It is not necessary in this place to describe the strange and fantastic life by which the apostles endeavored to attain a more elevated spiritual state, reverencing Saint-Simon and Enfantin as sacred messengers of God. They were finally dispersed by dissensions, the desire of some to return to their families, financial difficulties, and external persecution. Enfantin and Chevalier were imprisoned for holding illegal assemblies. The faith, however, continued to prosper for a few years, and missionaries were still sent out to teach the New Christianity. One of the latest expeditions was headed by Enfantin himself after his release from prison. Its aim was to connect the Red Sea with the Mediterranean. De Lesseps was associated with them in this, but he finally separated from them, as they could not agree upon the engineering plans. Enfantin and other Saint-Simonians continued to advocate the project and scouted Stephenson’s assertion that it was impossible. This may seem at first like strange missionary work, but it does not, when you remember that to them all labor for the advancement of humanity was sacred. It is owing to Enfantin’s persistent endeavors that the Suez Canal was built. When Enfantin heard that De Lesseps was going on with the canal alone, it was thought that he might feel injured. He exhibited, however, a truly noble spirit, and simply remarked that, “Provided the work which I have brought into notice, and caused to be studied as highly useful to the moral and material interests of humanity, be executed, I will be the first to bless him by whom it is executed. Undoubtedly, it is but just that posterity should know that the initiation of that gigantic enterprise was taken by those whom the Old World could recognize only as Utopists, dreamers, or fools.”[59] The Saint-Simonians never reunited after the Egyptian expedition. A considerable number were able to make themselves useful in that country on account of their engineering skill. Mehemet Ali, the viceroy, recognized their talents and employed them in numerous ways. One received a commission to found a Polytechnic School at Cairo, another was placed at the head of a school of artillery, two others were appointed professors in the school at Kauka, and several medical men received positions in the hospital. David delighted the Alexandrians with concerts, and Barrault charmed them by his eloquent lectures. An Egyptian paper declared of Barrault that “Alexandria, since the best days of its glory, has never heard within its walls a voice so eloquent or a poetry of language so harmonious.”[60] The most of these Saint-Simonians returned to France, and, like many of their former associates who had not left their native soil, acquired positions of prominence and influence.