VISCOUNT FERDINAND DE LESSEPS. 377 



these notes, that all the world might be just to those who ventured 

 with him in the forlorn hope. 



These three kindred spirits, with only the Bible for their guide-book, 

 made a reconnaissance of this route. The journal of Lesseps, which 

 contains over twenty quotations from tlie Old Testament, is full of the 

 confidence and courage of hope and health. In that desert land the 

 skies are clear and the north wind full of joyous life and stored up 

 energies. The whole horizon is in view, and he who has singleness of 

 purpose may march straight to his destiny, whether he holds the Koran 

 or the Bible. And here we are minded of that fearful contrast offered 

 by the Isthmus of Panama on the otiier side of the earth, — with its 

 weary mountains and dark forests breaking down the trade winds, and 

 shortening and degrading the vision till high hopes and purposes are 

 starved out, and man becomes a timid, sickly animal. 



We agree that, as it turned out, the Suez Canal did not involve the 

 solution of any new problems of physics, or very greatly tax the skill 

 of French engineers. Indeed, it was not the practical and direct diffi- 

 culties that really made the nations timid. In "this wall of sand," 

 separating the Moslem from the Christian world, there lay sealed up 

 with the seal of Solomon afreet and genii that made nations tremble 

 to think of; for these, rashly let loose, might disturb the balance 

 of power and throw out of adjustment trade and industries all over the 

 world. It proposed radical change, and who could tell what might 

 happen ? Engineers and laborers stood ever ready to do the work, but 

 the world waited for the prophet who could forecast a healthy and 

 happy result. M. de Lesseps filled this office. His training, his 

 knowledge, and his enthusiasm commanded respect. His promises of 

 advantage east and west once seemed florid beyond the measure of his 

 careful computations and great array of statistics, but, as we read his 

 articles now, we are struck with his acuteness of foresight and his 

 moderation. 



He seems to have been a man of unusual singleness of purpose, 

 — in something wider than a moral sense, — and to have absorbed 

 himself absolutely in the work before him without ulterior design. 

 He was in politics a republican, but he " never even from curiosity 

 attended a political meeting." He was a partisan of the Prince 

 President, but he could not follow him in the coup d'etat, and only 

 submitted to the Empire in the interest of peace, — and the canal. 

 The Empress was a kinsman of his, and he had rendered her, in her 

 humbler life, a personal service which she requited in personal good 

 will. These relations may have procured for him the entree to the 



