ir joy then knew no bounds. Bailly was
treated with haughty disdain: "His literary erudition was very
superficial; he had not the key of the sanctuary of antiquity; he was
everywhere deficient in languages."

That it might not be supposed that these reproaches had any reference to
Oriental literature, Bailly's adversaries added: "that he had not the
least tincture of the ancient languages; that he did not know Latin."

He did not know Latin? And do you not see, you stupid enemies of the
great Astronomer, that if it had been possible to compose such learned
works as _The History of Astronomy_, and _The Letters on the Atlantis_,
without referring to the original texts, by using translations only, you
would no longer have preserved any importance in the literary world.
How is it that you did not remark, that by despoiling Bailly (and very
arbitrarily) of the knowledge of Latin, you showed the inutility of
studying that language to become both one of your best writers, and one
of the most illustrious philosophers of the age?

The Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, far from participating
in these puerile rancours, in the blind prejudices of some lost children
of erudition, called Bailly to its bosom in 1785. Till then, Fontenelle
alone had had the honour of belonging to the three great Academies of
France. Bailly always showed himself very proud of a distinction which
associated his name in an unusual manner with that of the illustrious
writer, whose eulogies contributed so powerfully to make science and
scientific men known and respected.

Independently of this special consideration, Bailly, as member of the
French Academy, could all the better appreciate the suffrages of the
Academy of Inscriptions, since there existed at that time between those
two illustrious Societies a strong and inexplicable feeling of rivalry.
This had even proceeded so far, that by a most solemn deliberation of
the Academy of Inscriptions, any of its members would have ceased to
belong to it, would have been irrevocably expelled, if they had even
only endeavoured to be received into the French Academy; and the king
having annulled this deliberation, fifteen academicians bound themselves
by oath to observe all its stipulations notwithstanding; furthermore, in
1783, Choiseul Gouffier, who was accused of having adhered to the
principles of the fifteen confederates, and then of having allowed
himself to be nominated by the rival Academy, was