POETRY AND IMAGINATION 



of the times pointed to the beginning of a new age, 



when the riches and power of the world should be the 



prize of bold adventurers, and courage the only passport 



to success. 



The argument from the Voyages is set forth explicitly ^P^^^^^ ^ 

 • riT--/^ argument. 



by Spenser m a well-known passage of the Faerie ^ueene. 



His fairy world, he says, has been condemned by some 



as the forgery of an idle brain. 



* But let that man with better sense advize, 



That of the world least part to us is red ; 



And daily how through hardy enterprise 



Many great Regions are discovered, 



Which to late age were never mentioned. 



Who ever heard of th' Indian Peru ? 



Or who in venturous vessel measured 



The Amazon huge river, now found trew ? 

 Or fruitfullest Virginia who did ever vew ? 



Yet all these were, when no man did them know. 



Yet have from wisest ages hidden been ; 



And later times thinges more unknowne shall show. 



Why then should witless man so much misweene 



That nothing is but that which he hath seene ? 



What if within the Moones fayre shining sphere, 



What if in every other starre unseene 



Of other worldes he happily should heare. 

 He wonder would much more ; yet such to some appeare,' 



t is not without significance that Hakluyt himself Hakluyt's 

 makes use of exactly the same argument. ' If any ^^^^^»^- 

 man shall object,' he says, speaking of the Friars, ' that 

 they have certain incredible relations, 1 answer, first, 

 that many true things may to the ignorant seem in- 

 credible.' And again, in praise of his own age : — ' Which 

 of the kings of this land before her Majesty had their 

 banners ever seen in the Caspian sea } Which of them 

 hath ever dealt with the Emperor of Persia, as her 

 Majesty hath done, and attained for her merchants 



lOI 



