The phrase "Against The Day" in Mason & Dixon

[kelber at mindspring.com]

It's used one more time on p. 683 (I actually plowed through the list of citations of the word "against" in the "look inside this book" feature on the Amazon site -- it's official:  I have no life):

p. 683 (in part):

" ... yet, whilst they bide in this Realm of the Penny-foolish and Pound-idiotick, till the Moment they must pass over the Crest of the Savage Mountain, does their remain to them, contrary to Reason, against the Day, a measurable chance, to turn, to go back out of no more than Stubbornness, and somehow make all come right ..."

"Day" seems to refer to "enlightenment" in this context.

Later on this same page, the phrase "against the low-lit Day" is used, and TRP also uses the phrase "against the sky" a number of times.  The way he uses these phrases suggests (to me, anyway) that "against the day" means something akin to "holding up for examination or comparison" to the "light" or "enlightenment."  More in keeping with Robin's "light" interpretation than the OED "storage" usages.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: robinlandseadel at comcast.net

>
>           Mason nods, gazing past the little Harbor, out to Sea. 
>           None of his business where Maskelyne goes, or 
>           comes,---God let it remain so. The Stars wheel into 
>           the blackness of the broken steep Hills guarding the 
>           Mouth of the Valley. Fog begins to stir against the 
>           Day swelling near. Among the whiten'd Rock Walls 
>           of the Houses seethes a great Whisper of Living Voice.
>           Mason & Dixon, pg 125
>