douze voix, i.e. chanteurs ; so wo?on.s= violonistes

maître d'hôtel : officier ou domestique en chef d'une grande maison, qui préside au service de table.

Page 33. 1. 32. en cour=a, la cour.

1. 37. le Sadder : the Vendîdâd-Sadeh, an arrangement of the Avesta u.sed as a liturgy.

Page 34. 1. 14. Mithra, ' the pure light of day,' truth, goodness ; the power through whom Ornuizd (see note on p. 23, 1. 10) is victorious over evil ; ' the strongest of ail gods, the most valiant, the most energetic, the swiitest of ail gods, the most fiend-smiting of ail gods.' — Avesta.

1. 17. le feu sacré. Fire, as an emblem of the Eternal Light, was sacred ainong the Zoroastrians, and always carefully tended and kept burning in their temples and homes, for its extinction was the victory of the powers of darkness. With the corruption of the faith it became itself an object of worship. . .

1. 23. acception de personne. Cf. Ga). ii. 6, ' God accepteth no man's person.'

1. 26. assez de figures. M. Lanson says of Voltaire : ' C'est plutôt par la précision du détail que par l'éclat des analogies sensibles qu'il colore son style ' (L'Art de la prose, c. xii). Cf. Voltaii"e's criticism of Fontenelle, Micromégas, c. ii.

Page 35. 1.11. passé de mode. Voltaire is criticizing the théâtre of bis own time. As he suggests, tragedy heui become a lifeless form, and comedy had grown serious, lightly sentimental, or even avowedly pathetic. His own tast© preferred the classic models of the preceding century.

1. 12. U avait du goût. See the description of a performance at the théâtre in Le Monde comme il va, p. 7, 11. 18-38.

1. 35. Astarté. This name is given to the queen becauso it is one of the forms of Ashtoreth, Ishtar, the Eastern goddess who descended into the underworld to bring Tammuz to earth agaiu.

Page 36. 1.15. sen«î6?e= qui est aisément ému, touché. The mcaning is différent in p. 49, 1. 2, ' une consolation sensible,' i. e. qui fait impression sur l'âme.

Page 37. 1. 32. babouche, a heelless slipper of coloured leather.