LIFE OF 8ADI CARNOT. 29 



knowledge. He diligently followed the course of 

 the College of France and of the Sorbonne, of 

 the Ecole des Mines, of the Museum, and of the 

 Bibliotheque. He visited the workshops with 

 eager interest, and made himself familiar with the 

 processes of manufacture; mathematical sciences, 

 natural history, industrial art, political economy, 

 all these he cultivated with equal ardor. I have 

 seen him not only practise as an amusement, but 

 search theoretically into, gymnastics, fencing, 

 swimming, dancing, and even skating. In even 

 these things Sadi acquired a superiority which 

 astonished specialists when by chance he forgot 

 himself enough to speak of them, for the satisfac- 

 tion of his own mind was the only aim that he 

 sought. 



He had such a repugnance to bringing himself 

 forward that, in his intimate conversations with a 

 few friends, he kept them ignorant of the treasures 

 of science which he had accumulated. They never 

 knew of more than a small part of them. How 

 was it that he determined to formulate his ideas 

 about the motive power of heat, and especially to 

 publish them ? I still ask myself this question, I, 

 who lived with him in the little apartment where 

 our father was confined in the Rue du Parc-Royal 

 while the police of the first Restoration were 



