PAGE =117=, ll. 31-2. _Men to such Gods, &c._ Donne has in view here
the different kinds of sacrifice described by Porphyry:
How to devote things living in due form
My verse shall tell, thou in thy tablets write.
For gods of earth and gods of heaven each three;
For heavenly pure white; for gods of earth
Cattle of kindred hue divide in three,
And on the altar lay thy sacrifice.
For gods infernal bury deep, and cast
The blood into a trench. For gentle Nymphs
Honey and gifts of Dionysus pour.
Eusebius: _Praeparatio Evangelica_, iv. 9
(trans. E. H. Gifford, 1903).
l. 47. _The Nose_ (_like to the first Meridian_) 'In the state
of nature we consider the light, as the sunne, to be risen at the
Moluccae, in the farthest East; In the state of the law we consider it
as the sunne come to Ormus, the first Quadrant; but in the Gospel to
be come to the Canaries, the fortunate Ilands, the first Meridian.
Now whatsoever is beyond this, is Westward, towards a Declination.'
_Sermons_ 80. 68. 688.
'Longitude is length, and in the heavens it is understood the distance
of any starre or Planet, from the begining of Aries to the place of
the said Planet or Starre ... Otherwise, longitude in the earth, is
the distance of the Meridian of any place, from the Meridian which
passeth over the Isles of Azores, where the beginning of longitude is
said to be.' _The Sea-mans Kalender_, 1632. But ancient Cosmographers
placed the first meridian at the Canaries. See note to p. 187, l. 2.
PAGE =118=, l. 52. _Not faynte Canaries but Ambrosiall._ The 'Canary'
of several MSS. is probably right--an adjective, like 'Ambrosiall'.
By 'faynte' is meant 'faintly odorous' as opposed to 'Ambrosial', i.e.
'divinely fragrant; perfumed as with Ambrosia' (O.E.D.). 'Fruit that
ambrosial smell diffus'd': Milton, _Par. Lost_, ix. 852. The text
gives an earlier use of both these words in this meaning than any
indicated by the O.E.D. William Morris uses the same adjective in a
somewhat ambiguous way but meaning, I suppose, 'weak, ready to die':
Where still mid thoughts of August's quivering gold
Folk hoed the wheat, and clipped the vine in trust
Of faint October's purple-foaming must.
_Earthly Paradise, Atalanta's Race._