Considering, then, the numerous and valuable services which Cordouan has rendered, we ask ourselves, says M. Rénard,[52] whether, among the numerous monuments raised by the pride and daring of man, there are many of so much respectability as this “Patriarch of the Lighthouses!” We cannot acknowledge that any one of them is so justly deserving of our reverent admiration. Nobler, far nobler, and of infinitely greater utility, than the trophies by which the conqueror has tracked his bloody path, or the pompous boundary-stones erected by nations at each stage of their history, it will also be of a more permanent character. For these belong only to individuals or peoples: Cordouan belongs to the whole human race.
CHAPTER II.
THE LIGHTHOUSES OF CAPE LA HEVE.
A.D. 1774.
Doux feux qui protégez et Thétis et la Seine,
Sûrs et brillants rivaux des deux frères d’Hélène,
Phares, je vous salue; assurez à jamais
Le commerce opulent de l’heureuse Neustrie;
Fixez dans ma patrie
L’abondance, les arts, tous les fruits de la paix.
Casimir Delavigne.