CHAPTER XIV 



JOHN CABOT AND THE ENGLISH DISCOVERY OF 

 NORTH AMERICA 



OVER the cloud-bridge of illusion lies the path of human 

 progress. The greatest achievements in history have 

 been brought about more by the aid of ideas than of truth. 

 Religious illusions have ennobled the rude masses and raised 

 them to higher forms of society; in the domain of science 

 intuition and hypothesis have led to fresh victories as also in 

 geographical exploration; there, too, illusions, like a fata 

 Morgana, have impelled men forward to great discoveries. 



It is true that Columbus's plan was based on the correct 

 idea that the world was round; but if he had known the real 

 distance of India — if he had not been fettered by the ancient 

 dogmas of the Greeks about the great extension of the continent 

 to the east, and their low estimate of the earth's circumference, 

 which made India appear so enticingly near — if he had not 

 believed in myths of lands in the west — he certainly would 

 never have been the discoverer of a new world. 



The people of the Middle Ages lived, as we have seen, to 



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