LOPE DE VEGA CARPIO, a celebrated Spanish poet and dramatist. Born at Madrid, November 25, 1562; died, 1635.[31] Lope puts into the mouth of Columbus, in a dialogue with Ferdinand, who earnestly invites the discoverer to ask of him the wherewithal to prosecute the discovery, the following verses: Sire, give me gold, for gold is all in all; 'Tis master, 'tis the goal and course alike, The way, the means, the handicraft, and power, The sure foundation and the truest friend. * * * * * Referring to the results of the great discovery, Lope beautifully says that it gave-- _Al Rey infinitas terras Y a Dios infinitas almas._ (To the King boundless lands, and to God souls without number.) HERSCHEL, THE COLUMBUS OF THE SKIES. E. H. CHAPIN, American author of the nineteenth century. Man was sent into the world to be a growing and exhaustless force; the world was spread out around him to be seized and conquered. Realms of infinite truth burst open above him, inviting him to tread those shining coasts along which Newton dropped his plummet and Herschel sailed, a Columbus of the skies. THE DISCOVERIES OF COLUMBUS AND AMERICUS. From Chicago _Tribune_, August, 1892. [See also _ante_, Boston _Journal_.] The suggestion has been made by Mr. John Boyd Thacher, commissioner from New York to the World's Fair, that a tribute be paid to the memory of Amerigo Vespucci by opening the Fair May 5, 1893, that being the anniversary of America's christening day. Mr. Thacher's suggestion is based upon the fact that May 5, 1507, there was published at the College of Saint-Die, in Lorraine, the "Cosmographic Introductio," by Waldseemuller, in which the name of America "for the fourth part of the world" (Europe, Asia, and Africa being the other three parts) was first advocated, in honor of Amerigo Vespucci. As Mr. Thacher's suggestion already has aroused considerable jealous opposition among the Italians of New York, who claim all the glory for Columbus, a statement of what was really discovered by the two great explorers will be of interest at the present time. No writer of the present day has shed a clearer light upon this question than John Fiske, and it may be incidentally added, no student has done more than he to relieve Amerigo Vespucci from the reproach which has been fastened upon his reputation as an explorer, by critics, who, as Mr. Fiske clearly shows, have been misled by the sources of their authority and have judged him from erroneous standpoints. In making a statement of what the two explorers really discovered, the _Tribune_ follows on the lines of Prof. Fiske's investigation as the clearest, most painstaking, and most authoritative that has yet been made.