in Boston, May 25, 1803; died at
Concord, April 27, 1882. From his essay on "Success," in _Society
and Solitude_. Copyright, by Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.,
publishers, Boston, and with their permission.

Columbus at Veragua found plenty of gold; but, leaving the coast, the
ship full of one hundred and fifty skillful seamen, some of them old
pilots, and with too much experience of their craft and treachery to
him, the wise Admiral kept his private record of his homeward path. And
when he reached Spain, he told the King and Queen, "That they may ask
all the pilots who came with him, Where is Veragua? Let them answer and
say, if they know, where Veragua lies. I assert that they can give no
other account than that they went to lands where there was abundance of
gold, but they do not know the way to return thither, but would be
obliged to go on a voyage of discovery as much as if they had never been
there before. There is a mode of reckoning," he proudly adds, "derived
from astronomy, which is sure and safe to any who understands it."

THE VOICE OF THE SEA.

From a poem, "Seashore," by RALPH WALDO EMERSON. Houghton, Mifflin
& Co., Boston.

I with my hammer pounding evermore
The rocky coast, smite Andes into dust,
Strewing my bed, and, in another age,
Rebuild a continent of better men.
Then I unbar the doors; my paths lead out
The exodus of nations; I disperse
Men to all shores that front the hoary main.
I too have arts and sorceries;
Illusion dwells forever with the wave.
I know what spells are laid. Leave me to deal
With credulous and imaginative man;
For, though he scoop my water in his palm,
A few rods off he deems it gems and clouds.
Planting strange fruits and sunshine on the shore,
I make some coast alluring, some lone isle,
To distant men, who must go there, or die.

[Illustration: COLUMBUS AS A STUDENT AT PAVIA.

From the Drake Drinking Fountain, Chicago.
(See page 118.)]

THE REASONING OF COLUMBUS.

Columbus alleged, as a reason for seeking a continent in the West, that
the harmony of nature required a great tract of land in the western
hemisphere to balance the known extent of land in the eastern.--_Ibid._

STRANGER THAN FICTION.

EDWARD EVERETT, a distinguished American orator, scholar, and
statesman. Born at Dorchester, Mass., April 11, 1794; died,
January 15, 1865. From a lecture on "The Discovery of America