Journey over all the universe in a map, without the expense and fatigue of traveling, without suffering the inconveniences of heat, cold, hunger, and thirst.

The line praises the imaginative and practical power of representation—specifically maps—as a way to experience the world vicariously. It contrasts the intellectual “travel” afforded by a map with the bodily hardships of actual journeying (weather, hunger, thirst, fatigue). Read more broadly, it fits a Renaissance/early modern fascination with new geographic knowledge and the idea that books, charts, and images can compress vast spaces into portable forms. The sentiment also works as a defense of armchair learning: one can gain perspective on the “universe” through study and contemplation, not only through costly, risky experience.