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Among the éloges by Bailly, there is one, that of the Abbé de Lacaille, which not having been written for a literary academy, shows no longer any trace of inflation or declamation, and might, it seems to me, compete with some of the best éloges by Condorcet. Yet, it is curious, that this excellent biography contributed, perhaps as much as D'Alembert's opposition, to make Bailly's claims fail.
They are therefore very careful in praising, and sometimes express themselves in language the very reverse of what they intend, as, "'Va, coquine! says Bandalaccio, in M. Merimee's pleasant story of "Colomba," 'sois excommuniee, sois maudite, friponne! Car Bandalaccio, superstitieux comme tous les bandits, craignait de fasciner les enfans en les addressant les benedictions et les eloges.
His correspondence with Voltaire, extending over the third quarter of the century, is the most instructive record that we possess of the many-sided doings of that busy time. His series of éloges on the academicians who died between 1700 and 1772 is one of the most interesting works in the department of literary history. He paid the keenest attention to the great and difficult art of writing.
Science has, however, a better chance than literature. They contain the Lives, not merely the Eloges, of all the men of science since 1880, written, and with an excellent introduction. The lives of Priestley and Cavendish are written with so much candour towards the English philosophers that even Mr. Chenevix cannot have anything to complain of. To MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH. August 19, 1820.
I answered by writing on the frontispiece, 'Justice, propriety, learning, clearness, precision, taste, elegance, and nobleness." And Voltaire wrote, on the 1st of March, "I have read, while dying, the little book by M. de Condorcet; it is as good in its departments as the éloges by Fontenelle. There is a more noble and more modest philosophy in it, though bold."
Les eloges que vous donnez a l'auteur de l'article sur Lissa sont tres-merites, car le travail est tres-interessant; mais ils ne sont pas pour moi, car je suis completement etranger a la paternite de ce remarquable morceau, auquel je ne reproche qu'une chose la severite de ses jugements sur un homme dans la position de Persano.
Aussi ai-je eprouve a etre loue par un pareil homme une jouissance infiniment plus vive que celle qu'auraient pu me procurer des eloges beaucoup plus hyperboliques, mais moins competents. "Cet homme, je suppose que c'est vous.
The art of biography seems to have fallen on evil times in England. We have had, it is true, a few masterpieces, but we have never had, like the French, a great biographical tradition; we have had no Fontenelles and Condorcets, with their incomparable eloges, compressing into a few shining pages the manifold existences of men.
A French traveller, by the name of Birre, who went from Paris to Berlin to see Frederick, describes him in this manner: Buste admirable el vraiment royal, mais pauvre et miserable pedestal. Sa tete et sa poitrine sont au dessous des eloges, le train d'en bas au dessous de la critique.
The young Comte de Schullemburg, the Chambellan whom you knew at Hanover, is come over with the King, 'et fait aussi vos eloges'. Though, as I told you in my last, I have done buying pictures, by way of 'virtu', yet there are some portraits of remarkable people that would tempt me.
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