DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0156
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 hi ;h ;
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 ofParis, 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
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 hi ;h ;
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 ofParis, 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