Were it necessary, I could prove that they often met together to consider the best way to destroy my reputation." Finally, came the plot of the Academicians; "the disgraceful persecution I had to undergo from the Academy of Sciences for two years, after being satisfied that my discoveries on Light upset all that it had done for a century, and that I was quite indifferent about becoming a member of its body....

Would it be believed that these scientific charlatans succeeded in underrating my discoveries throughout Europe, in exciting every society of savants against me, and in closing against me all the newspapers ?"[3122]--Naturally, the would-be-persecuted man defends himself, that is to say, he attacks.

Naturally, as he is the aggressor, he is repulsed and put down, and, after creating imaginary enemies, he creates real ones, especially in politics where, on principle, he daily preaches insurrection and murder.

And finally, he is of course prosecuted, convicted at the Chatelet court, tracked by the police, obliged to fly and wander from one hiding-place to another; to live like a bat "in a cellar, underground, in a dark dungeon;"[3123] once, says his friend Panis, he passed "six weeks sitting on his behind" like a madman in his cell, face to face with his reveries .-- It is not surprising that, with such a system, the reverie should become more intense, more and more gloomy, and, at last settle down into a confirmed nightmare; that, in his distorted brain, objects should appear distorted; that, even in full daylight men and things should seem awry, as in a magnifying, dislocating mirror; that, frequently, on the numbers (of his journal) appearing too blood-thirsty, and his chronic disease too acute, his physician should bleed him to arrest these attacks and prevent their return.[3124] But it has become a habit: henceforth, falsehood grow in his brain as if it was their native soil; planting himself on the irrational he cultivates the absurd, even physical and mathematical.

"If we include everyone;"[3125] he says, "the patriotic tax-contribution of one-quarter of all income will produce, at the very least, 4,860 millions, and perhaps twice that sum." With this sum M.Necker may raise five hundred thousand men, which he calculates on for the subjugation of France .-- Since the taking of the Bastille, "the municipality's waste alone amount to two hundred millions.