"As the populace, however, reluctantly give up any thing that partakes of the marvelous and mysterious, and as the same atmospherical phenomena which first gave birth to the illusion may still continue, it is not improbable that a belief in the island of St. Brandan may still exist among the ignorant and credulous of the Canaries, and that they at times behold its fairy mountains rising above the distant horizon of the Atlantic."--Washington Irving, _Life of Columbus_. [Footnote 199: Feyjoo, _Theatro Critico_, tom. iv., ch. x., s. xx.] [Footnote 200: Lib. iv. de la Chancelaria del Rey Don Juan II., fol. 101.] [Footnote 201: Torre di Tombo, _Lib. das Yihas_, fol. 119.] [Footnote 202: Fr. Gregorio Garcia, _Origen de los Indios_, lib. i., cap. ix.] [Footnote 203: Sigeberto, _Epist. ad Fritmar Abbat._] [Footnote 204: Nunez de la Pena, _Conquist. de la Gran Canaria_.] [Footnote 205: Ptolemy, tom. iv., lib. iv.] [Footnote 206: Fr. D. Philipo, lib. viii., fol. 25.] [Footnote 207: _Hist. Isl. Can._, lib. i., cap. xxviii.] [Footnote 208: Nunez de la Pena, lib. i., cap. i.; Viera, _Hist. Isl. Can._, tom. i., cap. xxviii.] [Footnote 209: Nunez, _Conquist. de la Gran Canaria_; Viera, _Hist. Isl. Can._] [Footnote 210: Viera, _Hist. Isl. Can._, lib. i., cap. xxvi.] [Footnote 211: Id. ib., tom. i., cap. xxviii.] [Footnote 212: Id. ib.] [Footnote 213: Viera, _Hist. Isl. Can._] [Footnote 214: _Theatro Critico_, tom. lv., d. x.] No. III. The following lines in Pulci's "Morgante Maggiore" afford probably the most circumstantial prediction that is to be found of the existence of a Western World. The devil, alluding to the vulgar superstition respecting the Pillars of Hercules, thus addresses Rinaldo: "Know that this theory is false; his bark The daring mariner shall urge far o'er The western wave, a smooth and level plain, Albeit the earth is fashioned like a wheel. Man was in ancient days of grosser mold, And Hercules might blush to learn how far Beyond the limits he had vainly set, The dullest sea-bird soon shall wing her way. Men shall descry another hemisphere, Since to one common center all things tend. So earth, by curious mystery divine, Well-balanced hangs amid the starry spheres. At our antipodes are cities, states, And thronged empires, ne'er divined of yore. But see, the sun speeds on his western path, To glad the nations with expected light." _Canto_ xxv., st. 229, 230. Dante, two centuries before, had indicated more vaguely his belief in an undiscovered quarter of the globe: "De' vostri sensi, ch'é del rimanente Non vogliate negar l'esperienza Diretro al sol, del mondo senza gente." _Inferno, Canto_ xxvi., st. 115. The prophetic lines of Seneca are well known: