The Discovery of America and the Discovery of Man

'Two things', wrote Michelet in a famous passage, 'belong to this age [the sixteenth century] more than to all its predecessors : the discovery of the world, the discovery of man.' By 'the discovery of man' Michelet meant European man's discovery of himself as both a physical organism and a moral being, whose mysteries were now explored to their innermost depths. But the simultaneous discovery of the world also represented a discovery of man varied, and frequently repulsive habits proved to be a source of consuming curiosity. It would have been equally possible to argue that lack of knowledge had led to the depiction of Indians as paragons of pre-lapsarian innocence; but such assumptions did not long survive a closer intimacy with the peoples of America. The devil stalked the America of the sixteenth century as surely as he stalked the continent of Europe, and the results of his machinations were everywhere to be seen.