6 CARNOT. 



of his friends thought at one time of putting him into 

 holy orders. They were strengthened in this idea by the 

 recollection of the great number of ecclesiastical dignita- 

 ries of which this honourable family could boast, amongst 

 whom figured canons, vicaires-generaux of the diocese of 

 Chalon, doctors of the Sorbonne, and an abbe of Citeaux. 

 However, the career of military engineer carried the day, 

 and young Carnot was sent to Paris to a special school, 

 there to prepare for his examination. The comrades 

 whom he met there had certainly not been brought up at 

 the Seminary ; for the profound piety of the new scholar, 

 of which he would by no means make a mystery, became 

 the subject of their continual sarcasms. Sarcasms are 

 not reasons. Carnot was not therefore staggered by 

 them ; but he felt the necessity of maturing, by reflection 

 and study, ideas and sentiments to which his pure and 

 candid soul had hitherto given itself up with perfect good- 

 will and confidence. Theology, then, became, for some 

 months, the only occupation of an apprenti-officier, or 

 military novice. No one can tell what was the effect of 

 these meditations ; for, at all periods of his life, Carnot 

 carefully avoided, even in the intimacy of the domestic 

 circle, any discussions, nay, more, any simple conversa- 

 tions relating to religion. We only know that he pro- 

 fessed principles now adopted by all good and enlightened 

 minds. "Universal tolerance," said he, when, proscribed 

 and wandering in a foreign land, he had to ward off the 

 spiteful darts of calumny, "universal tolerance, that is 



the dogma which I decidedly profess I abhor 



fanaticism, and I believe that the fanaticism of irreligion, 

 brought into fashion by such men as Marat and Pere 

 Duchesne, is the most fatal of all. We must not kill men 

 to force them to believe : we must not kill them to pre- 



