lo Fred Morrozv Fling 



a member of a commission to report upon the claims of Mesmer 

 concerning- animal magnetism. "In spite of the influence unfa- 

 vorable to the German professor, his report was a chef-d'oeuvre 

 of independence and impartiality. This report, in the opinion of 

 the public, did him the greatest honor." Bailly was appointed 

 in 1786 one of the members of a commission to examine a plan 

 for a new Hotel-Dieu for Paris. He was named reporter of the 

 commission and his report received the approbation of the gov- 

 ernment. The outbreak of the revolution prevented the execu- 

 tion of his plan. 



It is clear that in 1789 Jean-Sylvain Bailly was one of the 

 most distinguished of the conservative burgesses of Paris. It 

 may well be believed that when the king learned of his election 

 as the first deputy of the Third Estate from Paris he remarked, 

 "J 'en suis bien aise, c'est un honnete homme."^ 



Such seems to have been the opinion of the contemporaries of 

 TJailly, and it is the impression that one receives from the read- 

 ing of his Memoir cs. The long thin face and somber eyes of 

 the portraits that have been preserved are not those of an in- 

 triguing politician. Bailly took life seriously. He was called 

 '"Bailly le modeste"- in an anecdote of the days before the revo- 

 lution, and it is as a modest man above all things that he ap- 

 pears in the pages of his Menwires. All his ofifices sought him, 

 he asserts, and added, 'T am certainly an example that proves 

 that one may attain to everything and to the first honors without 

 intrigue."^ There is, however, reason to believe that he was 

 not as lacking in ambition as he would have us think. It was 

 believed that he coveted the place of secretary to the Academy of 

 Sciences to which Condorcet was elected ;* it is reported by one 

 of the biographers of Bailly that when he learned that Bufifon 

 had pronounced in favor of the Abbe Maury for the French 



^I\Ieinoires de Bailly, I, p. 71. 



^Ibid., Ill, p. IV. 



^Ibjd., I, p. 9: " Nulhomme ^ Paris ne peut dire que je lui aie demand^ 

 oufait deitiander sou suffrage, pas meme que j'ai temoign^ aucun desir des 

 place ou je suis parvenu." 



*Ibid., I, p. IX. 



340 



