GOVERNOR OF ANTWERP. 95 
CARNOT AN ACADEMICIAN. 
From 1807 to 1814 Carnot had lived in retirement ; 
he scrupulously fulfilled his duties as an academician. 
This title had been restored to him the 5th Germinal, 
year VIII., after the decease of Le Roy. Nearly all the 
Memoirs on Mechanics submitted to the judgment of the 
First Class of the Institute, were referred to him. His 
rare sagacity, with luminous clearness and remarkable 
precision, pointed out and characterized the new and 
salient portions. I could cite a certain author on ma- 
chines, who did not fully conceive his own discovery, 
until after it had had the good fortune to pass through 
the filter of that learned critic. He had, besides, a sort 
of merit that is not always the auxiliary of high science: 
he knew when to doubt; to his eye theoretical results 
were not always infallible. 
EVENTS OF 1813.—CARNOT APPOINTED TO THE COM- 
MAND AT ANTWERP. 
We have now reached the events of 1813. Carnot 
was not rich enough to subscribe to the newspapers. 
Every day at the same hour, we see him come to the 
Library of the Institute, approach the fire, and read with 
visible anxiety the news of the progress of our enemies. 
On the 24th of January, 1814, the interest he felt ap- 
peared greater than ever; he asked for some paper, and 
as fast as the pen could trace, wrote the following letter, 
which you will no doubt like to hear read :— 
“ Srrz,—<As long as success crowned your enterprises, 
I abstained from offering to your Majesty services which 
I did not think were agreeable to you; now, that ill-for- 
tune puts your constancy to a severe proof, I no longer 
