The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

what he regarded as a trivial offense, the earl’s son was
convinced that the law is an ass, and did not hesitate to
tell everyone so.
law of the jungle See survival of the fi ttest.
law of the Medes and Persians (meedz, perzhuns)
A rule or practice that is followed with great
strictness or rigidity and is to all appearances
unalterable. <strong>The</strong> phrase appears in a passage in
Daniel 6:8, in which a group of advisers suggests
that King Darius issue a decree under the terms
of which any person praying to anyone other
than the king should be thrown into the lions’
den: “Now, O King, establish the decree, and
sign the writing, that it be not changed, according
to the law of the Medes and Persians, which
altereth not.” <strong>The</strong> laws of the Medes and Persians
had been merged since 550 b.c. when the Persian
king Cyrus the Great gained control of
Media. “ ‘I am laying down good intentions,
which I believe durable as fl int. . . . and at this
moment I pass a law, unalterable as that of the
Medes and Persians’ ” (Charlotte Brontë, Jane
Eyre, 1847).
Lawrence of Arabia (lorbns, braybeeb) A person
who demonstrates expertise in some way with life
in the desert. <strong>The</strong> title was originally bestowed
upon the British soldier and writer T. E. Lawrence
(1888–1935), an unconventional adventurer who
led Arab forces against the Turks in the Arabian
region during World War I with considerable success.
A complex and private man, he shunned publicity
after the war and enlisted under a different
name in the RAF before dying in a motorbike
accident. <strong>The</strong> story of his war years was spectacularly
retold in the 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia,
starring Peter O’Toole as the enigmatic Lawrence.
lay not up trea sures upon earth
He had himself photographed on a camel in full Arab
dress, looking like Lawrence of Arabia.
Lawrencian (lorenseebn) Reminiscent of the
style, subjects, or characters of the writings of the
British novelist D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930).
Though he took up a variety of themes in his novels,
including class tensions and the effects of
industrialization, Lawrence earned a somewhat
notorious reputation for his treatment of such
earthy themes as adultery and sexuality, and the
term Lawrencian is sometimes applied to men
who exude elemental, sexual passion. Her husband
was a Lawrencian brute with few manners.
law unto oneself, a Disregarding the wishes and
conventions of others in favor of what one wants
or believes. <strong>The</strong> phrase is biblical in origin, appearing
in Romans 2:14: “For when the Gentiles,
which have not the law, do by nature the things
contained in the law, these, having not the law, are
a law unto themselves.” In the original context the
meaning is that the moral nature of the Gentiles
serves in place of the law of Moses to show God’s
demands. In this sense, the Gentiles are “a law
unto themselves.” “<strong>The</strong> wind, which had hauled
round, rose at sundown and blew steadily. <strong>The</strong>re
was not enough sea, though, to disturb even a
dory’s tackle, but the Carrie Pitman was a law
unto herself ” (Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous,
1897).
lay hands on the ark See ark of the covenant.
lay not up trea sures upon earth It is futile devoting
one’s life to the hoarding of worldly riches.
<strong>The</strong> sentiment is voiced by Christ in his Sermon
on the Mount, as recounted in Matthew 6:19–20:
277