definition makes the word particularly applicable to the achievement of
Columbus.

The court prepared a solemn reception for the admiral at Barcelona, where
the people poured out in such numbers to see him that the streets could
not contain them. A triumphal procession like his the world had not yet
seen: it was a thing to make the most incurious alert, and even the sad
and solitary student content to come out and mingle with the mob. The
captives that accompanied a Roman general's car might be strange
barbarians of a tribe from which Rome had not before had slaves. But
barbarians were not unknown creatures. Here, with Columbus, were beings of
a new world. Here was the conqueror, not of man but of nature, not of
flesh and blood but of the fearful unknown, of the elements, and, more
than all, of the prejudices of centuries. We may imagine the rumours that
must have gone before his coming. And now he was there. Ferdinand and
Isabella had their thrones placed in the presence of the assembled court.
Columbus approached the monarchs, and then, "his countenance beaming with
modest satisfaction," knelt at the king's feet, and begged leave to kiss
their highnesses' hands. They gave their hands; then they bade him rise
and be seated before them. He recounted briefly the events of his
voyage--a story more interesting than the tale told in the court of Dido
by Aeneas, like whom he had almost perished close to home, and he
concluded his unpretending narrative by showing what new things and
creatures he had brought with him.


MARKS OF APPROBATION.

Ferdinand and Isabella fell on their knees, giving thanks to God with many
tears; and then the choristers of the royal chapel closed the grand