LIVES 



OF 



DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIFIC MEN. 



CARNOT. 



BIOGRAPHY READ AT A PUBLIC ASSEMBLY OF THE ACAD 

 EMY OF SCIENCES, ON THE 21ST OF AUGUST, 1837. 



CHILDHOOD OF CARNOT. HIS EDUCATION. 



LAZARE-NICOLAS-MARGUERITE CARNOT was born at 

 Nolay (Cote-d Or), in the ancient duchy of Burgundy 

 that had already been the cradle of three of the greatest 

 ornaments of which the Academies could boast : Bossuet, 

 Vauban, and Buffon. His father was an advocate, and 

 exercised that noble profession with a great deal of talent 

 (which is not uncommon) and with very great disinter 

 estedness (which is said to be not so common). The 

 advocate, Claude- Abraham Carnot, had eighteen children ; 

 so that, according to the old adage, which promises pros 

 perity to a numerous family, he might expect a happy 

 future for each of his children. Indeed, at one period, 

 he might have counted, in this numerous family, two lieu 

 tenant-generals of the French armies ; a councillor at the 



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