It was a most beautiful conception; a theory worthy to be fitted to all the sweet sights and sounds in the world about him; but it led him farther and farther away from the truth, and blinded him to knowledge and understanding of what he had actually accomplished.
He had thought the coast of Cuba the mainland, and he now began to consider it at least possible that the peninsula of Paria was mainland also--another part of the same continent.

That was the truth--Paria was the mainland--and if he had not been so bemused by his dreams and theories he might have had some inkling of the real wonder and significance of his discovery.

But no; in his profoundly unscientific mind there was little of that patience which holds men back from theorising and keeps them ready to receive the truth.

He was patient enough in doing, but in thinking he was not patient at all.

No sooner had he observed a fact than he must find a theory which would bring it into relation with the whole of his knowledge; and if the facts would not harmonise of themselves he invented a scheme of things by which they were forced into harmony.