BAILLY, JEAN SYLVAIN ( 1736-93). A French savant. lie was born in Paris. Originally in tended by his father for an artist, he first turned aside into literature, until, becoming ac quainted with Laeaille, he was induced to study astronomy. which proved to be the tine sphere of his genius. In 1763 he presented to the Acad rcnic des Sciences Ifis Lunar Observations; in 1766 appeared his Essay on the Satellites of .In pitcr, with Tables of Their Motions; and in 1771 a treatise on the light of these satellites. His historico-scientific works, especially his History of Indian Astronomy, are full of learning and ingenious disquisition, and written with great elegance. In 1777 he published his Let ters on the Origin of the Sciences, and in 1799 his Atlantis of Plato. In 1784 he was elected a member of the Acadihnie Franeaise, and in the following year of the AcadOmie des In scriptions. The elopes he about this period for the Acadihnie des Sciences, viz. those on Charles V., Moliere, Corneille, Laeaille, Leibnitz, Cook, and Gresset, were very highly praised. The Revolution interrupted his peace
ful studies. During the earlier part of it lie occupied a very prominent position. Elected President of the National Assembly, .June 17, 1789, and Mayor of Paris on the 150 of July, lie conducted himself in these capacities with great integrity and purity of purpose; but at last lost his popularity by allowing the National Guard to fire on the masses who were assembled in the Champs de Mars. on the 17th of July, 1791, to demand the dethronement of the King. Ile now threw up his mayoralty, considering it impossible to satisfy either party, withdrew altogether from public affairs, and went to live first at Nantes, and afterwards with his friend Laplace at Melon. Here lie was seized by the Jacobin soldiery and brought to Paris, where he was accused of being a conspirator, and was executed November 12. 1793. Among his papers were found, and afterwards published, an Essay on the Origin of Fables (1799). and Memoirs of the Revolution (1804).