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:
"Nil, qua fuerat sede, reliquit
Pervius orbis.
Indus gelidum potat Araxem,
Albim Persæ, Rhenumque bibunt
Venient annis sæcula seris
Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum
Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus,
Tethysque novos detegat orbes,
Nec sit terris ultima Thule."
Medea, Act II., v. 371, et seq. Chorus in Fine. Ed. Bip.