THE POST OF PERPETUAL SECRETARY. Ill 



presented for some weeks the aspect of two hostile 

 camps. There was at last a strongly disputed electo- 

 ral battle ; the result was the nomination of Condorcet. 



I should regret if we had to judge of the sentiments 

 of Bailly, after this defeat, by those of his adherents. 

 Their anger found vent in terms of unpardonable as- 

 perity. They said that D'Alembert had "basely be- 

 trayed friendship, honour, and the first principles of 

 probity." 



They here alluded to a promise of protection, support, 

 cooperation, dating ten years back. But was his prom- 

 ise absolute ? Engaging himself personally to Bailly for 

 a situation that might not become vacant for ten or fif- 

 teen years, had D'Alembert, contrary to his duty as an 

 academician, declared beforehand, that any other candi- 

 date, whatever might be his talents, would be to him as 

 not existing? 



This is what ought to have been ascertained, before 

 giving themselves up to such violent and odious imputa- 

 tions. 



Was it not quite natural that the geometer D'Alem- 

 bert, having to pronounce his opinion between two hon- 

 ourable learned men, gave the preference to the candi- 

 date who seemed to him most imbued with the higher 

 mathematics ? The eloges of Condorcet were, besides, 

 by their style, much more in harmony with those that 

 the Academy had approved during three quarters of a 

 century. Before the declaration of the vacancy on the 

 27th of February, 1773, D'Alembert said to Voltaire, 

 relative to the recueil by Condorcet, " Some one asked 

 me the other day what I thought of that work. I an- 

 swered by writing on the frontispiece, ' Justice, propri- 

 ety, learning, clearness, precision, taste, elegance, and 



