Longfellow’s Evangeline.
397. Who was the “Sailor King”?
William IV. of England was so called, because he entered the navy in 1779, at fourteen years of age, and continued in the service till 1827. He passed from the rank of a midshipman to that of a captain by regular promotion. In 1801 he was made admiral of the fleet, and in 1827, lord high admiral.
398. What became of the chains of Columbus?
Columbus was carried home in chains from his third voyage. Alonzo de Villejo, captain of the caravel in which the illustrious prisoner sailed, would have removed the fetters; but Columbus would not consent to this. He would wear them, he said, until their Royal Highnesses, by whose orders they had been affixed, should order their removal; and he would keep them ever afterward “as relics and as memorials of the reward of his services.” According to his son Fernando, he always kept them hanging in his cabinet, and he requested that when he died they might be buried with him.
399. Which is the Samian letter?
The letter Y. It was so called because its Greek original was used by Pythagoras, the philosopher of Samosas an emblem of the straight, narrow path of virtue, which is one, but if once deviated from, the farther the lines are extended the wider becomes the breach.
“When reason, doubtful, like the Samian letter,
Points him two ways, the narrower, the better.”
Pope’s Dunclad.