SIDEREAL ASTRONOMY. 323 



As might be expected, from its forming the scene of his 

 own earlier labours, the discovery of America has a strong 

 hold on Humboldt's mind and imagination. He contemplates 

 it as a natural result of the growing philosophy of the age. 

 In a disquisition of some length on the era of Columbus, 

 we are amused by the scholastic turn given to the subject, 

 and by finding not merely the names of the eminent persons 

 preceding or belonging to this age (such as Albertus Magnus, 

 Roger Bacon, Vincent de Beauvais, Duns Scotus, Giordano 

 Bruno, &c.), but also a dissertation on the respective in- 

 fluence of the Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy, on the 

 long controversy between the Nominalists and Realists, and 

 on the men and manner of thinking of that age. He con- 

 siders that the 'Imago Mundi' of Cardinal Alliaco, which 

 Columbus carried with him on his voyage, had great influence 

 on the mind of the illustrious navigator; and notices the 

 curious fact, that the passage in this work which Columbus 

 himself refers to as most deeply impressing him, is a tran- 

 scription, word for word, made by the Cardinal from the 

 Opus Majus of Roger Bacon ! The whole style of this dis- 

 cussion well illustrates those peculiarities of Humboldt's 

 mind of which we have already spoken. 



But our author rightly assigns an earlier date than that of 

 Columbus to the first discovery of the American continent. 

 Rejecting, as exploded, the tale of tribes speaking a Celtic 

 dialect having been found on the coasts of Virginia, we are 

 bound by very sufficient proof to admit that the coasts of 

 Labrador and New England were known to the Icelanders 

 and Norwegians, through their intervening settlements in 

 Greenland, more than eight centuries ago ; that they par- 

 tially settled in Vinland, as they called the country forming 

 the coast of the New England States ; and that a bishop 

 went on a Christian mission to the colonies thus established. 

 These narratives, hitherto known and accredited by a few 



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