THE mariner navigating an unknown sea or river marks the bold headlands, rocky points, and bluffs; the contour, curves, and

compass bearings of the shore; the character of the cliffs, the shoalings of the water; and thenceforward the new regions are familiar to all seamen by these well known signs.

The observant land traveller through a strange country notes the nature of the soil, the courses of the rivers, where a dense forest shrouds him in, and where an open plain gently undulates before him; he records the spots where animals and birds abound, and reports their species, plumage, song, and habits.

Thus are these seas and lands brought within the common geography of nations, and henceforward and for ever they are part of our own globe, and belong to humanity, we know them.

So there are mountain heights, streams of rich influence, notable events and discoveries in the history of the human race, which once accomplished, have for evermore, marked, abiding effect, on the mind, physical condition, and well-being of nations.

Of these starting points, landmarks to the family of man, the revelations of God by Moses and Christ, which have had an overwhelming influence upon human thought and pursuits, stand out in bold prominence; and subordinate to these may be named the geometrical principles announced by the Egyptians and prosecuted by the Greeks, which have become the foundation of all mathematical learning and mechanical skill in succeeding ages— the high thoughts of liberty which for ever remain in the Greek writers the maxims of law, and civic institutions, established by the Romans, which have since formed part of the legal studies of all nations—the philosophy of Bacon and Newton, by which men have arrived at the knowledge of the laws of nature through observations of its phenomena—the invention of printing by moveable types, diffusing, as a broad daylight upon all, the reflected rays of superior minds-the invention of gunpowder, raising war from the rude concussion of individuals to a chess game of scientific implements and positions-the invention of steam appliances, conferring upon the multitude greater advan

tages than previously possessed by the few, thus making "the many" rich-the electric telegraph, that grand link between mind and mind, by whose means space and time are spanned by a bridge of lightning.

The magnet possesses no north pole without its correlative south pole, and there is no positive electric pole without its negative; so theory to the man of genius, internal persuasion, is as the one pole of the magnet, the other pole, the outer phenomenon or fact, may be near, or it may be remote; it may be at hand just through the thin partition, or ten miles distant, or ten thousand. The observer in a galvanic circuit may not be able to point out to his less gifted neighbour the whereabouts of the battery, the exciting cause of the present felt influence; it may be at his feet, or distant as the faintest twinkling star, but he is certain that it exists somewhere. So the intuition of genius knows that the external fact of which his thought is part of the circuit exists in nature, although for the moment unable to map out its precise bearings.

"I have found it," cried the philosopher of old; "I have found it," he shouted, as he hurried along the highway, doubtless to convey the intelligence to some brother believer in science.

Found it?-found what? we may almost fancy we hear some solid practical citizen exclaiming; it would rather appear he has lost something-his wits-for such conduct is not seemly, is unbecoming the dignity of a sedate citizen. Nay, carping friend, with reason was the philosopher outrageously joyful, for had he not found a pearl of great price! He had discovered the glorious 47th problem; a victory of knowledge for you, and for me, and for all time.

Palissy was deemed a fool during the fourteen years of anxious toil and poverty through which he passed, before he accomplished the burning of colours in porcelain; the victory was won at last, and specimens of his skill, ages after his death, are valuable as the precious metals.

Always and ever the same, the thing unknown, unaccomplished, is a dream, an absurdity to the mass; the thing done, is it not well known, and no longer difficult.

One of the greatest achievements of this class-one which has had an important and permanent bearing on the world's history, was the discovery of the Great Western Continents-the New World, as they were long and properly designated—now known by the more ordinary names of North and South America.

Down to the time of Columbus, the form of the globe had been variously conjectured; by some geographers being mapped out as a flat plain, bordered by seas, to which imagination only fixed the bounds; but in his age the idea of the earth's rotundity erupted as a volcano into the slumbering level of the human mind, agitating the intellect of thoughtful men.

Pondering over and cherishing this great new thought, and the well-known circumstances that India was situated to the east of Europe, and in the same northern hemisphere, and that an unexplored ocean lay to the west of Europe, Columbus arrived at the conclusion, which once conceived was irresistible, that, unless land intervened, instead of endeavouring to reach India by an eastward course, sailing round Africa, and crossing the equator twice, the shortest way to the East Indies would be to sail directly westward; and the inspection of every spherical body must have kept the idea perpetually before him, and suggested a proof of the truth of his conjecture. This simple, sublime conception he submitted to the test of experiment, and through much discouragement, supported only by the clearness of the theory to his own pure mind, the brave philosophical navigator achieved, not his original design, but one equally or even more important, the discovery of another India, the West Indies.

Several nations share the honour of tracing out portions of these vast American continents. The English trials to find a

sea-passage to the East Indies, northward of the great American land, led to the discoveries so well known as connected with the names of Baffin, Davis, Frobisher, Franklin, Parry, and Ross, whose extensive surveys map out the icy regions of the North Pole. Band after band of heroes pushed forward Arctic navigation with untiring effort to discover the North-West Passage, for a long period without success, but the glorious honour has at last been won by the courage, perseverance, and patience of our worthy countrymen.

The French investigated other portions; and planted colonies in the southern peninsula of North America, and also the pineclad districts of Canada, which they retained until the close of the eighteenth century. It was in connection with American colonizing plans and adventures that so much misery was caused in France by the wild projects known as the Mississippi Scheme.

The English founded settlements at various points on the mainland, and also on several of the neighbouring islands; and still nearer to the equator Mexico and Peru were invaded by the Spaniards, who in small bands, mere handsful of men, maintained by their prowess and arms fierce and successful contests with the aborigines. The exploits of these adventurers, mellowed by the hues of distant time, possess a romantic charm which a nearer view would dispel.

Beyond the Spanish main, Brazil was discovered by a Portuguese, Pedro Alvarez de Cabral; who being on a voyage to India, was driven by a storm westward, and made the land of South America, in April, 1500, and named the country Santa Cruz (Holy Cross), in gratitude for his deliverance from shipwreck; but the name of Brazil was subsequently given to it on account of the abundance of the dye-wood, Braziletto (cæsalpinia custa), brought thence, and this name it has ever since retained.

These vast continents, thus discovered at various times, and piecemeal, have been the source whence Europe has principally

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