5 by an act of justice to their commander. They threw themselves at the feet of Columbus, with feelings of selfcondemnation mingled with reverence. They implored him to pardon their ignorance, incredulity, and insolence, which had created him so much unnecessary disquiet, s and had so often obstructed the prosecution of his wellconcerted plan; and passing, in the warmth of their admiration, from one extreme to another, they now pronounced the man whom they had so lately reviled and threatened to be a person inspired by Heaven with 10 sagacity and fortitude more than human, in order to accomplish a design so far beyond the ideas and conception of all former ages. As soon as the sun arose, all their boats were manned and armed. They rowed towards the island with their 15 colors displayed, with warlike music, and other martial pomp. As they approached the coast they saw it covered with a multitude of people, whom the novelty of the spectacle had drawn together, whose attitude and gestures expressed wonder and astonishment at the strange objects which presented themselves to their view. Columbus was the first European who set foot in the new world which he had discovered. He landed in a rich dress, and with a naked sword in his hand. His men followed, and kneeling down, they all kissed 25 the ground which they had so long desired to see. They next erected a crucifix, and prostrating themselves before it, returned thanks to God for conducting their voyage to such a happy issue. They then took solemn possession of the country for the Crown of Castile and 30 Leon, with all the formalities which the Portuguese were accustomed to observe in acts of this kind in their new discoveries. LI. LITERATURE, A STUDY OF HUMAN NATURE. BY JOHN HENRY NEWMAN.' IF Physical Science be dangerous, it is dangerous because it necessarily ignores the idea of moral evil; but Literature is open to the more grievous imputation of recognizing and understanding it too well. Some one will say to me, perhaps: "Our youth shall not be cor- 5 rupted. We will dispense with all general or national Literature whatever, if it be so exceptionable; we will have a Christian Literature of our own, as pure, as true, as the Jewish." You cannot have it-I do not say you cannot form a select literature for the young, nay, even 10 for the middle or lower classes; this is another matter altogether: I am speaking of University Education, which implies an extended range of reading, which has to deal with standard works of genius, or what are called the classics of a language: and I say, from the nature of 15 the case, if Literature is to be made a study of human nature, you cannot have a Christian Literature. It is a contradiction in terms to attempt a sinless Literature of sinful man. You may gather together something very great and high, something higher than any 20 Literature ever was; and when you have done so, you will find that it is not Literature at all. You will have simply left the delineation of man, as such, and have substituted for it, as far as you have had anything to substitute, that of man as he is, or might be, under cer-25 tain special advantages. Give up the study of man, as 5 such, if so it must be; but say you do so. Do not say you are studying him, his history, his mind and his heart, when you are studying something else. Man is a being of genius, passion, intellect, conscience, power. He exercises these various gifts in various ways, in great deeds, in great thoughts, in heroic acts, in hateful crimes. He founds States, he fights battles, he builds cities, he ploughs the forest, he subdues the elements, he rules his kind. He creates vast ideas, and influences many generations. He takes a thousand shapes, and undergoes a thousand fort-10 Literature records them all to the life: unes. "Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, 15 He pours out his fervid soul in poetry; he sways to and fro, he soars, dives, in his restless speculations; his lips drop eloquence; he touches the canvas, and it glows with beauty; he sweeps the strings, and they thrill with an ecstatic meaning. He looks back into himself, and he reads his own thoughts and notes them down; he looks out into the universe, and tells over and celebrates 20 the elements and principles of which it is the product. Such is man put him aside, keep him before you; but, whatever you do, do not take him for what he is not, for something more divine and sacred, for man regenerate. Nay, beware of showing God's grace and its 25 work at such disadvantage as to make the few whom it has thoroughly influenced compete in intellect with the vast multitude who either have it not or use it ill. The elect are few to choose out of, and the world is inexhaustible. From the first, Jabal' and Tubal-cain, Nim-30 rod"the stout hunter," the learning of the Pharaohs, and the wisdom of the East country, are of the world. Every now and then they are rivalled by a Solomon or a Beseleel, but the habitat of natural gifts is the natural man. The Church may use them, she cannot at her will originate them. Not till the whole human race is made new will its literature be pure and true. Possible, of course, it is in idea for nature, inspired by heavenly grace, to exhibit itself on a large scale, in an originality of thought or action, even far beyond what the world's literature has recorded or exemplified; but if you would in fact have a literature of saints, first of all have a nation of them. 10 Human literature is about all things, grave or gay, painful or pleasant; but the Inspired Word views them only in one aspect, and as they tend to one scope. It gives us little insight into the fertile developments of mind; it has no terms in its vocabulary to express with 15 exactness the intellect and its separate faculties: it knows nothing of genius, fancy, wit, invention, presence of mind, resource. It does not discourse of empire, commerce, enterprise, learning, philosophy, or the fine arts. Slightly, too, does it touch on the more simple and in-20 nocent courses of nature and their reward. Little does it say of those temporal blessings which rest upon our worldly occupations and make them easy; of the blessings which we derive from the sunshine day and the serene night, from the succession of the seasons and the 25 produce of the earth. Little about our recreations and our daily domestic comforts; little about the ordinary occasions of festivity and mirth, which sweeten human life; and nothing at all about various pursuits and amusements, which it would be going too much into 30 detail to mention. We read, indeed, of the feast when Isaac was weaned, and of Jacob's courtship, and of the religious merrymakings of holy Job; but exceptions such as these do but remind us what might be in Script 5 ure, and is not. If, then, by Literature is meant the manifestation of human nature in human language, you will seek for it in vain except in the world. Put up with it, as it is, or do not pretend to cultivate it; take things as they are, not as you could wish them. LII. THE WATER-GATE OF THE TOWER. BY WILLIAM HEPWORTH DIXON.' It is London, in the reign of Bluff King Hal'-the husband of two fair wives. The river is alive with boats; the air is white with smoke; the sun overhead is burning with golden May. Thousands on thousands of spectators dot the banks; for to-day a bride is com-10 ing home to the King, the beauty of whose face sets old men's fancies and young men's eyes agog. On the wharf, near the Queen's Stair, stands a burly figure; tall beyond common men; broad in chest and strong in limb; dressed in a doublet of gold and crimson, a cap 15 and plume, shoes with rosettes and diamonds, a dagger by his side, a George upon his breast. It is the King, surrounded by dukes and earls, awaiting the arrival of a barge, in the midst of blaring trumpets and exploding sakers. A procession sweeps along; stealing up from 20 Greenwich, with plashing oars and merry strains; fifty great boats, with a host of wherries on their flanks; a vessel firing guns in front, and a long arrear of craft behind. From the first barge lands the lord mayor; from the second trips the bride; from the rest stream out the pict-25 uresque City Companies. Cannons roar, and bells fling 5 |