GOETHE AND THE PANAMA CANAL.
[To THE EDITOR OP TUE "SrscreTon."3
SIR,—In your issue of April 13th, under the heading" Britain and the West Coast of South America," there is mention of the German Emperor's reported advice to the American engineer relating to the fortification of the Panama Canal. As early as 1827 a German poet dreamed the dreams that are now realities. In Goethe's conversations with J. P. Eckermann under the date of February 24th, 1827, Eckermann gives an account of a conversation in which Goethe regrets that he will not live to see what he prophesies as probable: first, the building of a cnnal by the Americans at Panama ; second, a canal at Suez, "which will probably be controlled by the British." Further, he tells of the probable growth to the west of the United States and the necessity of the cutting through of such a waterway. Very few Americans dreamed in 1827 of such a thing; very few Englishmen dreamed in 1827 of the control of the Suez Canal. No doubt the German Emperor himself, as well as your readers, will be surprised to learn that a German poet, nearly a century ago, dreamed for us our
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