
believe them to have been written by the timid pen of 
Fontenelle, if I did not find them in a perfectly authen- 
tic document, in which he says: “ Of all the titles in this 
world, I have never had any but of one sort, the titles of 
