2 CARNOT. 
court of repeal; an attorney-general of the cour royale ; 
the directress of the hospice de Nolay; a municipal mag- 
istrate much esteemed whilst he was administering the 
affairs of his corporation, and still more esteemed, if 
possible, when, after twenty-three years’ exercise of ‘his 
functions, he submitted to be brutally deposed sooner 
than fail in his duty. I must mention that, like an affec- 
tionate and provident father, the advocate of Nolay had 
not trusted unreservedly to the virtue of the proverb, but 
always presided personally over the early education of 
his sons. Lazare Carnot, the subject of this biography, 
only left his father’s house to go, as it was then called, 
through his Rhetoric and Philosophy. 
The childhood of those privileged men who, under 
various claims, have acted a brilliant part on the stage 
of the world, has always attracted the attention of every 
biographer. ‘The “know thyself” of an ancient philos- 
opher would be but poorly interpreted if only looked on 
as a maxim of prudence; the maxim is susceptible of a 
juster and wider interpretation: it presents to us, I think, 
the whole human race, as a body, for the most important 
species of study that we can undertake. Therefore, 
Gentlemen, let us carefully examine how those extraor- 
dinary minds are indicated, are born, and grow, which, 
on their complete development, are destined to open out 
for themselves unknown paths. ‘These characteristics 
should be collected with all the more interest, because 
they become daily more rare. In our modern schools, 
modelled on exactly the same pattern from north to south 
and from east to west; subjected to the same regulations 
and to a uniform discipline; where children enter more- 
over at the age of nine or ten years, and do not leave 
until they are eighteen or twenty, individual character is 
