Note 82 — BOOK XVII.
William Robson translation
The reflections this passage gives birth to might fill pages; but almost the most striking is, to observe how the operations of men’s minds and industry, in their progress, obliterate that which is gone before, and then again, after a season, which season has done its work in spreading civilization and intelligence, return to old courses. Though science is bringing us back to the old route to India, what wonders the discovery of Vasco de Gama has effected for the progress of the Great Scheme!—Trans.