CERVANTES—Her fields are shrunken and her eyes are hot.
COLUMBUS—God has begotten on her, and He has passed her by.
CERVANTES—She is a mother.
COLUMBUS—A mother of beginnings.
CERVANTES—Always the Seed in her—never the life itself?
COLUMBUS—It was ever so. When Rome lived, Spain did not live in Rome: she bore her Stoics and her Saints for Holy Rome. When Holy Rome was hale, Spain was not holy. She bore, with her Jews and Arabs, the death of Christ. When Holy Rome was dead and Modern Europe flourished, Spain was not modern and Spain was not Europe. She bore America.
CERVANTES—Europe has used my mother! Even you, landless mariner, have used her.
COLUMBUS—God has used her.
CERVANTES—Why then are her fields hungry?
COLUMBUS—All worlds have come in, unto her: of all worlds, she has begotten worlds. And she has lain untouched.