r country's history. Nowhere do
we meet with examples more numerous and more brilliant of men who have
risen above poverty and obscurity and every disadvantage to usefulness
and honorable name. One whole vast continent was added to the geography
of the world by the persevering efforts of a humble Genoese mariner, the
great Columbus; who, by the steady pursuit of the enlightened conception
he had formed of the figure of the earth, before any navigator had acted
upon the belief that it was round, discovered the American continent. He
was the son of a Genoese pilot, a pilot and seaman himself; and, at one
period of his melancholy career, was reduced to beg his bread at the
doors of the convents in Spain. But he carried within himself, and
beneath a humble exterior, a _spirit_ for which there was not room in
Spain, in Europe, nor in the then known world; and which led him on to a
height of usefulness and fame beyond that of all the monarchs that ever
reigned.--_Ibid._

TRIFLING INCIDENT.

The Venerable FREDERIC WILLIAM FARRAR, D. D., F. R. S., Archdeacon
of Westminster. Born in Bombay, August 7, 1831. From his "Lectures
and Addresses."

There are some who are fond of looking at the apparently trifling
incidents of history, and of showing how the stream of centuries has
been diverted in one or other direction by events the most
insignificant. General Garfield told his pupils at Hiram that the roof
of a certain court house was so absolute a watershed that the flutter
of a bird's wing would be sufficient to decide whether a particular
rain-drop should make its way into the Gulf of St. Lawrence or into the
Gulf of Mexico. The flutter of a bird's wing may have affected all
history. Some students may see an immeasurable significance in the
flight of parrots, which served to alter the course of Columbus, and
guided him to the discovery of North and not of South America.

EXCITEMENT AT THE NEWS OF THE DISCOVERY.

JOHN FISKE, a justly celebrated American historian. Born at
Hartford, Conn., March 30, 1842. From "The Discovery of
America."[37]

It was generally assumed without question that the Admiral's theory of
his discovery must be correct, that the coast of Cuba must be the
eastern extremity of China, that the coast of Hispaniola must be the
northern extremity of Cipango, and that a direct route--much shorter
than that which Portugal had so long been seeking--had now been found to
those l