"ponderibus librata suis" in De Quincey's "Confessions of an English Opium Eater"

Marjie Bloy Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, National University of Singapore

ponderibus librata suis — the quotation comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses Book 1, line 13. The sentence reads:

nec circumfuso pendebat in aere tellus ponderibus librata suis

and may be translated as

Nor yet was Earth suspended in the sky, Nor pois'd, did on her own foundations lye.

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Victorian
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Authors

Thomas
De Quincey

Last modified 17 March 2002