POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



283 



swers that were full of enthusiasm and un- 

 stinted praise of athletics. The replies to 

 Mr. OdelPs questions are more reserved and 

 critical. One correspondent answered that 

 as a general and rarely broken rule, excel- 

 lence in athletics and in intellectual work 

 are not met with at the same time in the 

 same person ; another, that " the spirit of 

 athleticism needs controlling." Dr. Horn- 

 by, of Eton, notes that " some years ago it 

 was quite possible for a boy who had an 

 aptitude for cricket or rowing to attain to the 

 highest excellence, according to the stand- 

 ard of that day, in athletics and school work. 

 I doubt whether it is so now. Athletics of 

 all kinds have become so developed and 

 brought into a system, and, I may almost 

 say, professional, that the time required for 

 a very high excellence in them is, I think, 

 a serious obstacle to a reading man or a stu- 

 dious boy's engaging in them with a view to 

 athletic distinction. This is a serious evil in 

 our day " ; and Dr. Percival, of Rugby, that 

 " the great publicity given to athletics tends 

 to give them an undue prominence in the 

 minds of both boys and men." These re- 

 plies suggest that physical education in pub- 

 lic schools may have been overdone and 

 overestimated, and that the enthusiasm of a 

 few years ago may have carried matters fur- 

 ther than was intended. 



The Glory of Columbus. In his presi- 

 dential address before the American Geo- 

 graphic Society on Discoverers of America, 

 the Hon. Gardiner S. Hubbard claims for 

 Columbus, in the face of the recent attempts 

 to depreciate his work, all the credit that 

 has at any time been given him. There was 

 no map published until after the sixteenth 

 century, Mr. Hubbard says, that gave a cor- 

 rect delineation of the seacoast of America. 

 " It is no wonder that Columbus never com- 

 prehended the nature or extent of his discov- 

 eries. The more we study the history and 

 geography of the times, the influence of the 

 Church, the difficulty of determining longi- 

 tude, the ignorance of the movements of the 

 mariner's compass and of the distance to 

 Cipango, the greater will be our admiration 

 for Columbus. Yet a recent writer speaks 

 of the discovery of Columbus as a blunder, 

 and others say, as if in disparagement of his 

 work, that he knew of the discoveries of the 



Northmen, and was only following their 

 track ; that the chart of Toscanelli, which 

 Columbus took on his first voyage, indicated 

 clearly his route ; that Columbus died in 

 the belief that he had discovered Cipango 

 and Cathay, never realizing that it was the 

 New World, and that Americus Vespucius is 

 entitled to the greater credit." Sebastian 

 Cabot is quoted by the author in testimony 

 of the admiration with which Columbus's dis- 

 covery was received at the court of Henry 

 VII, where it was affirmed "to be a thing 

 more divine than humane to saile by the west 

 into the easte, where the spices growe, by a 

 chart that was never before knowen." It is 

 very doubtful if Columbus knew of the voy- 

 ages of the Northmen, nor would such knowl- 

 edge have been of much value, for Greenland 

 was then believed to be a part of Europe and 

 joined to Norway. If Columbus had known 

 of their discoveries and sought the countries 

 they had found, he would have sailed north- 

 westward instead of westward. Many before 

 Toscanelli and Columbus believed the world 

 to be round, and that by sailing westward 

 Asia might be reached. Columbus not only 

 believed but proved it. He made no blun- 

 der, for he sought land the other side of the 

 Atlantic, and he found it. Vespucius knew 

 little more than Columbus of the New World, 

 and never realized that North America and 

 South America were one continent. The 

 maps show that learned geographers long 

 after the discoveries of Columbus, Vespucius, 

 Cabot, and Magellan, did not understand the 

 geography of the New World. " All voyages 

 before that of Columbus had been coasting 

 voyages, the sailors keeping in sight of 

 land. Columbus pushed into the unknown 

 and trackless ocean, leaving the land far be- 

 hind. Good seamen were unwilling to under- 

 take such a voyage, so convicts were obtained, 

 liberated from prison on condition of sailing 

 with Columbus. A brave, resolute, and self- 

 contained spirit was necessary to command 

 such a crew on such an expedition. New 

 wonders startled him each day. . . . No voy- 

 age like that was ever made before, and none 

 like it can ever be made again, for the great 

 discoverer solved the problem and reached 

 the east by sailing west." 



The Pose of Egyptian Drawings. The 



first thing that a Western observer remarks 



