96 BAILLY. 



poet took Iphygenia in Tauris for the subject of his sec- 

 ond composition. Such was his ardour, that by the end 

 of three months, he had already written the last line of 

 the fifth act of his new tragedy, and hastened to Passy, 

 to solicit the opinion of the author of Mahomet II. This 

 time Lanoue thought he perceived that his confiding 

 young friend was not intended by nature for the drama, 

 and he declared it to him without disguise. Bailly heard 

 the fatal sentence with more resignation than could have 

 been expected from a youth whose budding self-esteem 

 received so violent a shock. He even threw his two 

 tragedies immediately into the fire. Under similar cir- 

 cumstances, Fontenelle showed less docility in his youth. 

 If the tragedy of Aspar also disappeared in the flames, 

 it was not only in consequence of the criticism of a 

 friend ; for the author went so far as to call forth the 

 noisy judgment of the pit. 



Certainly no astronomer will regret that any opinions 

 either off-hand or well digested, on the first literary pro- 

 ductions of Bailly, contributed to throw him into the 

 pursuit of science. Still, for the sake of principle, it 

 seems just to protest against the praises given to the 

 foresight of Lanoue, to the sureness of his judgment, to 

 the excellence of his advice. What was it in fact ? A 

 lad of sixteen or seventeen years of age, composes two 

 tolerable tragedies, and these essays are made irrevoc- 

 ably to decide on his future fate. We have then for- 

 gotten that Racine had already reached the age of 

 twenty-two, when he first appeared, producing Theagenes 

 and Charicles, and the Inimical Brothers ; that Crebillon 

 was nearly forty years of age when he composed a trage- 

 dy on The Death of the Sons of Brutus, of which not a 

 single verse has been preserved ; finally, that the two 



