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PAGE =274=, l. 102. _Sent hither, this worlds tempests to becalme. _ I
have adopted the reading to which the MSS. point in preference to that
of the editions. Both the chief groups read 'tempests', and 'this'
(for 'the') has still more general support. Now if the 's' in
'tempests' were once dropped, 'this' would be changed to 'the', the
emphasis shifting from 'this' to 'world'. I think the sense is better.
If but one tempest is contemplated, then either so many 'lumps of
balm' are not needed, or they fail sadly in their mission. They come
rather to allay the storms with which human life is ever and again
tormented. Moreover, in Donne's cosmology 'this world' is frequently
contrasted with other and better worlds. Compare _An Anatomie of the
World_, pp. 225 et seq.

l. 110.
_Which the whole world, or man the abridgment hath. _ The comma
after 'man' in _1633_ gives emphasis. The absence of a comma, however,
after 'abridgment' gives a reader to-day the impression that it is
object to 'hath'. I have, therefore, with _1635-69_, dropped the
comma after 'man'. The omission of commas in appositional phrases is
frequent. 'Man the abridgment' means of course 'Man the microcosm':
'the Macrocosme and Microcosme, the Great and the Lesser World, man
extended in the world, and the world contracted and abridged into
man. ' _Sermons_ 80. 31. 304.

ll. 111-30. _Thou knowst, &c. _ The circles running parallel to
the equator are all equally circular, but diminish in size as they
approach the poles. But the circles which cut these at right angles,
and along which we measure the distance of any spot from the equator,
from the sun, are all of equal magnitude, passing round the earth
through the poles, i. e. meridians are great circles, their planes
passing through the centre of the earth.