What is the literal significance of this word? As
synonymous with what words is it often incorrectly used?
28 11. For now began to unroll. Does this paragraph constitute a
digression, or is it a useful amplification of the narrative? Does De
Quincey exaggerate when he terms these experiences of the Tartars "the
most awful series of calamities anywhere recorded"?
28 14. sudden inroads. "The inroads of the Huns into Europe extended
from the third century into the fifth; those of the Avars from the
sixth century to the eighth or ninth; the first great conquests of the
Mongol Tartars were by Genghis-Khan, the founder of a Mongol empire
which stretched, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, from
China to Poland."--MASSON.
28 18. volleying lightning. Compare p. 2, l. 1, where De Quincey uses
a somewhat similar phrase. Why is the phrase varied, do you suppose?
28 21. the French retreat. It would be interesting to compare the
incidents and figures of this retreat, as furnished by biographers and
historians. Sloane's _Life of Napoleon_ is a recent authority.
28 26. vials of wrath. Compare _Revelation_, xv, 7, and xvi, 1. If
De Quincey had used the Revised Version he would have written _bowls_
instead of _vials_. Such borrowings of phrase or incident are called
"allusions." Make a list of the scriptural allusions found in the
essay,--of those suggested by Milton.
29 16. Earthquakes. "De Quincey here refers to such destructive
shocks as that which occurred at Sparta, 464 B.
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