Who is the man?
  "A madman," replies the keeper of the madhouse. "What whimsicalideas these lunatics have! He imagines that one can propel things bymeans of steam."
  It is Solomon de Cares, the discoverer of the power of steam,whose theory, expressed in dark words, is not understood by Richelieu;and he dies in the madhouse.
  Here stands Columbus, whom the street boys used once to follow andjeer, because he wanted to discover a new world; and he has discoveredit. Shouts of joy greet him from the breasts of all, and the clashof bells sounds to celebrate his triumphant return; but the clash ofthe bells of envy soon drowns the others. The discoverer of a world-he who lifted the American gold land from the sea, and gave it tohis king- he is rewarded with iron chains. He wishes that these chainsmay be placed in his coffin, for they witness to the world of theway in which a man's contemporaries reward good service.
  One picture after another comes crowding on; the thorny path ofhonor and of fame is over-filled.
  Here in dark night sits the man who measured the mountains inthe moon; he who forced his way out into the endless space, amongstars and planets; he, the mighty man who understood the spirit ofnature, and felt the earth moving beneath his feet- Galileo. Blind anddeaf he sits- an old man thrust through with the spear of suffering,and amid the torments of neglect, scarcely able to lift his foot- thatfoot with which, in the anguish of his soul, when men denied thetruth, he stamped upon the ground, with the exclamation, "Yet itmoves!"
  Here stands a woman of childlike mind, yet full of faith andinspiration. She carries the banner in front of the combating army,and brings victory and salvation to her fatherland. The sound ofshouting arises, and the pile flames up. They are burning the witch,Joan of Arc. Yes, and a future century jeers at the White Lily.Voltaire, the satyr of human intellect, writes "La Pucelle."
  At the Thing or Assembly at Viborg, the Danish nobles burn thelaws of the king. They flame up high, illuminating the period andthe lawgiver, and throw a glory into the dark prison tower, where anold man is growing gray and bent. With his finger he marks out agroove in the stone table. It is the popular king who sits there, oncethe ruler of three kingdoms, the friend of the citizen and thepeasant. It is Christian the Second. Enemies wrote his history. Let usremember his improvements of seven and twenty years, if we cannotforget his crime.
  A ship sails away, quitting the Danish shores. A man leans againstthe mast, casting a last glance towards the Island Hueen. It isTycho Brahe. He raised the name of Denmark to the stars, and wasrewarded with injury, loss and sorrow. He is going to a strangecountry.
  "The vault of heaven is above me everywhere," he says, "and whatdo I want more?"
  And away sails the famous Dane, the astronomer, to live honoredand free in a strange land.
  "Ay, free, if only from the unbearable sufferings of the body!"comes in a sigh through time, and strikes upon our ear. What apicture! Griffenfeldt, a Danish Prometheus, bound to the rockyisland of Munkholm.
  We are in America, on the margin of one of the largest rivers;an innumerable crowd has gathered, for it is said that a ship is tosail against the wind and weather, bidding defiance to the elements.The man who thinks he can solve the problem is named Robert Fulton.The ship begins its passage, but suddenly it stops. The crowd beginsto laugh and whistle and hiss- the very father of the man whistleswith the rest.
  "Conceit!