Chap. 68.] EXTENT OF THE OCEAI?'. 10 1 



It appears, tlierefore, that the heavens take from us three 

 parts of the earth ; how much the ocean steals is uncertain. 

 And with respect to the part which is left us, I do not 

 know whether that is not even in greater danger. This same 

 ocean, insinuating itself, as I have described it, into a num- 

 ber of bays, approaches with its roaring^ so near to the in- 

 land seas, that the Ai'abian Gulf is no more than 115 miles 

 from the Egyptian Sea"-, and the Caspian only 375 miles from 

 the Euxine. It also insinuates itself into the numerous seas 

 by which it separates Africa, Europe, and Asia ; hence how 

 much space must it occupy ? We must also take into ac- 

 count the extent of all the rivers and the marshes, and we 

 must add the lakes and the pools. There are also the moun- 

 tains, raised up to the heavens, wdth their precipitous fronts ; 

 we must also subtract the forests and the craggy valleys, the 

 wildernesses, and the places, which, from various causes, are 

 desert. The vast quantity which remains of the earth^, or 

 rather, as many persons have considered it, this speck of a 

 world"* (for the earth is no more in regard to the universe), 

 tbis is the object, the seat of our glory — here we bear our 

 honours, here we exercise our power, here we covet wealth, 

 here we mortals create our disturbances, here we continually 

 carry on our wars, aye, civil wars, even, and unpeople the 

 earth by mutual slaughter. And not to dwell on public feuds, 

 entered into by nations against each other, here it is that we 

 drive away our neighbours, and enclose the land thus seized 

 upon within our own fence ^ ; and yet the man who has most 

 extended his boundary, and has expelled tlie inhabitants for 

 ever so great a distance, after all, what mighty portion of the 

 earth is he master of? And even when his avarice has been 

 the most completely satisfied, what part of it can he take 

 with him into the grave ? 



^ "".... iiitema maria allatrat, . . ." 



2 This is considerably more than the distance in the present day. 

 The Istlimus of Suez appears, according to the statement of the most 

 accurate geographers, to be about 70 miles in breadth. 



3 Ha; tot portiones terrse, as Alexandre correctly remarks, " ironice 

 dictum. Quam paucffi enira supersunt !" Lemaire, i. 383. 



■* " Mimdi punctus." This expression, we may presume, was taken 

 from Seneca ; " Hoc est illud punctum, quod inter tot gentes ferro et 

 igni dividitur." Nat. Qua;st. i. prajf. p. 681. 



Nostro solo adfodimus ; " addinm?, adjungimus, anncctimus, ut una 

 fossione aretxxr." Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 383. 



