"The grass withereth — the flower fadeth" Isaiah 40: 6–8: "A voice says, 'Cry!' / And I said, 'What shall I cry?' / All flesh is grass, / and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. / The grass withers, the flower fades, / when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; / surely the people is grass. / The grass withers, the flower fades; / but the word of our God will stand for ever."
literary cabinet i.e., a bookcase, and, by extension, its contents; Tom's "only literary cabinet" is his Bible.
"one who had 'learned in whatsoever state . . . .'" Philippians 4: 11: "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."
"that soft, insidious disease" i.e., tuberculosis.
spirituelle (French: spirituel) showing a refined nature.
canaille (French) the mob, rabble; a term of contempt for the common people.
St. Domingo the present-day island of Hispaniola; a slave rebellion there resulted in the formation of the country of Haiti.
sans culottes (French: literally, "without breeches") revolutionaries; a term of contempt applied by French aristocrats to the poorly equipped members of the French Revolutionary army, who substituted pantaloons for knee-breeches.
