A vision came upon me, and I saw
The darkness melt, the shades opaque dissolve,
And the dull, sombre midnight change
To day bright lustre!
With soft and lambent flame the fifty columns glowed
From base to branching head,
And with supernal light pierced the thick denseness
Of the arched roof:
And I saw the innumerable leaves,
The sculptured garlands of fair buds and flowers—
Strewn with such lavish hand o'er all that broad parterre—
With life-renewing tints endowed:
The sacred vessels on the altar ranged,
The pious gifts of ages passed away,
And all the saintly relics of that holy place
Glittered with new effulgence!
Mine unused eyes drank in amazed the dazzling scene,
And now upon mine ears arose the clang of music,
And the sound of men rejoicing!
From their huge stanchions 'scaped the massy doors,
And through the enfranchised portal paced
A wondrous train!
A thousand mailèd knights, the Duomo's guards,
Strode proudly in!
As when in life they marched, so came they now;
No marble corslets still their lofty hearts,
Rich suits of Milan steel enclasp them round,
Through the gold helmets' bars their dark eyes flash,
Bright banners wave above them, and their hands
Clasp as of old the trenchant blade!
A stately white-robed troop, the Duomo's priests,
The pageant swells.
No rigid garb of stone impedes their solemn steps;
Girt round with high, ecclesial pomp,
The sacred aisles they pace,
The jewelled crosiers grasp, the censers swing,
And, as of yore, the glad "Hosannas" raise!
Again the clash of steel, the armed tread,
The banners' silken folds—
And twice five hundred warriors
Pass the gaping doors!
Hark! in the air, a choir angelic sings:
Wake, jubilant harps! peal, ye clarions of silver!
Swell, ye loud organs! for mighty's the theme!
Bend lowly the knee, ye saints, knights, and martyrs,
With offerings of gold let the high altar gleam!
Fill the gemmed censers with myrrh and with amber,
Deck the rich shrines with a splendor ne'er seen,
Raise high the song, the loud hymn of devotion,
Give homage to Mary, our lady, our queen!
Loud glorias peal, and with reverberant blast,
Throughout the illumined space,
The silver trumpets clang!
Doffed is the casque, the mitred head bent low,
The song subsides, and on that marvellous crowd
An awful silence dwells!
A Presence is among them—
A Being gracious as resplendent.
And the resuscitate host is filled with holy terror!
She smiles benignly on the kneeling throng,
And melts with heavenly look the still, deep fear!
Again the hymn breaks forth,
With heavenly, earthly voices join,
Monks, warriors, martyrs swell the raptured strain!
Lo! where she comes, all meek, yet all noble,
The glory celestial encircling her brows.
Fall prostrate, ye thousands, all lowly adore her;
Bare your swords, valiant knights, yet once make your vows;
Chant paeans, ye priests; let the harmonies roll
Till the gorgeous temple resounds to its veil.
Through our midst she is moving, the chosen, the holy:
Hail, Mary, Madonna, blest Virgin, all hail!
The voices ceased, the echoes died away,
The mighty pillars throbbed no more with flame;
The roof closed in, the pageant vanished,
And the darkness swathed once more
The sombre nave.
Still on the air the organ's notes float sad and wailing,
Still through the storied windows streams the moon's soft light,
Still rest the things of earth;
The mute Colossi yet bear up
The vaulted roof;
The shrines still glimmer in the dim night air,
The mystic glories of my vision
Gone!
Arthur Matthison.
Translated from Revue des Questions Historiques.
Americus Vespucius and Christopher Columbus.
The True Origin of the Name of America.
I.
For three centuries, the world has regarded it as an historical fact that Christopher Columbus, after enduring many wrongs at the hands of ungrateful Spain, had the unspeakable mortification of seeing a usurper, screened behind public injustice, wrest from him not only the honor of bestowing his name on the world he had discovered, but the reward of glory, and the supreme consolation of his last days. Fortunately this belief is erroneous. Neither was Americus Vespucius a despoiler, nor was Columbus the victim of so poignant an affront. It is true that the great navigator became after death the subject of shameful misapprehensions; but his countrymen should be held as free from the responsibility of this injustice as Columbus was free from suspicion or presentiment of coming evil. The facts are fully explained by the illustrious Prussian savant, who has consecrated his glorious career in great part to the study of the New World. [Footnote 187]
[Footnote 187: M. Alexander Von Humboldt, Critical Examination of the History and Geography of the New World. Vols. iii. and iv. are entirely devoted to an examination of this problem. We merely offer here an abstract of this work, which is little known, and, while exceedingly interesting, demands a very attentive perusal. See also Washington Irving, History of Christopher Columbus, vol. iv. app. 9, Americus Vespucius.]
Americus or Alberic Vespucius, (Amerigo Vespucci,) born at Florence, March 9th, 1451, of an important family, was educated by his uncle, Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, a Dominican monk, and one of the honorable personages connected with the Renaissance. His fellow-student was René de Vaudémont, who, later in life, after gloriously defending his duchy of Lorraine against Charles the Bold, exercised in peace a noble patronage of science and letters.