(The Late Fleeming Jenkin.) As the note says, this was Professor Fleeming Jenkin, who died 12 June 1885. He exercised a great influence over the younger man. Stevenson paid the debt of gratitude he owed him by writing the _Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin_, published first in America by Charles Scribner's Sons, in 1887.]
[Note 18: _Synthetic gusto; something of a Herbert Spencer_. The English philosopher, Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), whose many volumes in various fields of science and metaphysics were called by their author the _Synthetic Philosophy_. His most popular book is _First Principles_ (1862), which has exercised an enormous influence in the direction of agnosticism. His _Autobiography_, two big volumes, was published in 1904, and fell rather flat.]
[Note 19: _Like a thorough "glutton."_ This is still the slang of the prize-ring. When a man is able to stand a great deal of punching without losing consciousness or courage, he is called a "glutton for punishment."]
[Note 20: _Athelred_. Sir Walter Simpson, who was Stevenson's companion on the _Inland Voyage_. For a good account of him, see Balfour's _Life of Stevenson_, I, 106.]
[Note 21: "_Dry light_." "The more perfect soul," says Heraclitus, "is a dry light, which flies out of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud." Plutarch, _Life of Romulus_.]
[Note 22: _Opalstein_. This was the writer and art critic, John Addington Symonds (1840-1893). Like Stevenson, he was afflicted with lung trouble, and spent much of his time at Davos, Switzerland, where a good part of his literary work was done. "The great feature of the place for Stevenson was the presence of John Addington Symonds, who, having come there three years before on his way to Egypt, had taken up his abode in Davos, and was now building himself a house. To him the newcomer bore a letter of introduction from Mr. Gosse. On November 5th (1880) Louis wrote to his mother: 'We got to Davos last evening; and I feel sure we shall like it greatly. I saw Symonds this morning, and already like him; it is such sport to have a literary man around.... Symonds is like a Tait to me; eternal interest in the same topics, eternal cross-causewaying of special knowledge. That makes hours to fly.' And a little later he wrote: 'Beyond its splendid climate, Davos has but one advantage--the neighbourhood of J.A. Symonds. I dare say you know his work, but the man is far more interesting.'" (Balfour's _Life of Stevenson_, I, 214.) When Symonds first read the essay _Talk and Talkers_, he pretended to be angry, and said, "Louis Stevenson, what do you mean by describing me as a moonlight serenader?" (_Life_, I, 233.)]
[Note 23: _Proxime accessit_. "He comes very near to it."]
[Note 24: _Sirens ... Sphinx Byronic ... Horatian ... Don Giovanni ... Beethoven_. The Sirens were the famous women of Greek mythology, who lured mariners to destruction by the overpowering sweetness of their songs. How Ulysses outwitted them is well-known to all readers of the _Odyssey_. One of Tennyson's earlier poems, _The Sea-Fairies_, deals with the same theme, and indeed it has appeared constantly in the literature of the world.... The _Sphinx_, a familiar subject in Egyptian art, had a lion's body, the head of some other animal (sometimes man) and wings. It was a symbolical figure. The most famous example is of course the gigantic Sphinx near the Pyramids in Egypt, which has proved to be an inexhaustible theme for speculation and for poetry.... The theatrically tragic mood of _Byron_ is contrasted with the easy-going, somewhat cynical epicureanism of Horace.... _Don Giovanni_ (1787) the greatest opera of the great composer Mozart (1756-1791), tells the same story told by Moliere and so many others. The French composer, Gounod, said that Mozart's _Don Giovanni_ was the greatest musical composition that the world has ever seen.... _Beethoven_ (1770-1827) occupies in general estimation about the same place in the history of music that Shakspere fills in the history of literature.]
[Note 25: _Purcel_.