8 DISCOURSES OF FATHER HYACINTHE. 



I turn toward the East, whence morning by morning 

 comes tlic sun, whence comes the light of the gospel, 

 and at the point which once divided Europe and Asia, 

 I see no longer division, but the sign of glorious union. 

 It is the admiration and advantage of the world ; but 

 it is the work of France. My France has wrought it! 

 [Cries of Bravo.] France conceived the project; she 

 maintained it against the sneers which are the portion 

 of genius as well as of virtue ; she invented those pro- 

 digious machines, and made the rocks, as the Psalmist 

 says, " to leap like rams," and sends gliding and spark- 

 ling throngh the sunshine of the desert the waters of 

 the canal that is to join two w^orlds I 



I turn now to the West. This time it is the Avater 

 which divides — the vast Atlantic, rolling between 

 America and us. But see, from the lofty decks of the 

 glorious Leviathan, in our harbor of Brest — for it is 

 France still ! — see that gigantic cable plunging with the 

 noise of thunder, with the swiftness of lightning! It 

 sinks into the waves, dispelling, as it goes, the monsters 

 of the deep, and braving the stress of storms. It stretches 

 from Europe to America, to carry messages, not of war 

 but of peace, and to fix as a reality the nnion of the three 

 nations which form the aristocracy of the world, and 

 which, whenever they shall so choose, have power to 

 establish throughout our planet the reign of peace — 

 America, England, and J'^rance ! \E)i/hvsiaslic ap- 

 2)Iau.sc.] 



III. Tlie Virtues. Eadies and Gentlemen, liuman 

 society rests on a deeper and more sacred basis tium 

 mere interests, or even ideas. The moral order is tlie 

 necessary foundation of the social order. It would be 

 an illusion, then, to suppose that the various forces 

 just enumerated are suflicieiit of themselves to main- 



