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Part Fourth
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[1311] Mundi.
[1312] Vel quanta est. If this be the right sense, the words are probably inserted, because the conflagration of “the earth and the works that are therein” predicted in 2 Pet. iii. 10, and referred to lower down in this piece, is supposed to have begun, and thus the “depths” of the earth are supposed to be already diminishing.
[1313] I have ventured to alter one letter of the Latin; and for “quos reddere jussa docebit,” read “quos reddere jussa dolebit.” If the common reading be retained, the only possible meaning seems to be “whom she will teach to render (to God) His commands,” i.e., to render obedience to them; or else, “to render (to God) what they are bidden to render,” i.e., an account of themselves; and earth, as their mother, giving them birth out of her womb, is said to teach them to do this. But the emendation, which is at all events simple, seems to give a better sense: “being bidden to render the dead, whom she is keeping, up, earth will grieve at the throes it causes her, but will do it.”
[1314] Subitæ virtutis ab alto.
[1315] Comis, here “the heads.”
[1316] This passage is imitated from Virgil, Æn., vi. 305 sqq.; Georg., iv. 475 sqq.
[1317] i.e., “the king.” The “Atridæ” of Homer are referred to,—Agamemnon “king of men,” and Menelaus.
[1318] Or, “Powers.”
[1319] Insigni. The allusion seems to be to Ezek. ix. 4, 6, Rev. vii. 3 et seqq., xx. 3, 4, and to the inscribed mitre of the Jewish high priest, see Ex. xxviii. 36; xxxix. 30.
[1320] I have corrected “his” for “hic.” If the latter be retained, it would seem to mean “hereon.”
[1321] Cardine, i.e., the hinge as it were upon which the sun turns in his course.
[1322] See the “Genesis,” 73.
[1323] Or, “there.” The question is, whether a different tree is meant, or the rose just spoken of.
[1324] This seems to be marshmallows.
[1325] Here again it is plain that the writer is drawing his description from what we read of the garden of Eden.
[1326] “Salus,” health (probably) in its widest sense, both bodily and mental; or perhaps “safety,” “salvation.”
[1327] Reliquam vitam, i.e., apparently his life in all other relations; unless it mean his life after his parents’ death, which seems less likely.
[1328] i.e., “appeals to.” So Burke: “I attest the former, I attest the coming generations.” This “attesting of its acts” seems to refer to Matt. xxv. 44. It appeals to them in hope of mitigating its doom.
[1329] This seems to be the sense. The Latin stands thus: “Flammas pro meritis, stagnantia tela tremiscunt.”
[1330] Or, “banished.”
[1331] I adopt the correction (suggested in Migne) of justis for justas.
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