rse of things, and it will
appear difficult to see in this discordancy a sufficient cause for a
rupture between two superior men. _The Unforeseen Wager_ and _The
Unconscious Philosopher_, considerably balanced the, then very light,
weight of Maury. The comic poet had already reached his sixty-sixth
year; the Abbe was young. The high character, the irreproachable conduct
of Sedaine, might, without disparagement, be put in comparison with what
the public knew of the character of the official and the private life of
the future cardinal. Whence then had the illustrious naturalist derived
such a great affection for Maury, such violent antipathies against
Sedaine? It may be surmised that they arose from aristocratic prejudices
of rank. Nor is it impossible but that M. le Comte de Buffon
instinctively foresaw, with some repugnance, his approaching
confraternity with a man formerly a lapidary; but was not Maury the son
of a shoemaker? This very small incident of our literary history seemed
doomed to remain in obscurity; chance has, I believe, given me the key
to it.

You remember, Gentlemen, that aphorism continually quoted by Buffon, and
of which he seemed very proud,--

"Style makes the man."

I have discovered that Sedaine made a counterpart of it. The author of
_Richard Coeur de Lion_ and of _The Deserter_ said,--

"Style is nothing, or next to it!"

Place this heresy, in imagination, under the eyes of the immortal
writer, whose days and nights were passed in polishing his style, and if
you then ask me why he detested Sedaine, I shall have a right to answer:
You do not know the human heart.

Bailly firmly resisted the imperious solicitations of his former patron,
and refused even to absent himself from the Academy on the day of the
nomination. He did not hesitate to sacrifice the attractions and
advantages of an illustrious friendship to the performance of a duty; he
answered to him who wanted to be master, "I will be free." Honour be to
him!

The example of Bailly warns timid men never to listen to mere
entreaties, whatever may be their source; not to yield but to good
arguments. Those who have thought so little of their own tranquillity as
to do any more in academical elections than to give a silent and secret
vote, will see on their part, in the noble and painful resistance of an
honest man, how culpable they become in trying to substitute authority
for persuasion, in wishing to subject conscience to g