300 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



in level of the two seas, a theory always opposed by 

 Laplace and Fourrier. 



" The great St. Simonian School, which had so lofty 

 a comprehension of the common labour of humanity, 

 took up the idea and sealed it by martyrdom. More 

 than twelve engineers of the St. Simon School died of 

 the plague in 1833, at the great dam of the Mle. 

 Amid much that was obscure and visionary, one great 

 truth was perceived, viz., that Egypt has an excep- 

 tional place in the history of the world. The key to 

 the interior of Africa by the Nile, it is by its isthmus 

 also the guardian. The most important point in the 

 empire of the seas, Egypt is not a nation, it is 

 a State, sometimes the recompense of a maritime 

 dominion legitimately won, sometimes the punish- 

 ment of an ambition which has not measured its 

 strength. 



" A country which has such important relations to 

 the rest of the world cannot belong to itself. It is 

 neutralised for the benefit of humanity. The national 

 principle is put to death there. We are surprised to see 

 among the mad thoughts which passed through the 

 mind of Nero, during the hours which separated his 

 fall and his death, the idea of going before the people 

 in a suit of mourning and asking them, in exchange 

 for the Empire of Eome, to give him the Prefecture 

 of Egypt. It is a fact that the Prefecture of Egypt 

 will always be an independent one. The ruler of 

 Egypt will never bear the same name as other Sove- 



