Page:Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat.djvu/58

36 justice and of liberty. We can follow therein the traces of all his various studies. But the only work that he actually completed is this which is here published. It will suffice to preserve his name from oblivion.

His moral character has other claims on our recognition. Our only ambition here is to present a sketch of it. 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. He never thought that these notes, the outpouring of his mind, would be read by other eyes than his own, or that they would some day be used to judge him. I find in them, for my part, touching analogies with the thoughts of my father, although the father and son had, unfortunately, lived almost always apart, by force of circumstances.