No More Learning

[329] By this old man is personified the populace of Portugal. The
endeavours to discover the East Indies by the Southern Ocean, for about
eighty years had been the favourite topic of complaint, and never was
any measure of government more unpopular than the expedition of GAMA.
Emmanuel's council were almost unanimous against the attempt. Some
dreaded the introduction of wealth, and its attendants, luxury and
effeminacy; while others affirmed, that no adequate advantages could
arise from so perilous and remote a navigation. The expressions of the
thousands who crowded the shore when GAMA gave his sails to the wind,
are thus expressed by Osorius: "A multis tamen interim is fletus atque
lamentatio fiebat, un funus efferre viderentur. Sic enim dicebant: En
quo miseros mortales provexit cupiditas et ambitio? Potuitne gravius
supplicium hominibus istis constitui, si in se scelestum aliquod facinus
admisissent? Est enim illis immensi maris longitudo peragranda, fluctus
immanes difficillima navigatione superandi, vitae discrimen in locis
infinitis obeundum. Non fuit multo tolerabilius, in terra quovis genere
mortis absumi, quam tam procul a patria marinis fluctibus sepeliri. Haec
et alia multa in hanc sententiam dicebant, cum omnia multo tristiora
fingere prae metu cogerentur. " The tender emotion and fixed resolution of
GAMA, and the earnest passion of the multitudes on the shore, are thus
added by the same venerable historian: "Gama tamen quamvis lacrymas
suorum desiderio funderet, rei tamen bene gerendae fiducia confirmatus,
alacriter in navem faustis ominibus conscendit. . . . Qui in littore
consistebant, non prius abscedere voluerunt, quam naves vento secundo
plenissimis velis ab omnium conspectu remotae sunt.
"

[330] More literally rendered by Capt. R. Burton:--

"----He spoke
From a full heart, and skill'd in worldly lore,
In deep, slow tones this solemn warning, fraught
With wisdom, by long-suffering only taught:
'O passion of dominion! O fond lust
Of that poor vanity which men call fame!
O treach'rous appetite, whose highest gust
Is vulgar breath that taketh honour's name!
O fell ambition, terrible but just
Art thou to breasts that cherish most thy flame!
Brief life for them in peril, storm, and rage;
This world a hell, and death their heritage.

"'Shrewd prodigal! whose riot is the dearth
Of states and principalities oppress'd,
Plunder and rape are of thy loathly birth,
Thou art alike of life and soul the pest.
High titles greet thee on this slavish earth,
Yet, none so vile but they would fit thee best.
But Fame, forsooth, and Glory thou art styl'd,
And the blind herd is by a sound beguil'd. '"


[331] The Moor. --_Ed. _

[332] The Muses. --_Ed. _

[333] Prometheus is said to have stolen fire from heaven.