NEW SYSTEM OF FORTIFICATION. 85 



Mature age did not contradict so honourable a debut. 

 Carnot also found, in his exalted mind, the secret of ex- 

 tricating himself from the sometimes rather burlesque 

 preoccupations of men exclusively given up to one special 

 pursuit. Even officers of engineers have not always 

 avoided these inconsistencies. They also sometimes ex- 

 tend to exaggeration the consequences of an excellent 

 principle. Some have been seen I am certain at least 

 of having heard so some have been seen, who do not 

 cross one valley, who do not surmount one hill, who do 

 not rise over one ridge of ground, without forming the 

 project of establishing there a large fortification, or a 

 crenated castle, or a simple redoubt. The idea that with 

 the existing facilities of communication each point of the 

 territory may become a field of battle, unceasingly besets 

 them ; it is on this account that they oppose the opening 

 out of roads, the construction of bridges, the cutting down 

 of woods, the draining of marshes. Fortified towns never 

 appear complete to them ; each year they add new and 

 expensive erections to those that centuries had already 

 accumulated. The enemy would doubtlessly have a great 

 deal to do to overcome all the narrow and tortuous de- 

 files, all the crenated gates, all the drawbridges, all the 

 palisades, all the sluices for managing the water, all the 

 ramparts, all the demilunes which unite modern fortresses ; 

 but in awaiting an enemy who may never appear, the 

 inhabitants of some fifty large cities are deprived, from 

 generation to generation, of certain enjoyments, of certain 

 conveniences which render life sweeter, and which are 

 freely enjoyed in the most obscure village. 



As to the rest, harsh words shall never proceed from 

 me, blaming the prejudices, if they are prejudices, in- 

 spired by the most noble of sentiments, the love of 



