STUDY IV. 



223" 



1 6. Numquid ingrefllis es profunda Maris, Sc 

 in noviffimis AbylTi * deambulâfti ? 



17. Numquid apertse funt tibi portée Mortis t, 

 & oftia tenebrofa vidifti ? 



18. Numquid confiderâfti latitudinem Terrse :J ? 

 Indica Mihi, fi nofti omnia. 



* In nmijjimis AhyJJî^ in the fearch (at the fources) of the 

 Depth, ^rtc/ tranflates it, /;/ the extremities of the Abyjs. This 

 verfion deftroys the correfpondence, of the expreffion under re- 

 view, with that of the other polar characters, fo clearly ex- 

 plained before ; and the antithefis of novij/ima^ with that of 

 profunda Maris, which goes before, by affixing the fame meaning 

 to it. Antithefis is a figure in frequent ufe among the Orientals, 

 and efpecially in the Book of Job. 'Novijfma Ahyjf, literally de- 

 note, the places which renovate the Abyfs, the fources of the 

 Sea, and, confequently, the polar ices. 



"j" Porta Mortis, & oflia tenebrofa ; the gates of Death, and the 

 doors of the Jhadoix) of Death, or, the gates of Darknefs. The 

 Poles, being uninhabitable, are, in reality, the gates of Death. 

 The epithet dark here denotes the nights of fix months duration, 

 which hold their empire at the Poles. This fenfe is farther 

 confirmed by what is fubjoined in the following verfes ; the 

 locus tenehrarmn, place of darknefs, and the thefaurus nivis, trea- 

 fures of the fnow. The Poles are, at once, the place of darknefs, 

 and that of the Aurora, 



+ Latitudine?n Terra. Literally : Haft thou perceinjed the 

 breadth (the Latitude) of the Earth? In truth, all the characters 

 of the Pole could be known only to thofe who had courfed over 

 the Earth in it's Latitude. There were, in the times of Job, 

 many Arabian travellers who went eaftiward, and weflward, and 

 fouthward, but very few who had travelled northward, that is 

 to fay, in Latitude. 



19. In 



X./Î7 



