Page:The life of Christopher Columbus.djvu/55

Rh in his "History of the Geography of the New Continent," the acts, and especially the thoughts, of Columbus appear to us interpreted by a spirit foreign, — and we may say antipathic, — to his nature.

Between the two kinds of intuition of Columbus and of Humboldt there was a gulf as broad as the Atlantic. These two men were travellers on this globe: Columbus on water, Humboldt on land. Both of them observed the creation attentively, but each of them from the particular point of view of his faith and of his moral predispositions.

Columbus, an ardent disciple of the Word, of a strong faith, is amazed at the aspect of the magnificent works of his Creator. His meditations, diversified with raptures and overflowing with poesy, arise as hymns with the melody of the breezes, charged with the unknown perfumes of those new regions. Humboldt, in receiving in his capacious mind the multiple impressions of the terrestrial harmonies, never departs from the philosophic coolness of observation, nor allows himself to be carried away beyond the limits of appearances.

Whilst, in his explorations, Columbus incessantly discovered the Lord, his benefactor and his master, Humboldt never came to encounter but the great forces of nature, the laws of nature, the majesty of nature.

Columbus had an implicit faith in the providential, in the divine action that was manifested in him and for him. The communications of the invisible with the visible, the influence of the immutable upon the mutable and accidental, were to him fixed facts. His emotions were proportionate to the vastness of his work, and did not turn him from his object, — the glory of the Word made flesh! In the name of the Redeemer he goes on his mission, invited to the mysteries of the unknown and of the infinite. Humboldt, on the contrary, having no longer to discover the space, since the form and extent of this planet were already exactly determined, could only pretend to verify some meteorological explanations, enrich the universal flora, increase some