DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0155
AND LOWER EGYPT. 127
peys column. Nevertheless it is likewise probable,
that posterity will recollect that this column was
the head-quarters, from whence Buonaparte issued
orders for the escalade and capture of Alexandria ;
that the bodies of the heroes who perished as the
victims of their own bravery, are deposited round
the pedestal, and that their names are engraven
upon it; it is likewise probable that, more struck
with the genius of the victory, and of the sublime
combinations connected with it, than with that
which has conferred celebrity on ancient Egypt by
her works of stupendous magnificence, absorbed in
the immortality of the French nation, shall be dis-
posed to fix the era of this dawning glory, and that
to future ages the column of Pompey shall be the
column of the French Republic.
I have heard it said at Alexandria, that an idea
was formerly entertained of transporting to France
the column so much admired there. The Levan-
tins and the navigators of Provence considered
this enterprise as impracticable; they forgot, or
perhaps they never knew that this very mass of
granite had been conveyed from the quarries of
Syene, that is, more than two hundred leagues:
they did not know that Caius Cesar had transported
from Egypt to Rome an obelisk of a hundred cu-
bits, or twenty-five fathoms, in height, and eight
cubits, or two fathoms, in diameter; that Augustus
intended
peys column. Nevertheless it is likewise probable,
that posterity will recollect that this column was
the head-quarters, from whence Buonaparte issued
orders for the escalade and capture of Alexandria ;
that the bodies of the heroes who perished as the
victims of their own bravery, are deposited round
the pedestal, and that their names are engraven
upon it; it is likewise probable that, more struck
with the genius of the victory, and of the sublime
combinations connected with it, than with that
which has conferred celebrity on ancient Egypt by
her works of stupendous magnificence, absorbed in
the immortality of the French nation, shall be dis-
posed to fix the era of this dawning glory, and that
to future ages the column of Pompey shall be the
column of the French Republic.
I have heard it said at Alexandria, that an idea
was formerly entertained of transporting to France
the column so much admired there. The Levan-
tins and the navigators of Provence considered
this enterprise as impracticable; they forgot, or
perhaps they never knew that this very mass of
granite had been conveyed from the quarries of
Syene, that is, more than two hundred leagues:
they did not know that Caius Cesar had transported
from Egypt to Rome an obelisk of a hundred cu-
bits, or twenty-five fathoms, in height, and eight
cubits, or two fathoms, in diameter; that Augustus
intended