Which hearing, I, in vision clear, beheld
The sudden dark of tropic night shut down
O'er the huge whisper of great watery wastes.
Then did I entertain the poet's song,
My great Idea's guest, and, passing o'er
That iron bridge the Tuscan built to hell,
I heard Ulysses tell the mountain chains,
Whose adamantine links, his manacles,

The western main shook growling and still gnawed.
I brooded on the wise Athenian's tale

Of happy Atlantis, and heard Björne's keel
Crunch the gray pebbles of the Vinland shore.
For I believed the poets; it is they

Who utter wisdom from the central deep,
And, listening to the inner flow of things,
Speak to the age out of eternity.

Endurance is the cunning quality,

And patience all the passion of great hearts;
These are their stay, and when the leaden world
Sets its hard face against their fateful thought,
And brute strength, like a scornful conqueror,
Clangs his huge mace down in the other scale,
The inspired soul but flings his patience in,
And slowly that outweighs the ponderous globe-
One faith against a whole earth's unbelief,
One soul against the flesh of all mankind.

Thus ever seems it when my soul can hear
The voice that errs not; then my triumph gleams
O'er the blank ocean beckoning, and all night
My heart flies on before me as I sail.
Far on I see my life-long enterprise,
Which rose like Ganges 'mid the freezing snows
Of a world's sordidness, sweep broadening down
And, gathering to itself a thousand streams,

Grow sacred ere it mingled with the sea.
I see the ungated wall of chaos old,

With blocks Cyclopean hewn of solid night,
Fade like a wreath of unreturning mist
Before the irreversible feet of light;

And lo! with what clear omen in the east

On day's gray threshold stands the eager dawn,
Like young Leander, rosy from the sea,

Glowing at Hero's lattice!

One day more

These muttering shoal-brains leave the helm to me. God, let me not in their dull ooze be stranded!

Let not this one frail bark, to hollow which

I have dug out the pith and sinewy heart

Of my aspiring life's fair trunk, be so

Cast up to warp

and blacken in the sun,

Just as the opposing wind 'gins whistle off

His cheek-swollen mates, and from the leaning mast Fortune's full sail strains forward!

One poor day!

Remember whose, and not how short it is!
It is God's day, it is Columbus's!

A lavish day! One day with life and heart,
Is more than time enough to find a world.

14

COLUMBUS TO FERDINAND.

JONATHAN MASON.

LLUSTRIOUS monarch of Iberia's soil, Too long I wait permission to depart; Sick of delays, I beg thy list'ning earShine forth the patron and the prince of art. While yet Columbus breathes the vital air, Grant his request to pass the western main;

Reserve this glory for thy native soil,

And what must please thee more-for thy own reign.
Of this huge globe how small a part we know—
Does heaven their worlds to western suns deny?
How disproportioned to the mighty deep
The lands that yet in human prospect lie.
Does Cynthia, when to western skies arrived,
Spend her sweet beam upon the barren main;
And ne'er illume with midnight splendor, she,
The native dancing on the lightsome green?
Should the vast circuit of the world contain
Such wastes of ocean, and such scanty land?
'Tis reason's voice that bids me think not so;
I think more nobly of the Almighty hand.
Does yon fair lamp trace half the circle round
To light the waves and monsters of the seas?
No! Be there must, beyond the billowy waste,
Islands, and men, and animals, and trees.
An unremitting flame my breast inspires,
To seek new lands amidst the barren waves,
Where falling low, the source of day descends,
And the blue sea his evening visage leaves.
Hear, in his tragic lay, Cordova's sage:

"The time shall come, when numerous years are past, The ocean shall dissolve the bands of things,

And an extended region rise at last;
And Typhis shall disclose the mighty land,
Far, far away, where none have roved before;
Nor shall the world's remotest regions be
Gibraltar's rock, on Thule's savage shore."
Fired at the theme, I languish to depart;
Supply the barque, and bid Columbus sail.
He fears no storms upon the untravelled deep;
Reason shall steer, and skill disarm the gale.
Nor does he dread to lose the irtended course,

Though far from land the reeling galley stray,
And skies above, and gulfy seas below,

Be the sole object seen for many a day.
Think not that nature has unveiled in vain
The mystic magnet to the mortal eye;
So late have we the guiding needle planned
Only to sail beneath our native sky?

Ere this was found, the Ruling Power of all,
Found for our use an ocean in the land,
Its breadth so small we could not wander long,
Nor long be absent from the neighboring strand.
Short was the course, and guided by the stars.
But stars no more shall point our daring way;
The Bear shall sink, and every guard be drowned,
And great Arcturus scarce escape the sea,
When southward we shall steer. Oh, grant my wish!
Supply the barque, and bid Columbus sail;
He dreads no tempest on the untravelled deep,
Reason shall steer and skill disarm the gale.

QUEEN ISABELLA'S RESOLVE.

EPES SARGENT.

ISABELLA, Queen of Spain.

Characters DON GOMEZ, a Grandee.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

SABELLA. And so, Don Gomez, you think we ought to dismiss

the proposition of this worthy Genoese?

DON GOMEZ. His scheme, your Majesty, is fanciful in the extreme. I am a plain man. I do not see visions and dream dreams like some men.

ISA. And yet Columbus has given us good reasons for believing that he can reach India by sailing in a westerly direction.

DON G. Delusion, your Majesty! Admitting that the earth

is a sphere, how would it be possible for him to return, if he once descended the sphere in the direction he proposes? Would not the coming back be all uphill? Could a ship accomplish it even with the most favorable wind?

ISA. What you have to say to these objections, Columbus?

COLUMBUS. With your Majesty's leave, I would suggest that if the earth is a sphere, the same laws of adhesion and motion must operate at every point on its surface.

DON G. Don't try to make me, a grandee of Spain, believe such stuff as that there are people on the earth who walk with their heads down, like flies on a ceiling! Would not the blood run into my head if I were standing upside down?

COL. I have already answered that objection. If there are people on the earth who are our antipodes, it should be remembered that we are also theirs.

ISA. To cut short the discussion, you think that the enterprise, which Columbus proposes, is one unworthy of our serious consideration?

DON G. As a matter-of-fact man, I must confess that I do so regard it. Has your Majesty ever seen an embassador from this unknown coast?

ISA. Have you ever seen an embassador from the unknown world of spirits?

DON G. Certainly not. Through faith we look forward to it. ISA. Even so, by faith, does Columbus look forward, far over the misty ocean, to an undiscovered shore. Know, Don Gomez, that the absurdity, as you style it, shall be tested, and that forthwith.

DON G. Your Majesty will excuse me if I remark that I have from your royal consort himself the assurance that the finances of the government are so exhausted by the late wars that he cannot consent to advance the necessary funds for fitting out an expedition of the kind proposed.

ISA. Be mine, then, the privilege! I have jewels, by the pledging of which I can raise the amount required; and I have resolved that they shall be pledged to this enterprise without more delay.