géométrique, or rather algebraical

Page 30.

1. 2. assoupir PEurope. Happily Napoleon did not adopt the politic course of isolating England. His behaviour to the other powers was so much the opposite of what is here suggested [assoupir I' Europe) that a new coalition was formed with but little delay.

1. 3. dépassés. We should paraphrase it by saying that they were no longer within the sphere of practical politics. The first had been partially realized, the second not at all, the third more or less completely.

1. 5. jouait à vide, jouer à vide means to work without pumping water, just as mâcher à vide means to move the jaws without any food between them.

1. 6. Marly. A village on the Seine near St Germain, where a hydraulic machine was erected at enormous cost in 1685 to supply the

ioo LA CANNE DE JONC.

fountains &c. at Versailles and St Cloud. That part of the village is called Marly-la-Machine.

1. 7. la conscience, 'consciousness,' not of course 'conscience.' Thus a somnabulist is said to have double conscience.

1. 11. dès le lendemain. We say simply 'on the day after.' For the meaning of dès see E.B. 164 a.

1. 13. des bordées (accusative not genitive) here means 'tacks' ; it often means broadsides of artillery.

1. 16. comme un cygne, a very natural simile for a ship. Thus Lord Tennyson says that the barge that bore Arthur away

"Moved from the brink, like some full-breasted swan, That, fluting a wild carol ere her death, Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood With swarthy webs."

1. 19. lancés. A young man started in his profession is said to be lancé. Perhaps we might translate 'in the thick of it.'

1. 22. de la terre ferme, from terra firma. As might be expected, some phrases in which we use Latin are translated into French. So Roma quadrata is rendered Rome carrée.

1. 23. prendre ses ébats. Exactly the same as s'ébattre ' to disport oneself.' There is the same idea in our phrase 'to have one's fling.'

1. 26. Notts fîmes force de. Faire force de voiles is 'to crowd on sail,' and is used metaphorically as well as literally. So faire force de rames, ' to row with all one's might. '

1. 27. nous nous démenions. The sense will be seen from the following: " Rustan suait, se démenait, se désespérait," Voltaire.

1. 30. changeant de maifi does not mean changing the bridle-hand, but turning the horse's head a little to the right or the left. Here it is used as if the horse itself changeait de main.

Page 31.

1. 4. moi dixibne. i.e. 'with nine others,' like the Greek Sê/caros aùrôs.

sur, 'out of,' E.B. 164.

1. 8. la Noyade, a word that had terrible associations in the early years of the Revolution, when many political prisoners were drowned in the Loire.

NOTES. ioi

1. 11. visitait, 'was examining,' the regular word for custom-house examination, among other things.