The Egyptians were also a maritime people who made voyages for
discovery. It was under the instructions of one of its kings—Nechos—that
some skilful Phœnician sailors first sailed round the coast of Africa.
Six hundred years B.C. an attempt was also made to do what the French
engineer Lesseps has since done—to cut a canal across the Isthmus of
Suez. I mention these facts to show how all the really great things that
have done the world most good have had their origin in some one great
mind, who still lives in the immortality of his creations, having
impressed himself inexpungibly upon the descent of the race and on
civilization; and by this showing to call attention to the further fact
that the number of the great who live in the present is extremely small,
and finally to show that this country has not produced even one such
mind outside the purely intellectual plane. The names of Fulton and
Field will live until steam, as a motor power, shall be superseded by
some more potent agent, and until the telegraphic wires shall be no
longer required to transmit the thoughts of one to another at the
antipodes of the earth; but in government the list is blank.
Our basis must, however, be made still broader. Greece was founded upon
principles brought from Egypt; but in that small country a new era was
born. Egyptian achievements were the culmination of an era of
civilization of which Greece was fruit, and became the seed for the
next. Not only did Greece dim the splendour of Egyptian warfare, but she
also surpassed her in intellectual attainment. The names of Plato,
Socrates, Aristotle, Archimedes, Xenophon, will live in philosophy as
long as there is a literature; while Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis,
Platea and Mycale will stand for ever unapproachable in military and
naval glory, conclusive evidence of the power of order and organization
over mere numbers and brute force.