: the change in the wording of
this sentence in De Quincey's revision is, as Masson remarks,
particularly characteristic of his sense of melody; it read in
_Blackwood_, "We ran past them faster than ever mill-race in our
inexorable flight."
52 15 HERE WAS THE MAP, ETC.: This sentence is an addition in the
reprint. Masson remarks "how artistically it causes the due pause
between the horror as still in rush of transaction and the backward
look at the wreck when the crash was past."
53 18 "WHENCE THE SOUND," ETC.: _Paradise Lost_, Book XI, 11. 558-
563.
54 3 WOMAN'S IONIC FORM: In thus using the word Ionic, De Quincey
doubtless has in mind the character of Ionic architecture, with its
tall and graceful column, differing from the severity of the Doric on
the one hand and from the floridity of the Corinthian on the other.
Probably he is thinking of a caryatid. Cf. the following version of the
old story of the origin of the styles of Greek architecture in
Vitruvius, IV, Chap. I (Gwilt's translation), quoted by Hart: "They
measured a man's foot, and finding its length the sixth part of his
height, they gave the column a similar proportion, that is, they made
its height six times the thickness of the shaft measured at the base.
Thus the Doric order obtained its proportion, its strength, and its
beauty from the human figure.
Pages:
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176