Mr. Lawrence, of Dulwich College, has rummaged up Goethe's characteristic
saying that he would like to live to see three great works . completed,--a canal across Panama connecting the Atlantic and Pacific, a canal connecting the head-waters of the Rhine. and the Danube, and a canal across the 'Isthmus of Suez. "Lastly, in the third place, I should like to see the English in possession of a Suez Canal. I should be glad to live to see these three great achievements, and for love of them, it were well worth while -to hold out for another fifty years." That was said in 1827, and the fifty years have just brought the third wish, while the -other two remain behind. But life-must have been very strong in the old man when, at the age of seventy-eight, he pretended to think it worth while to live fifty years more only for love of such public achievements as these. What a Public Works' Minister Goethe would have made, if he really felt what he said But in fact, of -course, it was the life he wanted ; . and the satisfaction of seeing his anticipations fulfilled was but the excuse.
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