ELOGE OF VAUBAN. 15 



The eloge from which these two passages are taken 

 had always appeared to me so eloquent and true, that, at 

 the moment when I first discovered an oi'ation on Vau- 

 ban amongst tlie productions of our colleague, I burst 

 out into heartfelt abuse at the academic programme 

 which, taking advantage of the inexperience of a young 

 man, had exposed him to so formidable a comparison. 

 Indeed, I should not have been more uneasy, if I had 

 discovered that Carnot had endeavoured to rewrite La 

 Mecanique of Lagi'ange, Athalie, or the Fables of La 

 Fontaine. These fears were superfluous. The Bur- 

 gundian members of the Academy of Dijon were right 

 in thinking that the Burgundian Vauban might still be- 

 come an interesting subject of study, even after the bril- 

 liant portrait traced by Fontenelle. And, in truth, the 

 Secretary of the Academy of Sciences had prudently 

 left in the shade one of the finest points of the illustrious 

 marshal. 



It would seem that the eloge of Vauban, from the pen 

 of an officer of engineers, must consist principally of an 

 exact appreciation of the means of attack and defence 

 with which the illustrious marshal endowed the art of 

 ■vvar. This was not the plan, howevei", which Carnot 

 adopted. It was principally for the qualities of the 

 heart, for virtue, and for patriotism, that Vauban seemed 

 to him worthy of admiration. " He was," said he, " one 

 of those men whom nature gives to the world formed 

 entirely for benevolence ; gifted, like the bee, with an 

 innate activity for the general welfare ; who cannot 

 separate their lot from that of the Republic, and who, 

 intimate members of society, live and flourish, or suffer 

 and languish, with it." 



Prince Henry of Prussia was present at the assembly 



