720 THE CENTENNIAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE. 



learned to consider themselves great lords. They complimented each 

 other in order to perfect themselves in their principal duty, which was 

 to praise the King and his ministers. These compliments have become 

 the speeches made at the reception of new members. 



Voltaire was not lenient toward them. "All I can perceive in these 

 fine speeches," he said, "is that the new member having- assured them 

 that his predecessor was a very great man, that Cardinal Eichelieu was 

 a very great man, Chancellor Seguier rather a great man, the director 

 repeats the same thing and adds that the new member himself might 

 also be a kind of a great man, and that for himself, the director, he 

 does not overlook his own claims;" and further on: "The necessity of 

 speaking, the embarrassment of having nothing to say, and the desire 

 to appear clever, are three things calculated to make even the greatest 

 of men appear ridiculous." 



Could the convention suffer the existence of a body which spent its 

 time in heralding the virtues of the kings, which was itself a privileged 

 body, and which numbered among its members men invested with a 

 double privilege? It was the aristocracy of the mind, but still an aris- 

 tocracy. "LaMontagne" and "La Plaine" were agreed to overthrow 

 it. An event had, however, taken place toward the middle of the 

 eighteenth century which might have modified the judgment of the 

 revolutionists. Voltaire was admitted into the academy. The academi- 

 cians had valiantly defended themselves. Voltaire was twice refused. 

 Finally he was admitted, and from that day the academy belonged to 

 him. He had already his newspaper, the Encyclopedia, and the Ency- 

 clopedia went with him into the academy, which was thus transformed 

 by anticipation into a veritable academy of sciences, moral and polit- 

 ical. He caused Dreclos, d'Alembert, Marmontel, Condillac, 'Morellet 

 to be admitted, one after the other. He failed with Diderot. He com- 

 plained bitterly, and with good reason, for though Diderot is not 

 exactly an academical genius, he is still, beyond all doubt, a superior 

 man. 



Voltaire writes to the Abbe d'Olivet: "Do try, my dear master, to 

 give us a real academician in the place of the AbbiS de Saint-Cyr, and 

 a savant in the place of the Abbe Salier. Why could we not have M. 

 Diderot this time? You know that the academy should not be a semi- 

 nary, neither should it be a court of peers. A few gold ornaments for 

 our lyre are befitting, but the strings must be of catgut and they must 

 be resonant." 



Voltaire was not accustomed to be thwarted, and had taken his 

 revenge. He had the main body of his army in the French Academy. 

 He had Condorcet, d'Alembert, Fontenellein the Academy of Sciences. 

 The Academy of Inscriptions showed more resistance, but he made his 

 way everywhere. He was the oracle of the " cercles des preeieuses," 

 whose influence had replaced the decreasing influence of the court. 

 Mme. de Lambert, Mme. de Tencin, Mine. Du Deffaut, Mile, de 



