American Men of Action

that, searching always for a
passage to India, which they knew lay somewhere to the east, until, at
last, they had sailed triumphantly around the Cape of Good Hope. It is
worth remarking that Columbus's brother, Bartholomew, of whom we hear so
little, but who did so much for his brother's fame, was a member of that
expedition, and Columbus himself must have gathered no little
inspiration from it.

So to Lisbon Columbus went, and his ardent spirit found a great stimulus
in the adventurous atmosphere of that bustling city. He went to work as
a map-maker, marrying the daughter of one of the captains of Prince
Henry the Navigator, from whom he secured a great variety of maps,
charts and memoranda. His business kept him in close touch with both
mariners and astronomers, so that he was acquainted with every
development of both discovery and theory. In more than one mind the
conviction was growing up that the eastern shore of Asia could be
reached by sailing westward from Europe--a conviction springing
naturally enough from the belief that the earth was round, which was
steadily gaining wider and wider acceptance. In fact, a Florentine
astronomer named Toscanelli furnished Columbus with a map showing how
this voyage could be accomplished, and Columbus afterwards used this map
in determining his route.

That the idea was not original with Columbus takes nothing from his
fame; his greatness lies in being the first fully to grasp its meaning,
fully to believe it, fully to devote his life to it. For the last
measure of a man's devotion to an idea is his willingness to stake his
life upon it, as Columbus staked his. The idea possessed him; there was
room in him only for a dogged determination to realize it, to trample
down such obstacles as might arise to keep him from his goal. And
obstacles enough there were, for many years of waiting and
disappointment lay before him--years during which, a shabby and
melancholy figure, laughed at and scorned, mocked by the very children
in the streets, he

John Addington Symonds (October 5, 1840 - April 19, 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. He was an early advocate of the validity of male love which included for him pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships, and which he would refer to as lamour de limpossible.

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