HIS BIOGRAPHY OF LEIBNITZ. 109 



pointed out, in order to corroborate his remarks, that the 

 knight to whom King John surrendered himself, Denys 

 de Morbecque, was a French officer banished from Ar- 

 tois ? 



Self-reliance on the field of battle is the first requisite 

 for obtaining success ; now, would not our self-reliance 

 be shaken, if the men most likely to know the facts, and 

 to appreciate them wisely, appeared to think that the 

 Frank race were nationally inferior to other races who 

 had peopled this or that region, either neighbouring or 

 distant ? This, let it be well remarked, is not a puerile 

 susceptibility. Great events may, on a given day, de- 

 pend on the opinion that the nation has formed of itself. 

 Our neighbours on the other side of the Channel, afford 

 examples on this subject that it would be well to imitate. 



In 1767, the Academy of Berlin proposed a prize for 

 an eloge of Leibnitz. The public was somewhat sur- 

 prised at it. It was generally supposed that Leibnitz 

 had been admirably praised by Fontenelle, and that 

 the subject was exhausted. But from the moment that 

 Bailly's essay, crowned in Prussia, was published, for- 

 mer impressions were quite changed. Every one was 

 anxiously asserting that Bailly's appreciation of his sub- 

 ject might be read with pleasure and benefit, even after 

 Fontenelle's. The eloge composed by the historian of 

 Astronomy will not, certainly, make us forget that writ- 

 ten by the first Secretary of the Academy of Sciences. 

 The style is, perhaps, too stiff; perhaps it is also rather 

 declamatory ; but the biography, and the analysis of his 

 works, are more complete, especially if we consider the 

 notes ; the universal Leibnitz is exhibited under more 

 varied points of view. 



In 1768, Bailly obtained the award of the prize of 



