Both Uses of

comprehend
in
The Iliad by Homer - (translated by: Pope)

And, perhaps, the reason why common critics are inclined to prefer a judicious and methodical genius to a great and fruitful one, is, because they find it easier for themselves to pursue their observations through a uniform and bounded walk of art, than to comprehend the vast and various extent of nature.†
Book Pref. *

comprehend = understand -- especially to understand it completely

To what else can we ascribe that vast comprehension of images of every sort, where we see each circumstance of art, and individual of nature, summoned together by the extent and fecundity of his imagination to which all things, in their various views presented themselves in an instant, and had their impressions taken off to perfection at a heat?†
Book Pref.

comprehension = the understanding of something

Definitions:

(1) (comprehend)
to understand something -- especially to understand it completely
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
meaning too rare to warrant focus:

Much more rarely (and more frequently in the past), comprehend can mean to include as part of something broader. That was the first sense of the word listed in Webster's Dictionary of 1828 with this sample sentence: "The empire of Great Britain comprehends England, Scotland and Ireland, with their dependencies."