Sadi Carnot

“ But, much better than through the perusal of these few pages, Sadi Carnot can be appreciated by reading the thoughts scattered through his memoranda, which are to be carefully collected. There are many practical rules of conduct which he records for himself; many observations that he desires to fix in his memory; sometimes an impression that has just come to him, grave or gay; sometimes too, though rarely, a trace of ill-humor directed against men or society. ”

“ The hopes of the democracy meanwhile seeming to be in abeyance, Sadi devoted himself anew to study, and pursued his scientific labors with all the greater energy, as he brought to bear upon them the political ardor now so completely repressed. ”

“ From that time the additional progress so rapidly made in the new science was as inevitable as the development of a gold-field, once the precious metal has been found in paying quantities in the hitherto unvisited cañons and gorges of a distant and unexplored mountain-range. But great as is the work since done, and great as have been the discoveries and the discoverers of later years, none claims our gratitude and compels our respect in greater degree than does the original discoverer—
Sadi Carnot. ”

“ A. D. 1861 (AUGUST-DECEMBER: WEST VIRGINIA) . CARNONACÆ, The. See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES. CARNOT, Lazare N. M., and the French Revolution. See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JUNE-OCTOBER) , to 1797 (SEPTEMBER) , and 1800-1801 (MAY-FEBRUARY) . CARNOT, Sadi, President of the French Republic, 1887--. {392} CARNUTES, The. The Carnutes were a tribe who occupied a region supposed to be the center of Gaul. The modern city of Chartres stands in the midst of it. The sacred general meeting place of the Druids was in the country of the Carnutes. G. Long, Decline of the Roman Republic, volume 3, chapter 22. ”

“ In 1818 there came an unlooked-for royal ordinance, authorizing the officers of all branches of the service to present themselves at the examinations for the new corps of the staff. Sadi was well aware that favor had much more to do with this matter than ability, but he was weary of garrison life. The stay in small fortresses to which the nature of his work confined him did not offer sufficient resources to his love of study. ”

“ But Carnot exhibited that most marked characteristic of real genius, the power of applying such qualities as I have just enumerated to great purposes and with great result while still a youth. Genius is not dependent, as is talent, upon the ripening and the growth of years for its prescience ”

“ In spite of the friendly opposition of some chiefs of the engineer corps, testifying to a sincere regret at the removal from their register of a name which had gained honor among them, Sadi came to Paris to take the examination, and was appointed lieutenant on the staff, January 20, 1819. ”

“ At the time of Carnot, the opinion of the scientific world was divided, as it had been for centuries, on the question of the true nature of heat and light, and as it still is, to a certain extent, regarding electricity. ”

“ No one has more exactly and plainly stated the respective advantages to be claimed for air and the gases, used as working fluids in heat-engines, than does Carnot; nor does any one to-day better recognize the difficulties which lie in the path to success in that direction, in the necessity of finding a means of handling them at high temperatures and of securing high mean pressures. ”

“ Sadi turned with a cry of joy.
"Ludenmayer! You, my friend!" he exclaimed.
"Sadi! Old Sadi the fiddler! Impossible!"
"Indeed, it is possible. Old Sadi, as you say, and so hungry that he could eat the bones off your dishes."
"Then he shall sup with us. A hungry man makes friends with strange company, and we are that, as you guess, Maître Sadi. Come, sergeant, fill our friend a bowl of soup. Let him spy out that to begin with. Eh, Sadi, you will not refuse a bowl of soup even from the Prussians? Then let us see you fall to. We can talk of old friends afterwards." ”

“ Just like a fiddler."
"I have walked to the ramparts and back every evening for three years," rejoined Sadi, whose self-possession remained to him. "The habit clings to me; besides, what is the harm?" he asked.
"The captain will teach you that; don't let me deceive you at all; he will certainly shoot you, old fellow. For myself, I am sensitive; it is my weakness to prefer live bodies to dead ones. ”

“ As to the Prussians about him, some were already steeped with wine, and they lay sprawling like animals in the straw; others, and the cook was among the number of these, eyed their captain's guest suspiciously and discussed him in low voices. Sadi knew that his life hung upon a thread; but when a great ruffian drew a revolver and loaded it deliberately the fiddler was not afraid. "They will not shoot me," he said to himself; "they would be afraid of the noise." ”

“ The bare possibility appealing to his ravenous hunger sent him climbing down into the cellar like a schoolboy upon a forbidden venture. Impatiently, and with a strength he did not know that he possessed, he delved among the rubble, thrust at the great beams, and wormed his way toward the vault. None would interfere with him, he argued; there was no law, military or civil, which forbade a man to share a bone with the dogs. Sadi was like a miser seeking for his gold ”

“ Sadi was a large woman, with large bones, large hands, large feet, a large nose, and large eyes. She had a large mole on her throat under her large left ear. Her hair remained a deep, glossy black, and probably would so remain until the day of her death, unless she stopped sending to Buffalo for certain bottles. Every morning she curled it, parted it in the centre, and tied it in a knot at the back of her head.
She had no taste for the kind of New York social life which was open to her; she was too exclusive and eccentric a person for that. ”

“ He raised the pistol slowly, and deliberately touched Sadi's forehead with the cold barrel. The lantern's light showed a hard face and small eyes set above puffy cheeks. He wore a moustache in the French fashion and an uncouth imperial, which added to his grotesque appearance. Sadi knew that such a man would think it no greater crime to shoot a Frenchman than to drown a dog. ”

“ Doleful cries from stricken houses fell upon deaf ears so far as Sadi the fiddler was concerned. The warnings of a friendly soldier, who told him that he was drawing perilously near the zone of fire, he received with a curt word of thanks. Had the man given him a crust he would have kissed him on both cheeks; but the fellow was hungry himself, and the two parted surlily—the one to a beer-shop, the other toward the ramparts. ”

“ The youth laughed and said: “I am Hātim; see here my head! strike it from my body with thy sword. I would not that harm should befall thee, or that thou shouldst fail in thy endeavour.”
Throwing aside his sword, the man fell on the ground and kissed the dust of Hātim’s feet. “If I injured a hair on thy body,” he cried, “I should no longer be a man.” So saying, he clasped Hātim to his breast and took his way back to Yaman.
“Come,” said the king as the man approached, “what news hast thou? Why didst thou not tie his head to thy saddle-straps? ”

“ I had trusted Sadi with many things, and so far he had never failed me. I felt sure that he liked me, which was more than I would have said for any other member of the human race. But all the same, if he had seen it worth his while to rob or betray, I'd a pretty strong notion that blood instinct would prove too strong, and he'd do it. You see, Sadi's mother was half Arab, half Portuguese; his father was all Portuguese—jail-bird Portuguese; his youth had been spent in Marquez, which is on Delagoa Bay; and these things do not breed immaculate honesty calculated to stand every strain. ”

“ I have heard that he intrigues with two of thy slaves—he is a perfidious man, and lustful. It is not right that one such as he should bring ill-fame upon the court. I am not so unmindful of the favours that I have received at thy hands that I should see these things and remain silent.”
Angered by what he heard, the king stealthily watched the new vazier, and when, later, he observed the latter glance towards one of the slaves, who returned a covert smile, his suspicions of evil became at once confirmed. ”

“ When the purpose of an evil man is revealed to thee, pull him up by the roots, otherwise will he not desire that thou shouldst live. The alarm being raised, I fled quickly from the land. When thou settest fire to a forest of canes, beware of the tigers, if thou art wise.
Whenever I supplicate at the shrine of the Knower of Secrets, the Indian puppet comes into my recollection—it throws dust on the pride of mine eyes. I know that I raise my hand, but not by virtue of mine own strength. Men of sanctity stretch not out their hands themselves: the Fates invisibly pull the strings. ”

“ A covetous man paid an early morning visit to the king of Khwarazm, and twice prostrated himself to the ground before him.
“Tell me, O father,” his son inquired, “didst thou not say that Mecca was thy place of worship? Why didst thou to-day repeat thy prayers before the king?”
Contentment exalteth the head; that which is full of avarice comes no higher than the shoulder.
He who has wrapped up the volume of his avarice needs not to write to any one, “I am thy slave and servant.”
By begging wilt thou be driven from every assembly; drive it from thyself, so that no one may drive thee away. ”

“ Sadi, convinced of the hopelessness of his idea, lay very still and counted the dreary hours. For a time he slept; and when he awoke it was the sentry's voice which aroused him. The man had come down to warn his comrades. A regiment of the line marched out to the assistance of the gunners at Lunette 53—you could hear their heavy tramping as they crossed the old road, now lumbered over with stones and the rubble of the tumbled houses. There would be many, very many of them, the ear said. Sadi alone amongst those who listened to the footsteps did not tremble or turn pale. ”

“ Sadi wondered what those distant troops would say if a man should go to them and cry, "The cellars by the old church of St. Gervais are full of Prussian spies; you will find them sleeping there." Could he but send that message, at least one of the wrongs of those bitter days would be avenged. And yet how impotent he was! The desert waste of land above would be without one living soul at such an hour; and he knew that any attempt to quit the cellar would bring instant death upon him. ”

“ He reflected a little within himself, and said: "In these parts we have much of Sa'di's compositions in the Persian language; if you will speak in that dialect we shall more readily comprehend you, for you should address mankind according to their capacities."
I replied: "Whilst thy passion was that of studying grammar, all trace of reason was erased from our hearts. Yes! the lover's heart is fallen a prey to thy snare: we are occupied about thee, and thou art taken up with Amru and Zaid." ”

“ The king slept through the night devoid of care; but what said the chief watchman to him in the morning?—
“Perhaps thou didst forget that ‘lucky man’ when thy hand was upon the bosom of thy slave. By thee the night was spent in tranquillity and joy; what knowest thou how the night has gone with us?”
They with the caravan bend their heads over the cauldron; what care they for them that toil on foot through the desert sand?
Tarry, O active youths, for old and feeble men are with the caravan. Well hast thou slept in the litter while the driver held the nose-string of the camel. ”

“ Sadi had, alas! little difficulty in persuading the Arabs that it was no great sin to rob and desert a Christian. Just as the fiery sun was sinking over the sands, Yusef, who was suspecting treachery, but knew not how to escape from it, was rudely dragged off his camel, stripped of the best part of his clothes, and, in spite of his earnest entreaties, left to die in the terrible waste. ”

“ What has Sadi to apprehend from being turned into dust? he was but earth when alive. He will not continue dust long, for the winds will scatter him over the whole universe.’ Yet as long as the garden of knowledge has blossomed not a nightingale has warbled so sweetly in it. It would be strange if such a nightingale should die, and not a rose grow upon its grave. Sir Robert Ker Porter, twelve years later, found both spots alike neglected. ”

“ The Prussians round about were playing cards and dominoes, and quarrelling over their games. Ludenmayer, fallen serious in a moment, seemed to be turning over Sadi's words in his mind. Presently he said:—
"Levoire was a friend of yours, I think?"
"I had the honour to be instructor to his wife."
"Then she was your informant?"
He had put the idea into Sadi's head, and the fiddler seized upon it with avidity.
"We need not go into that. If you doubt her information, prove it for yourself. Your friends here are scarcely capable."
"That is true, the cattle. They think that their work is over. ”

“ In a tense interval, during which someone entered a lunette of the cellar and touched a sleeping figure upon the shoulder, the ruffian by the copper asked Sadi if he were hungry, and, being answered "Yes," he took a ladleful of the boiling soup and poured it over the prisoner's fingers. ”

“ Those who are guiltless are brave in speech; only he who gives false weight has fear of the inspector.”
“Forsooth,” the king exclaimed, his anger rising, “I heard this not only from thine enemy. Have I not seen with my own eyes that among the assemblage of this court thou regardest none but those two slaves?”
“That is true,” the vazier said, “but I will explain this matter if thou wilt listen. Dost thou not know that the beggar eyes the rich with envy? ”