The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-01-07

THE SIXTH LECTURE OF THE M. L. A.
CoURsE.-At an early hour City Hall began to
be thronged by great crowd to hear the lee
ture of DR.. Chaplin, of New York, who is un-
questionably one of the most impressive speak
ers OF our country. He never fails to draw full
houses, and on this occasion he was greeted by
brilliant and intelligent audience. Half an
hour before the lecture commenced the Port
land Band gave some excellent music, which
prepared the minds of the auditors to listen to
the eloquent orator. There is nothing like
having an audience in good humor, and the
speaker as well as the hearers derive much
pleasure and advantage from it. And our
band generally succeeds in procuring such a
mental condition.
The subject of the lecture was Columbus. his
discoveries, his trials and what has grown out
of them, The speaker may not have been less
rhetorical than usual, but he was less trans
cendental and his theme was handled with
great ability and clearness He commenced
with Columbus after his return from his great
discovery.
On the 18th of March, 1893, there was great
excitement in the seaport of Palos, in Anda-
lusia. About noon that day came sailing up
the river the small vessel whose worn hull and
tattered sails showed long and stormy voy-
age. AS she assembled the harbor the people of
the town with mingled doubt and wonder rec
ognized the bark as one of the very insignii-
cant fleet that but seven months before sailed
from their port bound upon the most visiona-
ry and perlous enterprise ever undertaken by
man. Many hearts had followed the vessel.
There are three elements of reputation all
necessary, the time, the man, and the result.
Columbus himself the central object in the
work. The time and the result are necessary
to explain and justify it. A man independent
of his time. The formation forces of a new civ
ilization had begun to crystalize.
1t is uncertain in what year Columbus was
born-somewhere from -436 to 1856. Between
that and 1906, in which he died, are crowded
great events. The Reformation, the invention
of printing. A time when new forces began to
shiver old conceits. The world will never again
have an age like that, because the world can
never furnish again such ingredients of novelty
and surprise, that era of new chivalry going
forth, not against giants, but to conquer nature.
The age rife for the great discovery.
The first voyagers to America were the Scan
dinavians of the North. They bore no fruit of
history. Columbus stands up simple and SUBJ
lime in the merit of an original discoverer.
Two principles-one, an honest, healthy feel
ing Of admiration, the other shows itself in de-
structivc criticsm-pluck away the illustrious
mans honors and refer and distribute them
Somebody else tried to do it, or was Just going
to do it, and thus the honor of the discovery is
taken from him. Franklin had to quarrel for
his kite and the first printing press was pulled
in pieces by it's claimants because there was no
patentee.
Incidents of the story-his appearance be-
fore Ferdinand and Isabella, and before COM
mission of the sages of Salamanca, who won
dered, if Columbus preached the truth, what
was to become of the Ptolemaic system. If
any man breaches the truth who cares what
becomes of any Ptolemaic system! Isabella in
her enthusiasm said, will undertake the en-
terprise alone for my own crown of Castillo
will pawn my diamonds and jewels and bear
the expenses of the expedition. Three small
vessels, such as we would hardly risk in a voy-
age from Portland to New York, started on
long and perilous voyage.
He then alluded to the ingratitude and in
justice of his knights patroness, Isabella, al
ready dead-his death and burial-buried and
reburied two or three times in Spain. His
ashes now lie in Cuba.
Columbus never realized his discoveries
thought he had discovered India. When the
Pacific Railroad is completed his discovery
will have worked out the problem of a road to
India.
The seventh lecture will be given next We'd
nesday evening, by DR.. Osgood of New York
CITY,