Note 81 — Chapter IV · THE KNOWLEDGE OF EMBLEM-BOOKS IN BRITAIN, AND GENERAL INDICATIONS THAT SHAKESPEARE WAS ACQUAINTED WITH THEM.
Reading edition
In some of the more elaborate of Plantin’s devices, the action of “the omnific word” seems pictured, though in very humble degree,—
“In his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things:
One foot he centred, and the other turn’d
Round through the vast profundity obscure.”—Par. Lost, bk. vii.