THE LAMENT OF THE SHIPMASTERS (Revelation 18:17-19). — On the whole passage read Ezekiel 27:32, &c.
(17, 18) And every shipmaster.... — Or, better, And every shipmaster, and every one who sails for a place, and sailors, and all who work the sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, Who is like the great city? With this expression compare the similar one applied to the beast (Revelation 13:4). It is the outcry of those who call to mind, with pain, a glory that was great, but now is gone. It is not to be taken as meaning “what city has suffered as she has?” but rather is it the recollection of her former splendour — “how great she was.” This lingering of the mind over delights now vanished is one subtle element of misery. So the hapless Francesca thought —
“There is no greater woe,
Than to remember days of happiness
Amid affliction.” Inf. v. 121-3.