I die; but God will surely visit America, and make it a vast flourishing and extensive empire; will take it under His protection, and bless it abundantly--but the prospect is too glorious for my pen to describe. I add no more. [Illustration: STATUE OF COLUMBUS, IN FAIRMOUNT PARK, PHILADELPHIA. Presented by Italian Citizens. (See page 281.)] DE MORTUIS, NIL NISI BONUM. JUSTIN WINSOR, a celebrated American critical historian. Born, 1831. No man craves more than Columbus to be judged with all the palliations demanded of his own age and ours. It would have been well for his memory if he had died when his master work was done. * * * * * His discovery was a blunder; his blunder was a new world; the New World is his monument. ON A PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS. GEORGE E. WOODBERRY, in the _Century Magazine_, May, 1892. By permission of the author and the Century Company. Was this his face, and these the finding eyes That plucked a new world from the rolling seas? Who, serving Christ, whom most he sought to please, Willed his one thought until he saw arise Man's other home and earthly paradise-- His early vision, when with stalwart knees He pushed the boat from his young olive trees And sailed to wrest the secret of the skies? He on the waters dared to set his feet, And through believing planted earth's last race. What faith in man must in our new world beat, Thinking how once he saw before his face The west and all the host of stars retreat Into the silent infinite of space. GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT. JOSEPH EMERSON WORCESTER, a celebrated American lexicographer. Born at Bedford, N. H., 1758; died, 1865. The discovery of America was the greatest achievement of the kind ever performed by man; and, considered in connection with its consequences, it is the greatest event of modern times. It served to wake up the unprecedented spirit of enterprise; it opened new sources of wealth, and exerted a powerful influence on commerce by greatly increasing many important articles of trade, and also by bringing into general use others before unknown; by leading to the discovery of the rich mines of this continent, it has caused the quantity of the precious metals in circulation throughout the world to be exceedingly augmented; it also gave a new impulse to colonization, and prepared the way for the advantages of civilized life and the blessings of =Christianity= to be extended over vast regions which before were the miserable abodes of barbarism and pagan idolatry.