GERS. (See _post_, page 275.)

When first Columbus dared the Western main,
Spanned the broad gulf, and gave a world to Spain,
How thrilled his soul with tumult of delight,
When through the silence of the sleepless night
Burst shouts of triumph.

THE WORLD A SEAMAN'S HAND CONFERRED.

J.R. LOWELL. (See _post_, page 204.)

Joy, joy for Spain! a seaman's hand confers
These glorious gifts, for a new world is hers.
But where is he, that light whose radiance glows,
The loadstone of succeeding mariners?
Behold him crushed beneath o'ermastering woes--
Hopeless, heart-broken, chained, abandoned to his foes.

THE RIDICULE WITH WHICH THE VIEWS OF COLUMBUS WERE RECEIVED.

JOHN J. ANDERSON, American historical writer. Born in New York,
1821. From his "History of the United States" (1887).

It is recorded that "Columbus had to beg his way from court to court to
offer to princes the discovery of a world." Genoa was appealed to again,
then the appeal was made to Venice. Not a word of encouragement came
from either. Columbus next tried Spain. His theory was examined by a
council of men who were supposed to be very wise about geography and
navigation. The theory and its author were ridiculed. Said one of the
wise men: "Is there any one so foolish as to believe that there are
people living on the other side of the earth with their feet opposite to
ours? people who walk with their heels upward and their heads hanging
down?" His idea was that the earth was flat like a plate.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS.

From the third of a series of articles by the Hon. ELLIOTT ANTHONY,
Associate Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Chicago, in
the Chicago _Mail_.

[Illustration: STATUE OF COLUMBUS ON THE BARCELONA MONUMENT.

(See page 81.)]

Bancroft, the historian, says that nearly three centuries before the
Christian era, Aristotle, following the lessons of the Pythagoreans, had
taught that the earth is a sphere and that the water which bounds
Europe on the west washes the eastern shores of Asia. Instructed by him,
the Spaniard, Seneca, believed that a ship, with a fair wind, could sail
from Spain to the Indies in a few days. The opinion was revived in the
Middle Ages by Averroes, the Arab commentator of Aristotle. Science and
observation assisted to confirm it; and poets of ancient and of more
recent times had foretold that empires beyond the ocean would one day be
reve