"It does not consist," he tells us, "in success, but in doing something which cannot be easily comprehended, which compels men to think over and over again about it." And certainly, this definition makes the word particularly applicable to the achievement of Columbus.
The court prepared a solemn reception for the admiral at Barcelona, where the people poured out in such numbers to see him that the streets could not contain them.

A triumphal procession like his the world had not yet seen: it was a thing to make the most incurious alert, and even the sad and solitary student content to come out and mingle with the mob.

The captives that accompanied a Roman general's car might be strange barbarians of a tribe from which Rome had not before had slaves.

But barbarians were not unknown creatures.

Here, with Columbus, were beings of a new world.