CHAP.
V.]
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
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ference of the world was, as he believed, less than was generally supposed, the Asiatic shores could easily be attained by a mode rate voyage to the west. It is singular how much the success of this great undertaking depended upon two happy errors, the imaginary extent of Asia to the east, and the supposed smallness of the earth; both, errors of the most learned and profound philosophers, but without which Columbus would hardly have ventured upon his enterprise.
As
to the idea of finding land by sailing directly to the west, it is at present so familiar to our minds, as in some measure to diminish the merits of the first conception, and the hardihood of the first attempt: but in those days, as has well been observed, the circum ference of the earth was yet unknown; no one could tell whether the ocean were not of immense extent, impossible to be traversed; nor were the laws of specific gravity and of central gravitation ascertained, by which, granting the rotundity of the earth, the possibility of making the tour of it would be manifest.*
The
practicability, therefore, of finding land by sailing to the west, was one of those mysteries of nature which are considered incre dible whilst matters of mere speculation, but the simplest things imaginable when they have once been ascertained. When Columbus had formed his theory, it became fixed in his mind with singular firmness, and influenced his entire charac ter and conduct. He never spoke in doubt or hesitation, but with as much certainty as if his eyes had beheld the promised land. No trial nor disappointment could divert him from the steady pursuit of his object.
A deep religious sentiment mingled with
his meditations, and gave them at times a tinge of superstition, * Malte-Brun, Géographie Universelle, torn. xiv. Note sur le Découverte de l'Amérique.
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