This section is from "The American Cyclopaedia", by George Ripley And Charles A. Dana. Also available from Amazon: The New American Cyclopędia. 16 volumes complete..
Jean Svlvain Bailly, a French astronomer and statesman, born in Paris, Sept. 15, 1736, guillotined Nov. 12, 1793. His father was an artist, and intended that he should follow the same profession; but he was attracted more by poetry and belles-lettres until his acquaintance with La Caille, when he turned his attention to astronomy. In 1763 he was admitted to the academy of sciences, and published a reduction of La Caille's observations on the zodiacal stars. He competed with Lagrange for the academy's prize on the theory of Jupiter's satellites in 1764. His treatise on that subject, published in 1766, contains a history of that department of astronomy. In 1771 he published a treatise on the light of those bodies. The 1st volume of his "History of Astronomy " appeared in 1775, the 4th in 1783. To these he afterward added a volume on oriental astronomy. He also published letters to Voltaire on the origin of the sciences and of the people of Asia, and on Plato's Atlantis. In 1784 he was chosen secretary of the academy of sciences and admitted to the French academy, and the next year to the academy of inscriptions.
About this time he wrote his graceful and eloquent eloges on Charles V., Corneille, Leibnitz, Moliere, and La Caille. In 1784 he was one of the commissioners to investigate Mes-mer's discoveries, and made a clear and sagacious report on the subject. He espoused the democratic cause in the revolution, was elected from Paris in 1789 first deputy of the tiers-etat, and was chosen president of the popular division of the states general in Versailles. When the national assembly was formed, he retained the presidential chair, and dictated the oath by which the members swore that they would " resist tyrants and tyranny, and never separate until they had secured a free constitution." In July, 1789, he was chosen mayor of Paris, and discharged his duties during 26 months with great firmness and wisdom. His vigor in suppressing a riotous demonstration on the Champ de Mars, July 17, 1791, and in defending the queen from charges brought against her, having lessened his popularity, he resigned his office in September, but was induced to retain it two months longer. He then lived for some time at Nantes, and afterward with Laplace at Melun; but in 1793 he was seized by the Jacobin soldiery, and dragged to Paris, where he was charged with being a royalist conspirator and executed.
He is considered one of the noblest victims of the reign of terror. Several posthumous works of his have appeared; the most noted are an "Essay on the Origin of Fables and Ancient Religions," and his "Memoirs of an Eye-witness of the Revolution," embracing the period from April to October, 1789:.
 
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