tern shores of Europe, save by
hearsay, and the reports of mariners on that unknown shore, who
themselves must have been falsifiers, as it is well known that not one
of them has ever appeared here who might have estimated the distance?
I cannot, then, think that we are so near to Cathay as your excellency
supposes, and had much rather follow the opinion that you have
possibly approached the shore that has been hitherto represented as
inaccessible to mortals."

"You speak of the paradise, which so many sound and able divines
assert to be still in existence on earth."

"I do, though not so firmly believing in the relation as they do. If
there be such a place existing, as described by the learned St. Basil,
methinks it must be near unto those balmy isles which you have
discovered, so similar in climate and in verdancy."

"Such, in sooth, has often been my opinion, and I deem it not to be
inconsistent with the other, which holds to the proximity of Cathay.
Oh, that I might, through the grace of God and intercession of the
saints, ever arrive at that blessed spot, where all is happiness and
beauty; where the harmonious songs of birds ever fall gratefully on
the ear; where the air is filled with the fragrance of flowers, and a
perpetual spring, combining with its own beauties those of every other
season of the year, continually prevails; where the limpid waters flow
smoothly and gently, or gush forth in purest fountains; where all is
suggestive of perennial youth, and decay and death are unknown!

"But I perceive, Signor, that you are incredulous, as to this region
of bliss, and even smile at my belief. Remember, then, that herein I
only follow the opinions of the wise and learned fathers of our
Church, but that in regard to Cathay I am supported by ample proof,
from the discoveries of travellers and the relations of
cosmographers."

"I am ever willing to yield to proofs; but methinks that the
foundation of the error under which your excellency seems to labor is
this: that you do not make sufficient allowance for exaggeration in
the accounts of the great traveller Marco Polo. It appears to me that
he has deceived himself as to the extent to which he penetrated
Cathay, and that he has thereby carried out the eastern coast too far
into the ocean. That being so, the learned Paolo, my countryman, in
following him, finds it necessary to shorten the extent of ocean which
intervenes between Cathay and Europe, in order to rende