84 



PIONEERS OF evolution: 



agement in his scientific work from an old friend who 

 afterward became Pope Clement IV., for whose in- 

 formation he wrote his Opus Majus, he was, on the 

 death of that potentate, thrown into prison, whence 

 tradition says he emerged, after ten years, only to 

 die. 



The theories of mediaeval schoolmen — a monoto- 

 nous record of unprogressive ideas — need not be 

 scheduled here, the more so as we approach the 

 period of discoveries momentous in their ultimate 

 efifect upon opinions which now possess only the 

 value attaching to the history of discredited con- 

 ceptions of the universe. Commerce, more than sci- 

 entific curiosity, gave the impetus to the discovery 

 that the earth is a globe. Trade with the East was 

 divided between Genoa and Venice. These cities 

 were rivals, and the Genoese, alarmed at the growing 

 success of the Venetians, resolved to try to reach 

 India from the west. Their schemes were justified 

 by reports of land indications brought by seamen 

 who had passed through the " Pillars of Hercules " 

 to the Atlantic. The sequel is well known. Colum- 

 bus, after clerical opposition, and rebufifs from other 

 states, " offering," as Mr. Payne says, in his excel- 

 lent History of America, " though he knew it not, 

 the New World in exchange for three ships and pro- 

 visions for twelve months," finally secured the sup- 

 port of the Spanish king, and sailed from Cadiz on 

 the 3d of August, 1492. On nth of October he 

 sighted the fringes of the New World, and believing 



