University of Virginia Library

Historic illustrations

When Columbus gave freer breath to the globe, ignorance and superstition chained the limbs of the brave old navigator, and disgrace and star-

vation stared him in the face; but sterner still would have been his fate, if his discovery had undermined the favor- ite inclinations of a sensuous philosophy.

Copernicus mapped out the stellar system, and before he spake, astrography was chaotic, and the heavenly fields were incorrectly explored.