5C phies.
LIFE
A N D
VOYAGES,
ETC.
[BOOK
I.
Care should be taken to vindicate great names from such
pernicious erudition.
It defeats one of the most salutary pur
poses of history, that of furnishing examples of what human genius and laudable enterprise may accomplish.
For this pur
pose, some pains have been taken in the preceding chapters, to trace the rise and progress of this grand idea in the mind of Co lumbus ; to show that it was the conception of his genius, quick ened by the impulse of the age, and aided by those scattered gleams of knowledge, which fell ineffectually upon ordinary minds.