17. C'est le Dernier pas qui coûte, it is the last stroke that counts. 404. a 39. Cook's Voyages, James Cook (1728-1779), the English navigator who explored the Pacific, 17721775, and 1776-1779. b. 19. Best passage, etc. The passage referred to is as follows: 'Oh, bloodiest picture in the book of Time, Sarmatia was the ancient name of Poland. 405. a. 11. Smibert, born Edinburgh, 1684. Came to America 1729 and settled in Boston. He was the first portrait painter who came to America from Europe and he painted many of the leading citizens of Boston. 12. Copley, American painter, born in Boston, 1737. His American portraits belong, the most of them, to his earlier life. He spent his last years in London. 24. Stuarts, Gilbert Stuart, American portrait painter, 1755-1828. 41. Malbone, American portrait painter, 1777-1807. 50. Hic liber est meus, conventional Latin for This book is mine. 51. Hogarth, English painter and engraver, 16971764. 53. Barrow, Isaac Barrow (1630-1677). Anglican divine and scholar. His works were edited by Dean Tillotson in 1683-89. 54. Tillotson, John Tillotson (1630-1694). Archbishop of Canterbury and greatest preacher of his generation. His sermons, edited by Barker, filled fourteen volumes. b. 19. Our dear professor, in later editions didascalos, explained later by Holmes to be Professor James Russell Lowell. 406. a. 42. Hoosac tunnel, a tunnel through a range of the Green Mountains about a mile from North Adams, Massachusetts. It was begun in 1855 and finished in 1875. It is 54 miles long. 44. Cumming, General William Cumming, Union leader in the nullification struggle. His windy quarrel with George McDuffle was greatly caricatured. 45. Miller, William Miller, founder of the sect of the Adventists, or Millerites. He maintained, according to the Scriptures, the world would end October 24, 25, 1844. 407. a. 53. Fioriture (usually used in the plural fioritura)-in music, flourishes, embellishments, trills, and turnings. 409. a. 1. Goodwood-cup. The Goodwood race-course, at the seat of Duke of Richmond and Gordon, near Chichester, Sussex, England, was established in 1802. The principal race at the annual meet was run for the Goodwood cup. Eclipse, Plenipotentiary, etc., are names of race horses internationally famous in their day. 2. Au contraire-on the contrary. 26. Morgan, one of the most famous breeds of trotting horses America has produced. 37. Godolphin Arabian. One of the three Oriental sires from which the thoroughbred horse is derived. The Godolphin Barb' was probably foaled about 1729 and brought from Paris in the reign of George II. 410. a. 8. Phlebotomize,-to bleed,-to let out blood by opening a vein. 412. a. 21. Noncompotes,- for non compos mentis, not of sound mind, idiots. b. 2. Buffo, comic actor. From the Italian. THE LIVING TEMPLE 415. This closed the seventh paper of The Autocrat series. The Autocrat introduces the poem thus: 'Having read our company so much of the Professor's talk about age and other subjects connected with physical life, I took the next Sunday morning to repeat to them the following poem of his, which I have had by me some time. He calls it-I suppose for his professional friends-The Anatomist's Hymn, but I shall name it The Living Temple.' THE DEACON'S MASTERPIECE 416. 10. Georgius Secundus, George II, King of Great Britain, 1727-1760. He was born in Hanover, Germany, and was thoroughly German in outlook and sympathies. 12. Lisbon-town, the capital of Spain, was nearly destroyed by an earthquake November 1, 1755; 40,000 people lost their lives. 14. Braddock's army. The defeat of the army sent against the French at Fort Duquesne took place July 9, 1755. THE BOYS 417. Written for the meeting of the class of 1829, January 6, 1859. The member of Congress alluded to was George T. Davis, whom Thackeray declared the most agreeable dinner-companion whom he met in the United States'; the Reverend' was James Freeman Clarke; the Judge' was B. R. Curtis of the Supreme Court of the United States; 'The Justice' was George T. Bigelow, Chief Justice of Massachusetts; the boy with the grave mathematical look' was Benjamin Pierce, the mathematician of Harvard; the youngster of excellent pith' was Rev. S. F. Smith, the author of America. 'That boy laughing' was Reverend Samuel May, the genial abolitionist. A HYMN OF TRUST 418. As published in the Atlantic it was prefaced thus: 'It was evening, and I was going to the sick-chamber. As paused at the door before entering, I heard a sweet voice singing. It was not the wild melody I had sometimes heard at midnight:-no, this was the voice of Iris, and I could distinguish every word. I had seen the verses in her book; the melody was new to me. Let me finish my page with them.' THE BRAHMIN CASTE OF NEW ENGLAND 418. This is Chapter I of The Professor's Story, Atlantic Monthly, January, 1860. It was later republished with the title Elsie Venner, A Brahmin is a member of the sacred or sacerdotal caste of India. 'From being in the beginning individuals and families distinguished for wisdom, sanctity, and poetic power, they gradually consolidated their influence and became a strictly hereditary class, holding in their hands the ministry of holy things, the custody of the scriptures, and knowledge of their sacred and learned dialect.' LENORE 422. This poem, which perhaps was written as early as 1830, was revised by Poe many times. The best study of the variations and of the republishings is to be found in Campbell's edition of Poe's Poems, at present the definitive edition. The publication of Lenore in Lowell's Pioneer in 1843 brought him prominently before the New England group of writers. Higginson could pronounce 'Lenore, as published in The Pioneer perhaps the finest piece of lyric measure in our literature.' And again in his Short Studies of American Authors, while complaining of the later form into which Poe turned the poem, declares that 'Never in American literature, I think, was such a fountain of melody flung into the air as when Lenore first appeared in The Pioneer.' 13. Peccavimus, we have sinned. 423. The poem was inspired by a boyish devotion of Poe's to Mrs. Jane Stith Stanard, of Richmond, of whom he wrote in later days as the first purely ideal love of my soul,' and again still later, as 'the truest, tenderest of this world's most womanly souls, and an angel to my forlorn and darkened nature.' She died in 1824. 2. Nicæan barks. What this means is uncertain. Critics have ventured many explanations, but at best they give but conjectures. See Campbell's edition of Poe, page 201. 423. This first appeared in Poe's story 'The Visionary (later entitled The Assignation') in Godey's Lady's Book, January, 1834. The title originally was To Ianthe in Heaven.'. To whom it was addressed is unknown. ་ b. 9. Fuseli, Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), was a Swiss artist who became professor of painting at the Royal Academy, London. 56. The Haunted Palace,' written probably in 1837. It had previously appeared in the Baltimore Museum, April, 1830. In a letter to Griswold in 1841 Poe explained By "The Haunted Palace" I mean to imply a mind haunted by phantoms-a disordered brain.' 428. a. 26. Porphyrogene, born to the purple. 52. Red-litten, archaic form for red-lighted. b. 45. Concerning this list of curious books, many of which undoubtedly were merely names to Poe, and some of which do not possess at all characteristics ascribed to them, it is useless to go into detail. One may find the most of them in such a book of reference as the Century Dictionary of Names. To look up carefully, however, each name and allusio. would be to defeat the purpose of the writer, which was to give an impression of profound erudition, and so to heighten the effect of mystery and to make still more moving the conception the reader was to gain of the deranged hypochondriac at the center of the piece. 430. b. 43. 'Mad Trist,' a title undoubtedly invented by Poe. No such book is known. THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE 432. This story appeared in Graham's Magazine as the first of a series of analytical stories and was therefore opened with a study of 'The mental features discoursed of as the analytical.' It was this tale that first introduced Poe to the French public. I have given only a part of the story, the analytical part, since it was this feature of the work that has made it the world classic it undoubtedly has become. Every detail of the story may be gathered from the part that is given. Dupin, the original of the modern Sherlock Holmes, has made a careful examination of the rooms where the murder was committed, has completed his analysis and now discloses his findings to his friend, who is the prototype of the Dr. Watson of the Sherlock Holmes tales. : b. 54. Je les ménagais, I humored him cautiously. 433. a. 18. Outré, strikingly odd. 435. a. 30. A posteriori, argument based upon that which follows, or is subsequent. Argument from effect to cause.. 438. Dupin's conjectures quickly become certainty. The detective has put an advertisement in the papers requesting the owner of an orang-outang to come and claim his property. A sailor appевл and, confronted by the evidence given by Dupin, tells the whole story. He had just arrived from the East Indies and he had had with him a pet orang-outang which had been given him on the voyage by a dying companion. On the morning in question the animal had been watching its master while he was shaving, had seized the razor and had Imade a bolt into the street. The sailor had pursued and the orang-outang had climbed the lightning-rod, leaped into the room occupied by the two women, and had gone through the motions of shaving the elder lady. Made frantic by the screams and the struggles of the women and by the excited voice of the sailor who had climbed the rod, he had completed the atrocities and had escaped. ELEONORA 438. The quotation from Lully (1235-1315) who devoted his life to the conversion of Mohammedans to Christianity, may be-translated The soul is safe with the preservation of a specific form. ' b. 38. Aggressi sunt, etc. 'They entered the sea of darkness that they might explore what might be therein.' 'The sea of darkness' means the Atlantic. 'The Nubian geographer' was Claudius Ptolemy. 56. Edipus, the well-known story of Edipus and the Sphynx. See Century Dictionary. 440. a. 16. Schiraz, home of the Persian poet Sadi, 1184-1292. 22. Ephemeron, an insect supposed to live but a day. 45. Elusion, Elysium, the place of blissful abode after death. HAWTHORNE'S TWICE-TOLD TALES 441. The first issue of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales was in 1838. The 1842 issue was in two volumes. 442. b. 21. De Béranger, French lyric poet, born 1780; died 1857. 30. In medio tutissimus ibis, literally, 'You go safest in the middle course.' 443. a. 39. Ratiocination, the process of reasoning, of deducting conclusions from premises. b. 9. Blackwood, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magarine, established in 1817. 25. John Neal (1793-1876) was once ranked by Poe as 'at all events, second among our men of indisputable genius.' A man of great energy, he wrote many historical novels, and in his own words produced material of all kinds that would amount to a hundred octavo volumes at least.' 444. Poe's account of the composition of the poem in his Philosophy of Composition' has caused much discussion. That the poem may owe something to an obscure poet named Chivers, and also something to Mrs. Browning and to Coleridge need trouble no lover of Poe. 'The Raven' is unique and its place is as secure as is that of even The Ancient Mariner.' 28. Lenore, the name, a favorite one with Poe, introduced here however, to rhyme with 'more' and nevermore,' was derived from the well-known ballad by the German poet Burger. 445. 47. Plutonian, devoted to Pluto, ruler of the infernal regions. 93. Aidenn, the Arabic Aden, one of the names of the Mohammedan paradise. ULALUME 446. The best study of the poem with variorum readings and estimates by various critics is to be found in Campbell's edition of Poe's Poems. His 5. Most immemorial year, doubtless 1847. wife died in January of this year and following her death he was critically ill for several months. 6. Auber Weir, names invented by Poe. 14. Scoriac, a word coined by Poe from the name scoria, fragments of lava. 16. Yaanek, invented by Poe. 37. Astarte's, undoubtedly referring to the moon, though in his poem 'Eulalie' he had used it as referring to the planet Venus. Astarte was the Greek for the goddess Ashtoreth, the female counterpart of Baal. Baal was associated with the sun; Ashtoreth with the moon. She was often represented by a crescent. 39. Diana, in Roman mythology was the goddess of the moon. 447. 95. Griswold omitted this last stanza from the 1850 edition of Poe, and most later editors have followed him. ANNABEL LEE 448. This is generally believed by authorities upon the life of Poe to have been his last poetical com. position, written just before he set out on his fateful journey to Baltimore. 'The view universally held to-day among students of Poe is that "Annabel Lee " was written in memory of Virginia Clemm, the poet's child wife.'-Campbell. TOPSY 449. a. 3. Miss Ophelia is a New England woman, the embodiment of the Yankee' ideas concerning slavery, who has gone to live with her cousin Augustine St. Clare, the owner of a large plantation in the black belt' of the South. VIEWS OF DIVINE GOVERNMENT 458. While in reality this is an essay on the peculiarities of the early Puritanic social system of New England, it is a chapter from a novel-Chapter 23 of The Minister's Wooing. 458. b. 48. Dr. Hopkins, Rev. Samuel Hopkins (1721-1803), a theologian greatly influential in his day. He held pastorates at Housatonic, Massachusetts, and Newport, R. I. His chief work was his System of Theology, 1791. 49. Edwards the younger, Jonathan Edwards, son of the more distinguished Jonathan Edwards, who was at his death the president of Princeton College. Edwards the younger (1745-1801) was president of Union College from 1799 until his death. THE RELIEF OF LEYDEN 462. The first siege of Leyden by the Spanish army under Valdez was begun May 26, 1574. As August drew to an end the besieged had reached the point of desperation. Then on September 1 appeared the Zealand fleet under Admiral Boisot and to allow it to approach the city the dykes were cut and the ocean let in upon the low lands that surrounded it. But the winds were contrary, allowing not enough water to flow in to float even the light-draft ships that composed the rescuing armada. THE FIRE SHIPS OF ANTWERP 466. Chapter V of The United Netherlands tells of an attempt in 1584 just after the death of the Prince of Orange that the Prince of Parma made to capture Antwerp, the hinge on which the fate of the whole country, perhaps of all Christendom, was to turn.' The extract given recounts one of the episodes of the siege. Parma did what the Netherlands considered impossible, threw a great bridge across the Schelde River and thereby seemed to render the capture of the city inevitable. SYMPATHY 480. The explanation of this poem, given on Emerson's authority, but necessarily somewhat conjectural, is that a reference is made, under the character of the "gentle boy to the girl with whom both Henry and John Thoreau were in love.'-Sanborn. The poem appeared later in the Week on the Concord and Merrimac as a part of the essay on Friendship. In the case of all the poems, save 'Independence,' I have used the Dial text. SIC VITA 481. This poem was reproduced in the Week introduced with the words: 'It is but thin soil where we stand; I have felt my roots in a richer ere this. I have seen a bunch of violets in a glass vase tied loosely with a straw, which reminded me of myself. According to Sanborn: 'This poem was written on a sheet of paper wrapped round a bunch of violets, tied loosely with a straw, and thrown into the window of a friend. It was read at Thoreau's funeral by his friend Bronson Alcott.' b. 48. Kirby and Spence. The Introduction to Entomology, by William Kirby and William Spence, appeared in 1815-26 and was long the leading authority upon its subject. 485. b. 41. Ebriosity, a rare word. Inebriety is commonly used. 486. a. 1. The Ved, or Veda, from the root word meaning knowledge or science, the name given to the books which contain the Hindu sacred literature. Thoreau had early become interested in Oriental literature and had read widely in the various sacred books of the East as is evidenced everywhere in his book A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers. 488. a. 32. Mr. Poet, probably William Ellery Chan ning, nephew of Channing, the famous divine. This poet, who was one of Thoreau's most intimate friends, wrote in later years the biography entitled Thoreau, the Poet Naturalist. One notes in this dialogue between the Hermit and the Poet that Thoreau has read and loved Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler. 490. b. 49. Luther Blanchard, Buttrick, Davis, Hos mer, who figured in the fight at Lexington and Concord. Thoreau, living as he did at Concord, would naturally know intimately all the details of the battle. 491. a. 35. Hotel des Invalides, a famous establishlishment in Paris founded in 1670 for disabled and infirm soldiers. 47. Huber, François Huber, died 1831, Swiss naturalist. 48. Eneas Sylvius, better known as Pope Pius II, 1458-64. b. 9. Presidency of Polk, etc. Polk was president 1845-1849. The Fugitive Slave Bill was passed by Congress in 1850. 494. a. 2. Franklin. Sir John Franklin died in the Arctic regions in 1847. During the following ten years thirty-nine relief expeditions were sent to find him. In 1857 Lady Franklin sent an expedition under Capt. McClintock which was able to find evidences of the total destruction of the Franklin party and their equipment. 4. Grinnell, Henry, an American merchant, fitted out at his own expense one of the expeditions which went in search of Franklin. 6. Mungo Park, explorer who died in Africa in 1806. Lewis and Clark, in charge of the exploring expeditions sent by the Government to explore the northwest of the United States, 1804-06. 7. Frobisher, English navigator, died 1594. 50. Symmes' Hole. An eccentric theory was propagated early in the century by one Symmes that the earth is hollow and can be entered at the poles. 495. a. 41. Extra-vagant, a play upon the etymology of the word,-Extra, Latin for beyond, and vagant from the Latin to wander, b. 26. Kabir, a Hindu religious reformer. His teachings were an interpretation of the older Hindu and Mussulman philosophies and were greatly influential. 497. a. 43. Tintinnabulum, from the Latin meaning bell. See Poe's The Bells, line 11. WHAT MR. ROBINSON THINKS 501. The Biglow Papers were introduced to the public by a subterfuge of the same general nature as that employed by Irving for his Knickerbocker's History of New York. The book purports to be poetic effusions sent by one Hosea Biglow, an illiterate Yankee youth, for publication in the Boston Courier. Before they were sent away, however, they were represented as being scrutinized by the learned minister of the young poet's town Jaalem, Parson Homer Wilber, A. M., who loads them with ponderous editorial explanations and learned notes. b. 16. Tenues in auras, into thin air. 17. Longum iter, etc. Through precept the road is long, through example short and efficient; or more freely, To teach by precept is a slow process, to teach by example is swift and sure. 502. a. 14. Aliquid sufflaminandus erat, To some extent he should be restrained. 16. Aqua fortis, nitric acid. 23. Est ars etiam maledicendi, There is an art even in slandering, or in speaking evil. 1. Guvener B., George N. Briggs, Governor of Massachusetts 1844-1851. During the campaign of 1847, the campaign referred to in the poem, he ran on the Whig ticket against General Cushing who was then in Mexico. Briggs won by a majority of 14,060. 5. John P. Robinson (1799-1864) an influential member of the Whig party who made a great sensation in 1847 by going over to the Democratic side and supporting Cushing. 14. Gineral C. Caleb Cushing, Commander of Massachusetts troops in Mexico, and candidate for Governor on the Democratic ticket. 21. Goes in fer the war. The war with Mexico was opposed by the New England abolitionists. In the introduction to the second series of The Biglow Papers, 1866, Lowell wrote: Thinking the Mexican war, as I think it still, a national crime committed in behoof of slavery, our common sin, and wishing to put the feeling of those who thought as I did in a way that would tell, I imagined to myself such an up-country man as I had often seen at antislavery gatherings, capable of district-school English, but always instinctively falling back into the natural stronghold of his homely dialect when heated to the point of self-forgetfulness.' 503. a. 19. Patriae fumus, etc. The smoke of one's own fatherland is brighter than the flame in a foreign land. 21. Ubi libertas, ibi patria. Where there is liberty, there is my fatherland. b. 6. Quasi noverca, as a stepmother. 511. 13. Middlesex, Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts, are in Middlesex County. 16. John Bull's Run, an allusion to the disastrous battle of Bull Run which had taken place some six months before the poem was written. 35. Seward. State under Lincoln. 512. 81. Envys, envoys. In August, 1861, James M. Mason was appointed by the Confederate states as Commissioner to Great Britain, and John Slidell as Commissioner to France. After much difficulty they secured passage on the British mail steamer William H. Seward, Secretary of |