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MmoirofM . Carn&t : ( From the Revue JEncpcIojHfdfqve . ) The subject of this article was regarded by his contemporaries as he will be regarded by posterity , an 4 the whole of his life was known to all Europe ; yet the time is nat come for writing W& history .
His aame U so essentially connected with a g * eat series « f facts , that it canoot . be Isolated for the purpose of mere biography t % o write properly of Caruot * it would be needful to write the account of ifcke Revolution ; but although we possess
aa immense collection of writings on that portion of oar annals , none of those which beat the name of history is free irom errors ; and the ocular witnesses still refi&aining , far froip seeking to rectify those Errors , suffer the number of histofical falsehoods daily to increase ,
md da tiot oppose the misrepresentation of the most i wa port am facts . When the generation co » lempo ^ aiy with the Revolution shall have disappeared the narratives of that great event will remain as they have been written in a succeeding period * and posterity will know no more than it is the will of the historians to
teach them . Truth , however , will nest be entirely destitute of an asylum ; some memoirs will elude the vigilance of its enemies , and will compose another history , incomplete and mutilated , but
sincere . At that epoch , far distant , and even problematical , it will be possible to consider Caruot as a public man ; and It is in history itself , in the great mirror of events itt which he took part * that we roust seek for the features which
characterize him- At the present time we should Confine ourselves to representing him as a citizen and a man of great mental attainments . We cannot , however , refrain from calling attention , to ope of the moral qualities which ever regulated las political conduct—that moderation , that calmness of soul , which rendered him inaccessible to ambition . This fine
quality was sometimes less useful than estimable ; it more than once prevented ihe talents and extensive viewa of Carnot from being serviceable to t ^ ie cause he had embraced . His character cannot be seen and appreciated except when he acts , alone . During the short tiuie in which h £ was in the war department , he
seeuied almost inactive , there w ^ s no bustle in his offices , the press- was not made to , labour hard ; and yet a powerful impulsion was cotuinuuicated to the inau mease military forces of France at that period . No man possessed more completely the art of effecting much with little apparent means , a species of talent and address never understood or coveted
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by an ambitions man . la awelkirgulttted republic , Carnot would bare arrived , according to the natural order of thmgs , at the highest functions of the State ; be would have presided over the national destiny . As disinterested , as devoted a patriot as Washington , and possessed of greater talents for war * he would not have defended the cause of freedom less
ably than the illustrious American . Bat his knowledge and his admirable qualities lost their effect by his association with colleagues less skilful and more aspuing ; be bad no influence ia the roo&t important deliberations ; he was unable to prevent the direction of affairs from
falling Into the hands of audacious ignorance and opinionated mediocrity . Had ambition led hia * to rule the Directory , acid to take the place to which bis talents should have raised Mm , Bonaparte would not hsxe subjugated France , and the face of Europe would not have because what
w& now behold it . Let us add a few touches to this sketch of his pfebMc character . Wheit the government of Antwerp was derc ^ ved upon him , the treasury of that place was empty * and it was necessary to have recourse to a
temporary coinage . It such cases a fictitious value is almost always given to the coins that are struck ; those struck by Carnot ' s order , possessed their intrinsic value , so that their circulation eould eause no loss , whatever might be the events of the war and the conditions of the peace .
Carnot was born in 1753 , at Nolay , a small town in tlte department of the Cote-d'Or . Mis father was a lawyer in great repute . At a very early age he entered the corps of engineers , ami
before his twentieth year , the young officer had composed the Eloi * e d& Fauban , crowned by the academy of Dijon * The composition of poetry was likewise his recreation from more serious labours .
Impelled by a sense of duty tb the studies connected with his profession , and led by his taste to literature as well as mathematics , he was equally successful hi the cultivation of both . In 1783 , he brought out his E&saimr les Machines ; and twenty years later , after the storms of the Revolution , hia work entitled , 9
Prwcipes FondamenJaux de IEquuibre et du Mouvmient * These principles are more metaphysical than analytical , more calculated to satisfy minds accustomed to the severest reasoning , thau to furnish moans of application . la 1802 , he published
his Truit 4 de G ^ m ^ trie de Position , the most remarkable and most useful of hia mathematical woirk ? u F « mr . years after , his Reflexions &wr la AJetapkysique dm Calcul Infinitesimal appeared , of which a new edition has lately beep published
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Obitmry . ~ Memoir of M + Carnot . K | 83
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1824, page 183, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2522/page/55/
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