mathematical knowledge. The theory of central heat has in a few years
made an unhoped-for progress; in short, comparative philology,
prodigiously extended by the invaluable labours of Sacy, Rémusat,
Quatremère, Burnouf, and Stanislaus Julien, have thrown strong lights on
some historical and geographical questions, where there reigned before a
profound darkness. Armed with all these new means of investigation, it
might easily be established that the systems relative to an ancient
unknown people, first creator of all the sciences, and relative to the
Atlantidæ, rest on foundations devoid of solidity. Yet, if Bailly still
lived, we should be only just in saying to him, as Voltaire did, merely
changing the tense of a verb, "Your two books _were_, Sir, treasures of
the most profound erudition and the most ingenious conjectures, adorned
with an eloquence of style, which is always suitable to the subject."




FIRST INTERVIEW OF BAILLY WITH FRANKLIN.--HIS ENTRANCE INTO THE FRENCH
ACADEMY IN 1783.--HIS RECEPTION.--DISCOURSE.--HIS RUPTURE WITH BUFFON.

Bailly became the particular and intimate friend of Franklin at the end
of 1777. The personal acquaintance of these two distinguished men began
in the strangest manner.

One of the most illustrious members of the Institute, Volney, on
returning from the New World, said: "The Anglo-Americans tax the French
with lightness, with indiscretion, with chattering." (Volney, preface to
_The Table of the Climate of the United States_.) Such is the
impression, in my opinion very erroneous, at least by comparison, under
which the Ambassador Franklin arrived in France. All the world knows