110 BAILLY. 



eloquence proposed by the Academy of Rouen. The 

 subject was the eloge of Peter Corneille. In reading 

 this work of our fellow-academician, we may be some- 

 what surprised at the immense distance that the modest, 

 the timid, the sensitive Bailly puts between the great 

 Corneille, his special favourite, and Racine. 



When the French Academy, in 1768, proposed an 

 eloge of Moliere for competition, our candidate was van- 

 quished only by Chamfort. And yet, if people had not 

 since that time treated of the author of " Tartufe " to 

 satiety, perhaps I would venture to maintain, notwith- 

 standing some inferiority of style, that Bailly's discourse 

 offered a neater, truer, and more philosophic appreciation 

 of the principal pieces of that immortal poet. 



DEBATES RELATIVE TO THE POST OF PERPETUAL SEC- 

 RETARY OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



We have seen D'Alembert, ever since the year 1763, 

 encouraging Bailly to exercise himself in a style of liter- 

 ary composition then much liked, the style of eloge, and 

 holding out to him in prospect the situation of Perpetual 

 Secretary of the Academy of Sciences. Six years after, 

 the illustrious geometer gave the same advice, and per- 

 haps held out the same hopes, to the young Marquis de 

 Condorcet. This candidate, docile to the voice of his 

 protector, rapidly composed and published the eloges of 

 the early founders of the Academy, of Huyghens, of 

 Mariotte, of Roe'mer, &c. 



At the beginning of 1773, the Perpetual Secretary, 

 Grandjean de Fouchy, requested that Condorcet should 

 be nominated his successor, provided he survived him. 

 D'Alembert strongly supported this candidateship. Buf- 

 fon supported Bailly with equal energy; the Academy 



