332 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



point. It may be enough to indicate the significance which attaches 

 to it. 



Among other authorities may be named Admiral Davis, Professor 

 Nourse, United States Navy, who prepared for the department in 

 1883 a report upon the Suez and Panama Canals, Lieutenant Maury, 

 General Grant, and Senator Windom. In the Senate, February 28, 

 1881, the latter observed, after referring to the significance of the 

 work and the demand for its execution, that it was a wonder it had 

 not been sooner undertaken. Pitt, Jefferson, and Humboldt, are men 

 of a former generation who interested themselves in the problem. 



As the work is at present in French hands, some reference to 

 French authorities might not be out of place. The curious may 

 consult to advantage an address delivered by Renan, April 23, 1885, 

 when De Lesseps was received by the French Academy. Renan, after 

 assuming that the possible inhabitants of the planets may have better 

 telescopes than ours, alleges that they might judge of our civilization 

 by the state of our isthmuses. "A planet," he continues, "is not ripe 

 for progress till all its inhabited parts are brought into intimate rela- 

 tions, each with each, so as to constitute a living organism, so that no 

 part may be able to enjoy, or suffer, or act, without feeling and reac- 

 tion in all the rest." 



Nor is it to be said that this reference to the cutting of isthmuses 

 as a touch-stone of civilization is an empty compliment, one which 

 might fitly, perhaps, find its place in a eulogistic address. The testi- 

 monies adduced as to the division of the American Continent are ex- 

 plicit enough. It is safe to say that if the completion of any enter- 

 prise in course of execution to-day is loudly called for by the interests, 

 even the necessities of all states, it is the enterprise at Panama. The 

 French may not be able to complete it if by them it is to be com- 

 pleted as soon as their wishes and certain possible political calcula- 

 tions have designated. They may not celebrate its inauguration, and 

 at the same time celebrate the centennial of the Bastile and the era 

 of the Revolution. Let us hope, at all events, that the inauguration 

 is not to be long deferred. 



The proper spirit in which this great enterprise ought to be re- 

 garded is perhaps set forth in the following lines from a German 

 source. The Gazette of the Administration of the Railroads of Ger- 

 many, published in Berlin, expressed itself in a recent number thus : 



"In conclusion, we should not fail to express a hope that the 

 courageous builders of the canal will succeed in overcoming all ob- 

 stacles, so that a great work, which will be the pride of the engineer- 

 ing art of to-day, and even of the nineteenth century, may be success- 

 fully finished by those who thus far have borne the entire labor and 

 the entire weight. If the present company should fail, certainly a 

 second would be formed which would inherit the advantages and ex- 

 periences of the first, without having paid for these at its own risk 



