The English Mail-Coach and Joan of ArcDe Quincey, Thomas
General
The English Mail-Coach and Joan of Arc
De Quincey, Thomas
English essays; Joan, of Arc, Saint, 1412-1431
8 18 ALL MORALITY,--ARISTOTLE'S, ZENO'S, CICERO'S: Each of these three
has a high place in the history of ethical teaching. Aristotle wrote
the so-called _Nicomachean Ethics_. According to his teaching, "ethical
virtue is that permanent direction of the will which guards the mean
[_to méson_] proper for us... Bravery is the mean between cowardice
and temerity; temperance, the mean between inordinate desire and stupid
indifference; etc." (Ueberweg, _History of Philosophy_, Vol. I, p. 169).
Zeno, who died about 264 B.C., founded about 308 the Stoic sect, which
took its name from the "Painted Porch" (_Stoa poklae_) in the Agora at
Athens, where the master taught. The Stoics held that men should be free
from passion, and undisturbed by joy or grief, submitting themselves
uncomplainingly to their fate. Such austere views are, of course, as far
as possible removed from those of the Eudæmonist, who sought happiness
as the end of life. Cicero was the author of De Officiis, "Of Duties."
9 9 ASTROLOGICAL SHADOWS: misfortunes due to being born under an unlucky
star; house of life is also an astrological term.
9 24 VON TROIL'S ICELAND: The Letters on Iceland (Pinkerton's Voyages
and Travels, Vol. I, p. 621), containing Observations ... made during
a Voyage undertaken in the year 1772, by Uno Von Troil, D.D., of
Stockholm, contains no chapter of the kind. Such a chapter had appeared,
however, in N. Horrebow's (Danish, 1758) Natural History of Iceland:
"Chap. LXXII. Concerning snakes. No snakes of any kind are to be met
with throughout the whole island." In Boswell's Johnson, Vol. IV, p.
314, Temple ed., there is a much more correct allusion, which may have
been in De Quincey's mind: "Langton said very well to me afterwards,
that he could repeat Johnson's conversation before dinner, as Johnson
had said that he could repeat a complete chapter of The Natural History
of Iceland, from the Danish of Horrebow, the whole of which was exactly
thus: 'Chap. LXXII. Concerning Snakes. There are no snakes to be met
with throughout the whole island.'"
9 25 A PARLIAMENTARY RAT: one who deserts his own party when it is
losing.
10 16 "JAM PROXIMUS," etc.: Æneid, II, lines 311-312: "Now next (to
Deiphobus' house) Ucalegon (i.e. his house) blazes!"
11 27 QUARTERINGS: See p. 47, footnote, and note 47 2.
11 32 WITHIN BENEFIT OF CLERGY: Benefit of clergy was, under old English
law, the right of clerics, afterward extended to all who could read, to
plead exemption from trial before a secular judge. This privilege was
first legally recognized in 1274, and was not wholly abolished until
1827.
12 9 QUARTER SESSIONS: This court is held in England in the counties by
justices of the peace for the trial of minor criminal offenses and to
administer the poor laws, etc.
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