177-84. A thing that is beautiful in itself, as this story is, needs no moral. “Beauty is its own excuse for being.”
185-92. In all things in Nature we can find a meaning if we choose. So with this story, as with other forms of art, it is possible to read into it different meanings.
YOU ASK ME, WHY, THO’ ILL AT EASE.
2-4. England, whose misty climate depresses the spirits and makes men long for the warmth and colour of the South.
6. sober-suited. Not showy.
10. of just and old renown. England has long been renowned for her free institutions, and justly so.
11-2. British freedom has been gained gradually, each new step growing out of events that have gone before. The Magna Charta, for example, was a precedent for the Petition of Right.
13. Those who seek to create dissension seldom succeed in bringing about an actual struggle.
15. A diffusive thought is one which readily spreads or circulates from mind to mind.