118 BAILLY. 



quence. If in the beautiful work we are alluding to, 

 Astronomy unavoidably assigns to man an imperceptible 

 place in the material world, she assigns him, on the other 

 hand, a vast share in the intellectual world. The writ- 

 ings which, supported by the invincible deductions of 

 science, thus elevate man in his own eyes, will find grate- 

 ful readers in all climes and times. 



In 1775, Bailly sent the first volume of his history to 

 Voltaire. In thanking him for his present, the illustrious 

 old man addressed to the author one of those letters that 

 he alone could write, in which flattering and enlivening 

 sentences were combined without effort with high reason- 

 ing powers. " I have many thanks to return you, (said 

 the Patriarch of Ferney,) for having on the same day 

 received a large book on medicine and yours, while I was 

 still ill ; I have not opened the first, I have already read 

 the second almost entirely, and feel better." 



Voltaire, indeed, had read Bailly's work pen in hand, 

 and he proposed to the illustrious astronomer some que- 

 ries, which proved both his infinite perspicacity, and 

 wonderful variety of knowledge. Bailly then felt the 

 necessity of developing some ideas which in his History 

 of Ancient Astronomy were only accessories to his prin- 

 cipal subject. This was the object of the volume that 

 he published in 1776, under the title of Letters on the 

 Origin of the Sciences and of the People of Asia, ad- 

 dressed to M. de Voltaire. The author modestly an- 

 nounced that " to lead the reader by the interest of the 

 style to the interest of the question discussed," he would 

 place at the head of his work three letters from the 

 author of Merope, and he protested against the idea that 

 he had been induced to play with paradoxes. 



According to Bailly, the present nations of Asia are 



