Inquisition.




BAILLY'S LITERARY WORKS.--HIS BIOGRAPHIES OF CHARLES V.--OF
LEIBNITZ--OF PETER CORNEILLE--OF MOLIÈRE.

When Bailly entered the Academy of Sciences, the perpetual secretary was
Grandjean de Fouchy. The bad health of this estimable scholar occasioned
an early vacancy to be foreseen. D'Alembert cast his views on Bailly,
hinted to him the survivorship to Fouchy, and proposed to him, by way of
preparing the way, to write some biographies. Bailly followed the advice
of the illustrious geometer, and chose as the subject of his studies,
the éloges proposed by several academies, though principally by the
French Academy.

From the year 1671 to the year 1758, the prize subjects proposed by the
French Academy related to questions of religion and morality. The
eloquence of the candidates had therefore had to exercise itself
successively on the knowledge of salvation; on the merit and dignity of
martyrdom; on the purity of the soul and of the body; on the danger
there is in certain paths that appear safe, &c. &c. It had even to
paraphrase the _Ave Maria_. According to the literal intentions of the
founder, (Balzac,) each discourse was ended by a short prayer. Duclos
thought in 1758, that five or six volumes of similar sermons must have
exhausted the matter, and on his proposal the Academy decided that, in
future, it would give as the subject of the eloquence prize, the
eulogiums of the great men of the nation. Marshal Saxe, Duguay Trouin,
Sully, D'Aguesseau, Descartes, figured first on this list. Later, the