ich I found in the handwriting of our colleague.
Xenocrates, historians say, who was celebrated among the Greeks for his
honesty, being called to bear witness before a tribunal, the judges with
common consent stopped him as he was advancing towards the altar
according to the usual custom, and said, "These formalities are not
required from you; an oath would add nothing to the authority of your
words." Such, Bailly presents himself to the reader of his Posthumous
Memoirs. None of his assertions leave any room for indecision or doubt.
He needs not high-flown expressions or protestations in order to
convince; nor would an oath add authority to his words. He may be
deceived, but he is never the deceiver.

I will spare no effort to give to the description of the latter part of
Bailly's life, all the correctness which can result from a sincere and
conscientious comparison of the writings published as well by the
partisans as by the enemies of our great revolution. Such, however, is
my desire to prevent two phases, though very distinct, being confounded
together, that I shall here pause, in order to cast a scrupulous glance
on the actions and on the various publications of our colleague. I shall
moreover thus have an easy opportunity of filling up some important
lacunae.

I read in a biographical article, otherwise very friendly, that Bailly
was nominated the very day of, and immediately after, the assassination
of M. de Flesselles; and in this identity the wish was to insinuate that
the first Mayor of Paris received this high dignity from the bloody
hands of a set of wretches. The learned biographer, notwithstanding his
good will, has ill repelled the calumny. With a little more attention he
would have succeeded better. A simple comparison of dates would have
sufficed. The death of M. de Flesselles occurred on the 14th of July;
Bailly was nominated two days after.

I will address the same remark to the authors of a Biographical
Dictionary still more recent, in which they speak of the ineffectual
efforts that Bailly made to prevent the multitude from murdering the
governor of the Bastille (de Launay). But Bailly had no opportunity of
making an effort, for he was then at Versailles; no duty called him to
Paris, nor did he become Mayor till two days after the taking of the
fortress. It is really inexcusable not to have compared the two dates,
by which these errors would have been avoided.

Many persons very little acquainted