Page:The life of Christopher Columbus.djvu/69

Rh the most certain, an inexhaustible source of celebrity which the course of ages and generations cannot extinguish, — is it not already a pledge of the incomparable superiority of his work? Is not the workman always greater than his work, whether by the power of his conception, or by the divine favor which fecundates it?

It is too much forgotten that the work effected by Columbus is unequalled in history. He could have imitated nobody, and nobody could repeat his acts. That which he has once done has changed the relations of peoples during the whole course of time. This mission, unique in the series of ages, could not have been conferred by chance, or by pure science. To accomplish it, a mathematical relation between the sublimity of the man who undertook it, and the incalculable grandeur of his work, would have been absolutely necessary, — a grandeur of which human genius, even at this day, cannot measure the compass, or point out the limits.

Let us sum up our observations:

It is contrary to common sense that incredulity should explain faith, and that Catholic genius should be presented to our regards by Protestantism.

Apart from any details, a little reflection should suffice to overturn totally the system of the biographers of Columbus; and, therefore, the necessity of a new, full, and complete history of the discovery of the New World has been much felt. This necessity, which so much resembles a duty, has been deeply felt in the Eternal City. And we proceed to respond to it, as much for the love of truth, as for the honor of our country; since, in real fact, as has been said by De Maistre, "Truth always needs France."