[Note 2: NH3 and H2O. The first is the chemical formula for ammonia: the second, for water.] [Note 3: _That way madness lies. King Lear_, III, 4, 21.] [Note 4: _A pediculous malady ... locomotory_. Stevenson was fond of strange words. "Pediculous" means covered with lice, lousy.] [Note 5: _The heart of his mystery. Hamlet_, Act III, Sc. 2, "you would pluck out the heart of my mystery." Mystery here means "secret," as in I. _Cor_. XIII, "Behold, I tell you a mystery."] [Note 6: _The thought of duty_. Kant said, "Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and the more steadily we reflect on them: _the starry heavens above and the moral law within_." (Conclusion to the _Practical Reason_--_Kritik der praktischen Vernunft_, 1788.)] [Note 7: _Assiniboia ... Calumet_. Assinibioia is a district of Canada, just west of Manitoba. _Calumet_ is the pipe of peace, used by North American Indians when solemnizing treaties etc. Its stem is over two feet long, heavily decorated with feathers etc.] [Note 8: _Drowns her child in the sacred river_. The sacred river of India is the Ganges; before British control, children were often sacrificed there by drowning to appease the angry divinity.] [Note 9: _The touch of pity_. "No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity." _Richard III_, Act I, Sc. 2, vs. 71. _This ennobled lemur_. A lemur is a nocturnal animal, something like a monkey.] [Note 10: _A new doctrine_. Evolution. Darwin's _Origin of Species_ was published in 1859. Many ardent Christians believe in its general principles to-day; but at first it was bitterly attacked by orthodox and conservative critics. A Princeton professor cried, "Darwinism is Atheism!"] [Note 11: _Cultus_. Stevenson liked this word. _The swarming ant_. "The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer."--_Proverbs_, XXX. 25. For a wonderful description of an ant battle, see Thoreau's _Walden_.] [Note 12: _Everest_. Mount Everest in the Himalayas, is the highest mountain in the world, with an altitude of about 29,000 feet.] [Note 13: _The whole creation groaneth. Romans_, VIII, 22.] [Note 14: _That double law of the members_. See Note 10 of Chapter VI above.] [Note 15: _Den of the vivisectionist_. See Note 2 of Chapter VI above.] [Note 16: _In our isle of terror_. Cf. Herriet, _The White Island_. "In this world, the isle of dreams, While we sit by sorrow's streams, Tears and terrors are our themes."] [Note 17: _Man that wearies in well-doing. Galatians_, VI, 9.] [Note 18: _Surely not all in vain_. At heart, Stevenson belongs not to the pessimists nor the skeptics, but to the optimists and the believers. A man may have no formal creed, and yet be a believer. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson