254 BAILLY. 



the Communion two or three times in one clay. " 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 

 illustrious 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 : u Of all the titles in this 

 world, I have never had any but of one sort, the titles of 



