Excerpta.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 760, 31 July 1894, Page 2

Excerpta.

An Idealist’s Fatalism.

Ferdinand de Lesseps, whose success in projecting and building the Suez Canal has brought him world-wide fame, bad a superstition of his own—it could hardly be called a religion—• which was strongly coloured by Eastern mysticism. He bad profound faith in bis destiny to accomplish what the world accounted impossibilities. Unlike the conviction of Gordon of Khartoum, it was a belief in an unchangeable destiny, independent of a controlling cause.

The Suez Canal project was revealed to him fortuitously. His ship was quarantined off Alexandria, and he sent ashore by the doctor’s boat an urgent appeal to the French consulate for books and papers to enable him to while away the time A package was hastily made up in the office and taken out to the ship. One pamphlet arrested his attention. It was a report by Lepere, an engineer, upon the necessity of providing rapid transportation across the Isthmus of Suez.

The project fascinated bis imagination and took possession of his mind. It recurred to him constantly during twenty years of arduous diplomatic service. When he was virtually dismissed from that service, he consoled himself with the reflection that destiny had intervened in order to enable him to cut the isthmus.

His mysticism was strengthened by what he believed were auguries of the skies, which inspired, and gave him determination.

When his intimate friend, Said Pasha, became Viceroy of Egypt, Monsieur de Lesseps set out for Alexandria to unfold his scheme to his future patron. They met on the shore of Lake Mareotis on a dull November day. A few hours before the conference Monsieur de Lesseps saw a magnificent rainbow dipping east and west. He interpreted it as a sign that his enterprise of uniting Orient and Occident was favoured by the stars in their courses. On that day the Viceroy committed himself unreservedly to the scheme. He also thought that other signs were given him. On the night before the exploration of the desert was begun, a meteor flashed across the sky. A year afterward, when the preliminary survey was completed, the rainbow of promise was repeated, with unabated brilliancy.

Other men would not have taken note of these coincidences. Monsieur de Lesseps had lived in the deserts and was almost as much an Oriental as a Frenchman. He could not resist the conclusion thatihis destiny was marked out for him, and that failure was impossible.

For fifteen years, with the world arrayed against him, he persevered with his project with an Eastern mystic’s faith in an unchangeable destiny. Fatalism such as this was roughly shaken by the subsequent collapse of the Panama enterprise. That scheme was not the child of his imagination, lie had not dreamed of it in the deserts, nor read its triumph in the skies. It was an adopted child of his own age. 'The plan was submitted to him and he accepted it with the determination to carry it out, by gambling heavily with the reputation which he had made at Suez. But while he risked his fame with a spendthrift's recklessness, his belief in his destiny as a wonderworker, who could not fail in any undertaking, survived until the final crash in Panama came. ILs fatalisffi was wrecked with his fortune.

An Empress’s Debts.

Empress Josephine, wife of the first Napoleon, was an extravugant woman,

and ultimately found herself deeply in debt.

Bourrienne relates how at one time her creditors were getting so impatient that it became absolutely necessary to notify the fact to the First Consul; and at length M. Talleyrand, whose diplomacy was equal to the gilding of any pill, undertook to approach the delicate subject. Josephine had begged that the revelation should be deferred as long as possible, for she already stood somewhat in awe of her husband, and trembled with apprehension at the idea of incurring his displeasure. However, after the interview with Talleyrand, Napoleon sent for Bourrienne, and ordered him to ascertain the exact amount of Madame Bonaparte’s debts, and pay them at once, adding peremptorily that the whole amount must be stated, so that there should be no further trouble in the matter.

Josephine’s delight may be imagined when she learned that she was to be relieved from a burden which had hung like a mill stone round her neck, but the sum she owed was so enormous that she displayed a natural reluctauce to name the amount. Bourrienne wisely urged her by no means to deceive her husband. * You will have, madame,’ he said, ‘ to endure some cutting reproaches, and a violent scene ; but this scene will be the same for the sums you acknowledge as for a still more considerable amount.’ She replied, however, by saying that she dared not confess the extravagance of which she had been guilty; and although she confided to the laithful secretary that she owed over a million francs, she would not confess to more than 600,000. He replied by still advising her to acknowledge the whole amount; but she trembled with agitation as she answered, ‘ I can never do it ; I know him ; I could never support his violence.

General Debility.

The term General Debility means a depletion of vital strength, a general break-up of the corporeal health, due to over consumption and wasting away of the life giving constitutents of the blood and nerve tissue, really a wearing out of the animal structure. If your life is worth saving it is worth your while to treat your case thoroughly. If it is worth your while to treat your disease at all, it is worth your while to continue the treatment until your health is thoroughly reestablished ; you may feel all right after the first few bottles of Clements Tonic, so prompt are its remedial and curative effects; but a medicine no matter how good cannot banish disease in a week, the seeds of the complaint will still remain in your system and break afresh if you do not thoroughly eradicate them. Don’t forget that a relapse is twice as difficult to cure as the original attack, so if you want to get cured give the remedy a fair chance and recovery is certain. Clements Tonic is a genuine article, it is prepared for a specific purpose and contains the material to make it an effectual remedy, aud if used faithfully it cannot fail. We do not claim it is a cure-all, we ao not say it will cure lock jaw or bad spelling, but for all cases of impaired vital strength it is a scientific and infallible specific. Moreover, the cost of using it is so small you can have a year’s course of it for less than you can produce a week’s medical attendance, and a tenfold better remedy than any physician can prescribe for you. Thousands of cases have been cured by Clements Tonic, and it will cure you if you give it a fair chance. Reau this case of Mr Robert Thompson, Taylorville, N. Z., who writes on May 25th, 1893 It affords me greatest pleasure to testify to the excellent qualities of your famous nerve and brain Tonic. I have only taken three bottles and feel like a new man ; I can assure you I shall not forget to recommend it to my friends. —Yours gratefully, Robert Thompson, Taylorville.