of life, a tip-toe on the highest point of being, he passes at a bound on to the other side. The noise of the mallet and chisel is scarcely quenched, the trumpets are hardly done blowing, when, trailing with him clouds of glory, this happy-starred, fullblooded spirit shoots into the spiritual land.

TH

NOTES

HIS essay, which is commonly (and justly) regarded as Stevenson's masterpiece of literary composition, was first printed in the Cornhill Magazine for April 1878, Vol. XXXVII, pp. 432-437. In 1881 it was published in the volume Virginibus Puerisque. For the success of this volume, as well as for its author's relations with the editor of the Cornhill, see our note to An Apology for Idlers. It was this article which was selected for reprinting in separate form by the American Committee of the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Fund; to every subscriber of ten dollars or more, was given a copy of this essay, exquisitely printed at the De Vinne Press, 1898. Copies of this edition are now eagerly sought by book-collectors; five of them were taken by the Robert Louis Stevenson Club of Yale College, consisting of a few undergraduates of the class of 1898, who subscribed fifty dollars to the fund.

Stevenson's cheerful optimism was constantly shadowed by the thought of Death, and in Æs Triplex he gives free rein to his fancies on this universal theme.

Page 43. The title, Es Triplex, is taken from Horace, as triplex circa pectus, "breast enclosed by triple brass," "es" used by Horace as a "symbol of indomitable courage." -Lewis's Latin Dictionary.

Page 43. Thug. This word, which sounds to-day so slangy, really comes from the Hindoos (Hindustani thaaa, deceive). It is the name of a religious order in India, ostensibly devoted to the worship of a goddess, but really given to murder for the sake of booty. The Englishmen

"

in India called them Thugs, hence the name in its modern general sense.

Page 43. Pyramids. ...dule trees. For pyramids, see our note on page 40. Dule trees. More properly spelled "dool." A dool was a stake or post used to mark boundaries.

Page 45. The trumpets might sound. "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" I Cor. XIV, 8.

Page 45. The blue-peter might fly at the truck. The blue-peter is a term used in the British navy and widely elsewhere; it is a blue flag with a white square employed often as a signal for sailing. The word is corrupted from Blue Repeater, a signal flag. Truck is a very small platform at the top of a mast.

Page 46. Party for the Derby. Derby Day, which is the occasion of the most famous annual running race for horses in the world, takes place in the south of England during the week preceding Whitsunday. The race was founded by the Earl of Derby in 1780. It is now one of the greatest holidays in England, and the whole city of London turns out for the event. It is a great spectacle to see the crowd going from London and returning. The most faithful description of the event, the crowds, and the interest excited, may be found in George Moore's novel, Esther Waters (1894).

Page 46. The deified Caligula. Caius Caligula was Roman Emperor from 37 to 41 A. D. He was brought up among the soldiers, who gave him the name Caligula, because he wore the soldier's leather shoe, or half-boot, (Latin caliga). Caligula was deified, but that did not prevent him from becoming a madman, which seems to be the best way to account for his wanton cruelty and extraordinary caprices. Baie was a small town on the Campanian Coast, ten miles from Naples. It was a favorite summer resort of the Roman aristocracy. The Prætorian Guard was the body-guard of the Roman

emperors. The incident Stevenson speaks of may be

found in Tacitus.

Page 46. Balaclava. A little port near Sebastopol, in the Crimea. During the Crimean War, on the 25 October 1854, occurred the cavalry charge of some six hundred Englishmen, celebrated by Tennyson's universally known poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade. It has recently been asserted that the number reported as actually killed in this headlong charge referred to the horses, not to the men.

Page 46. Curtius. Referring to the story of the Roman youth, Metius Curtius, who in 362 B. C., leaped into a chasm in the Forum, in order to save his country. The chasm immediately closed over him, and Rome was saved. Although the truth of the story has naturally failed to survive the investigations of historical critics, its moral inspiration has been effective in many historical instances. Page 47. Job... Walt Whitman. The book of Job is usually regarded as the most poetical work in the Bible, even exceeding Psalms and Isaiah in its splendid imaginative language and extraordinary figures of speech. For a literary study of it, the student is recommended to Professor Moulton's edition. Omar Khayyam was a Persian poet of mediæval times, who became known to English readers through the beautiful paraphrase of some of his stanzas by Edward Fitzgerald, in 1859. If any one will take the trouble to compare a literal prose rendering of Omar (as in N. H. Dole's variorum edition) with the version by Fitzgerald, he will speedily see that the power and beauty of the poem is due far more to the skill of "Old Fitz" than to the original. Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was perhaps the foremost writer of English prose in the nineteenth century. Although a consummate literary artist, he was even more influential as a moral tonic. His philosophy and that of Omar represent as wide a contrast as could easily be found. Walt Whitman, the strange American poet (1819-1892), whose famous Leaves

of Grass (1855) excited an uproar in America, and gave the author a much more serious reputation in Europe. Stevenson's interest in him was genuine, but not partisan, and his essay, The Gospel According to Walt Whitman (The New Quarterly Magazine, Oct. 1878), is perhaps the most judicious appreciation in the English language of this singular poet. Job, Omar Khayyam, Carlyle and Whitman, taken together, certainly give a curious collection of what the Germans call Weltanschauungen.

Page 48. A vapour, or a show, or made out of the same stuff with dreams. For constant comparisons of life with a vapour or a show, see Quarles's Emblems (1635), though these conventional figures may be found thousands of times in general literature. The latter part of the sentence refers to the Tempest, Act IV, Scene I.

"We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."

Page 48. Permanent Possibility of Sensation. "Matter then, may be defined, a Permanent Possibility of Sensation." John Stuart Mill, Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, Vol. I. Chap. XI.

Page 49. Like the Commander's Statue. In the familiar story of Don Juan, where the audacious rake accepts the Commander's invitation to supper. For treatments of this theme, see Molière's play Don Juan, or Mozart's opera Don Giovanni; see also Bernard Shaw's paradoxical play, Man and Superman. We have some

thing else in hand, thank God, and let him knock. It is possible that Stevenson's words here are an unconscious reminiscence of Colley Cibber's letter to the novelist Richardson This unabashed old profligate celebrated the Christmas Day of his eightieth year by writing to the apostle of domestic virtue in the following strain: "Though Death has been cooling his heels at my door