THE FRENCH ACADEMY. 307 



who see no necessity for the humble in the scheme of 

 creation. Those people of the Lake of Mensaleh, who 

 constructed the banks of your canal by gathering up 

 the mud in their large hands and squeezing the water 

 out of it against their chests, will have their place in 

 the kingdom of God. Inferior, no doubt, they are, 

 these poor human families, so cruelly treated by fate, 

 but they are not, on that account, excluded from the 

 common work. They may produce great men, and 

 sometimes with one sudden bound they outshine us ; 

 they are capable of prodigies of abnegation and devo- 

 tion. Such as they are, you love them. You are 

 an optimist, Sir, and you are quite right. The height 

 of art is to work good with evil, to achieve what is 

 great with mean materials. This transcendant game is 

 to be won by the sympathy and the love which one 

 feels for men and which one inspires in them for one- 

 self, by the audacity with which one persuades one- 

 self that the cause of progress is gained and that one 

 is contributing to it. The men of the East are above 

 all things susceptible to being charmed, and you 

 succeeded admirably in this. Your frankness and 

 ease of demeanour inspired them with unbounded 

 confidence. Sa'id could not live without you. Your 

 perfect riding won the hearts of the old school of 

 Mehemet-Ali, which was more adept at mounting a 

 horse than in mental pursuits. On November the 

 30th, 1854, you were out in the desert with Said. The 

 Viceroy's tent was pitched upon an eminence formed 



