sung by the discoverer and his weary crew with as much
fervor as it had ever been chanted in the cathedrals of Spain. The faith
was Roman Catholic. On his second voyage, in 1494, Columbus took with
him a vicar apostolic and twelve priests, and on the island of Haiti
erected the first chapel in the western world.[40] The success of
Columbus in discovering a new world in the West awakened a wild
enthusiasm throughout Europe. Visions of gold inflamed the minds alike
of rulers, knights, and adventurers. To discover and gather treasures,
and organize vast missionary undertakings, became the mania of the
times. No European country which possessed a strip of seaboard escaped
the delirium.

ARMA VIRUMQUE CANO.

WASHINGTON IRVING, one of the most distinguished American authors
and humorists. Born in New York City, April 3, 1783. Died at
Sunnyside on the Hudson, N. Y., November 28, 1859. From his
"History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus" (4 vols.,
1828). "This is one of those works," says Alexander H. Everett,
"which are at the same time the delight of readers and the despair
of critics. It is as nearly perfect as any work well can be."

It is my object to relate the deeds and fortunes of the mariner who
first had the judgment to divine, and the intrepidity to brave, the
mysteries of the perilous deep; and who, by his hardy genius, his
inflexible constancy, and his heroic courage, brought the ends of the
earth into communication with each other. The narrative of his troubled
life is the link which connects the history of the Old World with that
of the New.

To his intellectual vision it was given to read the signs of the times
in the conjectures and reveries of the past ages, the indications of an
unknown world, as soothsayers were said to read predictions in the
stars, and to foretell events from the visions of the night.

PRACTICAL AND POETICAL.

He who paints a great man merely in great and heroic traits, though he
may produce a fine picture, will never present a faithful portrait.
Great men are compounds of great and little qualities. Indeed, much of
their greatness arises from their mastery over the imperfections of
their nature, and their noblest actions are sometimes struck forth by
the collision of their merits and their defects.

In Columbus were singularly combined the practical and the poetical. His
mind had grasped all kinds of knowledge, whether procured