60 JSTew York at the "Woeld's Columbian Exposition. 



buildings, with the bewildering display of American ingenuity, or the no 

 less impressive public spirit that called them into being. In either case 

 he will pay a tribute to the genius of the country in which patriotism 

 knows no distinction of race or of creed, in which popular intelligence is 

 dijOEused as the sunshine, and the blessings of education are open to all 

 like the air we breathe, while the lesson of Columbus' life is taught by 

 every day's experience, that honest toil and perseverance, and the patient 

 abiding by one's convictions, when founded on reason and in truth, will 

 infallibly reap their rich reward. 



In the limited time placed at my disposal I can invite your attention ito 

 two points only in the character of Columbus. Judging him from the stand- 

 point of the fifteenth century, which is undoubtedly the true philosophic 

 standard, I beg to present him as a man of science, and a man of faith. 



As a scientist, considering the times in which he lived, he eminently 

 deserves our respect. Both in theory and in practice he was one of the 

 best geographers and oosmographers of the age. According to reliable 

 historians, before he set out to discover new seas, he had navigated the 

 whole extent of those already known. Moreover, he had studied so many 

 authors, and to such advantage, that Alexander von Humboldt — certainly 

 no mean authority — affirms : " When we consider his life, we must feel 

 astonishment at the extent of his literary acquaintance." Again he writes, 

 " at the beginning of a new epoch, on the uncertain border land between 

 the middle ages and modern times, this great figure dominates the age 

 whose impulses he felt, and which he vivified in turn." In another work, 

 Humboldt notes that students in almost every department of science, as 

 physics, geology, anthropology, astronomy, philology and navigation, will 

 ever be indebted to Columbus. And he adds, " the majesty of great mem- 

 ories seem to be concentrated in his name. It is the originality of his vast 

 conception, the extent, the fecundity of his genius, the courage opposed to 

 long misfortunes, that have raised the admiral above all his contemporaries." 



Again, the scientist appears in this, that in the domain of nature and of 

 positive fact, Columbus took nothing for granted. The persistent oppo- 

 sition of the most erudite professors of the day did not disconcert him. 

 While he bowed reverently to the teachings of faith, he brushed away as 

 cobwebs certain interpretations of Scripture, more fanciful than real, 

 which were alleged against him, and calmly maintained that the word of 

 God cannot be in conflict with scientific truth. 



As a scientist again he was conscious of the grandeur and the untold 

 promise of his discovery. He recognized, to use the phrase of Voltaire, 

 that he was " doubling creation." Thus, writing to Ferdinand and Isa- 

 bella, after his arrest by Bobadilla, he says: " The lands, which here obey 



