CHAPTER IX.
BREST.
At the light-house of Brest.

Here the Old World ends.

This is its most advanced point; its farthest limit.

Behind you spread Europe and Asia; before you lies the entire ocean.

As great as space appears to our eye, does it not always seem limited as soon as we know that it has a boundary?
Can you not see from our shores, across the Channel, the streets of Brighton and the fortresses of Provence; do you not always think of the Mediterranean as an immense blue lake ensconced in rocks, with promontories covered with falling monuments, yellow sands, swaying palm-trees and curved bays?
But here nothing stops your eye.