MAHAT INIMICAL TO THE MAYOR. 185 



touched him much less, and yet they were far from con- 

 temptible. Let us surmount our repugnance, although a 

 reasonable one ; let us cast a firm look on the sink where 

 the unworthy calumnies were manufactured, of which 

 Bailly was for some time the object. 



Several years before our first revolution, a native of 

 Neufchatel quitted his mountains, traversed the Jura, 

 and lighted upon Paris. Without means, without any 

 recognized talent, without eminence of any sort, repulsive 

 in appearance, of a more than negligent deportment, it 

 seemed unlikely that he should hope, or even dream, of 

 success ; but the young traveller had been told to have 

 full confidence, although a celebrated academician had 

 not yet given that singular definition of our country, 

 " France is the home of foreigners." At all events, the 

 definition was not erroneous in this instance, for soon 

 after his arrival, the Neufchatelois was appointed physi- 

 cian to the household of one of the princes of the royal 

 family, and formed strict intimacies with the greater part 

 of the powerful people about the court. 



This stranger thirsted for literary glory. Amongst his 

 early productions, a medico-philosophical work figured in 

 three volumes, relative to the reciprocal influences of the 

 mind and the body. The author thought he had pro- 

 duced a chef d'oeuvre ; even Voltaire was not thought to 

 be above analyzing it suitably ; let us hasten to say that 

 the illustrious old man, yielding to the pressing solicita- 

 tions of the Duke de Praslin, one of the most active 

 patrons of the Swiss doctor, promised to study the work 

 and give his opinion of it. 



The author was at the acme of his wishes. After hav- 

 ing pompously announced that the seat of the soul is in 

 the meninges (cerebral membrane), could there be any 



