128 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



intended to put Rome likewise in possession of the 

 two obelisks reared at Heliopolis by Sesostris, and 

 which are each a hundred and twenty cubits high ; 

 that Constantine ordered the transportation of an- 

 other obelisk no less considerable, and in the con- 

 struction of which Ramases, king of Egypt, had 

 employed two thousand men ; they did not know 

 finally, that within these few years, Petersburgh has 

 conveyed into her bosom, from a very considerable 

 distance, a huge rock of three millions of pounds 

 weight. 



Grand enterprises are the real monuments of the 

 glory of great nations. It would be worthy of that 

 nation which, in a few years, has surpassed in acts 

 of heroic valour, all that the page of Roman history 

 displays, to appropriate to herself the column of 

 Alexandria. If extraordinary means are requisite 

 for this purpose, the genius of the sciences, insepa- 

 rable from that of true glory, is there to devise them, 

 and the arts, which likewise rise with the people 

 who cultivate them, will not fail in the execution. 

 In the midst of one of the squares of Paris, that of 

 the Revolution, for example, the column could not 

 fail to produce the most majestic efFect. A colossal 

 statue might surmount its capital ; this should be 

 the image of Liberty : it would look down on the 

 palaces of the depositaries of power, and by its bold 

 and imposing attitude would strike terror into the 



heart 



