4. It is not thus with us. Why?
Because we incessantly move the ancient landmarks which our fathers
have set. cf.
Prov. xxii.
28. We encroach,
we add house to house, field to field, to enrich ourselves at the
expense of our neighbour. The great fish know the sojourning
place that nature has assigned to them; they occupy the sea far from
the haunts of men, where no islands lie, and where are no continents
rising to confront them, because it has never been crossed and neither
curiosity nor need has persuaded sailors to tempt it. The
monsters that dwell in this sea are in size like high mountains, so
witnesses who have seen tell us, and never cross their boundaries to
ravage islands and seaboard towns. Thus each kind is as if it
were stationed in towns, in villages, in an ancient country, and has
for its dwelling place the regions of the sea which have been assigned
to it.