158. happier meanness. The people, because of their degraded condition, are happier in the enjoyment of these mean pleasures than they would be in pursuit of nobler aims.
160. Bring out the points of comparison in the simile.
167. bleak. Cheerless. mansion. Here, country.
168. churlish. Generally applied to people in the sense of rude in manner. Here, stubborn, unwilling to yield a harvest.
171. torpid. Sleepy, lifeless.
174. invest. Take possession.
176. Redress. Compensate for.
187. patient angle. An example of Transferred Epithet.
198. nightly. For the night; not “night after night.”
199. Supply that or which.