Jean-Sylvain Bailly

A study of Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793), the French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the French Revolution. “IT IS CHARACTERISTIC of great revolutions that they are initiated by moderate men, who desire only limited reforms and who are most reluctant to resort to violence to obtain their ends. So began the French Revolution, and such a moderate was Jean-Sylvain Bailly, who, as mayor of Paris during the years 1789-91, struggled to maintain a balan