exclaim in the language of Pococurante,
'Quelle triste extravagance!' Let a great theologian of that day, a
monk of the Augustine order, be consulted on the subject. 'Corpus
ille perimere vel jugulare potest; nec id modo, verum et animam ita
urgere, et in angustum coarctare novit, ut in momento quoque illi
excedendum sit.'

[Footnote: --magnum si pectore possit
Excussisse deum.]

NOTE f.

_The scum of Folly, and of Fraud the prey;_

Nudo nocchier, promettitor di regni!

By the Genoese and the Spaniards he was regarded as a man resolved on
'a wild dedication of himself to unpath'd waters, undream'd shores;'
and the court of Portugal endeavoured to rob him of the glory of his
enterprise, by secretly dispatching a vessel in the course which he
had pointed out. 'Lorsqu'il avail promis un nouvel hemisphere,' says
Voltaire, 'on lui avait soutenu que cet hemisphere ne pouvait
exister; et quand il l'eut decouvert, on pretendit qu'il avait ete
connu depuis long-temps.'

NOTE g.

_The hand that snatch'd it sparkling in the tide,_

The drinking cups of the Islanders, if we may believe a contemporary
of Columbus, were _ex lignu...lucido confecta, el arte mira
lalorata._ P. Martyr, dec. i. 5.

NOTE h.

_Rose to the Virgin._

Salve, regina. Herrera, I. i. 12.--It was the usual service, and
always sung with great solemnity. 'I remember one evening,' says
Oviedo, 'when the ship was in full sail, and all the men were on
their knees, singing Salve, regina, &c. Relacion Sommaria.--The hymn,
O Sanctissima, is still to be heard after sunset along the shores of
Sicily, and its effect may be better conceived than described. See
Brydone, I. 330.

NOTE i.

_Chosen of men!_

I believe that he was _chosen_ for this great service; and that,
because he was to be so truly an apostle, as in effect be proved to
be, therefore was his origin obscure; that therein he might resemble
those who were called to make known the name of the Lord from seas
and rivers, and not from courts and palaces. And I believe also,
that, as in most of his doings he was guarded by some special
providence, his very name was not without some mystery: for in it is
expressed the wonder he performed; inasmuch as he conveyed to a new
world the grace of the Holy Ghost, &c. F. COL. c. 1.

NOTE k.

_Slowly to land the sacred cross we bore,_

Signifying to the Infernal Powers (all' infierno todo) the will of
the Most High, that they should renoun