7—111. **Lethean Ground.** Lethe, in classic mythology, signifies oblivion. It was the name of a river in Hades, of which the dead drank and forgot all.
8—117. **O Thou, Of Beauty!** The stanza beginning with these words is an apostrophe to Woman.
9—130. **Apple of Ashes.** On the shores of the Dead Sea there grows, it is said, a fruit resembling the apple, beautiful and inviting to the eye, but turning to ashes at the touch.
10—167. **Equally May Win.** The vanquished, as well as the victorious, may gain, through experience, development.
11—174. **What Soul Can Grow?** Pride, greed, hate, and all other perverted passions, are as weeds and thorns in the garden of the heart. It is fair to presume that the Saviour, when he exhorted his disciples to forgive and love their enemies, had in view the welfare of the disciples themselves. It was more for their sake than for the sake of their enemies, that He gave the exhortation.
12—185. **The Spirit of the Infinite.** The Holy Spirit, assumed throughout the poem to be acting through "Elias," the Genius of Progress, who also has his agents or instruments.
13—219. **Time's Hills and Vales.** A metaphor suggested by the Book of Abraham (3:18, 19).
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CANTO TWO
1—Title: **The Soul of Song.** Herein the author is represented as soliloquising upon his native mountains, where he meets the Soul of Song and is inspired to sing the epic of time and eternity. As the Soul of Song, "Elias" makes his first appearance in the action of the poem.