14 CARNOT. 



since she has never given occasion for any talk about 

 her." 



Such an epigram would not have been applicable to 

 the Academy of Dijou. This celebrated society did not 

 shun the public gaze, either when it proposed the ques- 

 tion, " Whether the reestablishment of the arts and 

 sciences had contributed to the refinement of manners," 

 nor, more especially, when it rewarded the discourse in 

 which Jean-Jacques pronounced in the negative. Time 

 has done ample justice to the paradox ; but it ought not 

 to have effaced the remembrance of the generous pro- 

 ceeding which, in giving to Rousseau an unexpected 

 celebrity, attached him for ever to the brilliant career in 

 which he met with competitors and rivals, but not with a 

 master. 



To the merit which I have just related, the Academy 

 of Dijon can add that of having called forth the first pro- 

 duction of Carnot's which the press took possession of, — 

 the Eloge of Vauban. 



The intrepidity, the disinterestedness, and the science 

 of the illustrious marshal had already received, from the 

 tongue of Fontenelle, an homage to which it seemed 

 difficult to add. What speech indeed could more 

 Avorthily characterize a military life than these few 

 figures ? " Vauban caused work to be done at 300 for- 

 tresses ; he constructed 33 new ones ; he conducted 53 

 sieges ; he was present at 140 actions of importance." 

 And does not this other sentence seem as though bor- 

 rowed from Plutarch ? " The morals of Vauban held 

 out pei'fectly against the most brilliant dignities, and 

 never even wavered. In a word, he was a Roman 

 whom it seemed as if our age had stolen from the best 

 times of the Repu])lic ! " 



