NEW SYSTEM OF FORTIFICATION. 85 
Mature age did not contradict so honourable a début. 
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 
