with majestic meekness the conversion of that glory into
unmerited shame.

* * * * *

We look back with astonishment and admiration at the stupendous
achievement effected a whole lifetime later by the immortal Columbus--an
achievement which formed the connecting link between the Old World and
the New; yet the explorations instituted by Prince Henry of Portugal
were in truth the anvil upon which that link was forged.

* * * * *

He arrived in a vessel as shattered as his own broken and careworn
frame.

COLUMBUS HEARD OF NORSE DISCOVERIES.

CONRAD MALTE-BRUN, a Danish author and geographer of great merit.
Born at Thister in Jutland, 1775; died, December, 1826.

Columbus, when in Italy, had heard of the Norse discoveries beyond
Iceland, for Rome was then the world's center, and all information of
importance was sent there.

COLUMBUS AND COPERNICUS.

HELEN P. MARGESSON, in an article entitled "Marco Polo's
Explorations, and their Influence upon Columbus" (being the Old
South First Prize Essay, 1891), published in the _New England
Magazine_, August, 1892.

Columbus performed his vast undertaking in an age of great deeds and
great men, when Ficino taught the philosophy of Plato, when Florence was
thrilled by the luring words and martyrdom of Savonarola, when Michael
Angelo wrought his everlasting marvels of art. While Columbus, in his
frail craft, was making his way to "worlds unknown, and isles beyond the
deep," on the shores of the Baltic a young novitiate, amid the rigors of
a monastic life, was tracing the course of the planets, and solving the
problem in which Virgil delighted[47]--problems which had baffled
Chaldean and Persian, Egyptian and Saracen. Columbus explained the
earth, Copernicus explained the heavens. Neither of the great
discoverers lived to see the result of his labors, for the Prussian
astronomer died on the day that his work was published. But the
centuries that have come and gone have only increased the fame of
Columbus and Copernicus, and proven the greatness of their genius.

COLUMBUS AND THE FOURTH CENTENARY OF HIS DISCOVERY.

Commander CLEMENTS ROBERT MARKHAM, R. N., C. B., F. R. S., a noted
explorer and talented English author. Midshipman in H. M. S.
Assistance in the Franklin Search Expedition, 1850-51. Born July
20, 1830, at Stillingfleet, near York. From a paper re