two candles- an Irish custom.   - Euclid - Euclid's Elements; geometry.     More      stirabout -  porridge, oatmeal.     faintsand worms -   faints are the "impure spirits" that come through a still.  Worms are the condensing coils of a still.  James Joyce's father, John, worked as Secretary of a distillery that  made "Dublin Whiskey" in Chapelizod.  Vivien Igoe, in James Joyce's Dublin Houses reports that "John Joyce was always 'talking of feints and worms'...and had 'endless stories about the distillery'  like Old Cotter."       learn to box his corner-    precisely what the gnomon symbol asks him to do. However, the phrase, according to Don Gifford, means "Let him go out and learn to make a living and get ahead in the world."  "Corner", Gifford reports, is slang for "share" or "proceeds."                Rosicrucian - the implication is that the boy is a dreamer, a conceptualizer.  The Rosicrucians are an international association of Christian mystics.       More info .                 nipper - a little child.                     safe- a cooled repository for protecting perishable food.   Ken Monaghan, James Joyce's  nephew, writes: "We had just such an article of furniture in our house in the west of Ireland.  It consisted of a rather square wooden cabinet on a base with a wire mest door.  The safe was always kept in the basement or the back of the house where it was coolest.  The wire mesh basically kept the flies out.  It was not an icebox as such since in those days particularly in remote parts of the west of Ireland ice was not available."        Great Britain Street- a very poor area (now called Parnell St.)        Drapery - originallya shop that sold cloth, or a place where cloth was made.  By this date stores  called Draperies were selling clothing and other textile fabrics.  Some had broadened their wares to include other products. Joyce gives us precise information about this shop: "The drapery was principally children's boots and umbrellas, and on ordinary days there used to be notice hanging in the window, which said 'Umbrellas recovered''' (from "The Sisters" 1904).     R.I.P. - Rest In Peace. (Latin: requiescat in pacem.)                - High Toast - a brand of snuff.             more                - at check - abruptly halted.  The associations of  check predominately relate to hunting or to fighting.  "To win a check" means to inflict a defeat [OED]. ( In the game of Chess, being "at check" means that the opponents' king is directly threatened, but since Joyce does not use any other Chess metaphors, this is unlikely to apply.)             - inefficacious - ineffective, not producing the result desired.                   the Irish college in Rome- Gifford, citing the history of this seminary, states that "the fact that  Father Flynn was educated at the Irish College implies that he was regarded as an outstanding candidate for the priesthood, the more remarkable since he was born in the lower-class neighborhood of Irishtown."  The Irish seminary in Rome opened in 1628, was closed by Napoleon in 1798, reopened in 1826.  - the meaning of the different ceremonies of the Mass - the Roman Catholic Mass is built around the Eucharist, modeled after the Last Supper and intended to renew that divine mystery.  Here follows the statement on the Eucharist from article 47 of the Vatican Council Constitution on the Divine Liturgy :      "At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross throughout the  ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal  banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us."   As to the complexity of the Mass, consider this statement in The Catholic Encyclopedia: The very complicated rules of all kinds, the minute rubrics that must be obeyed by the celebrant and his ministers, all the details of coincidence and commemoration -- these things, studied at length by students before they are ordained, must be sought in a book of ceremonial (Le Vavasseur, quoted in the bibliography, is perhaps now the best). Moreover, articles on all the chief parts of the Mass, describing how they are carried out, and others on vestments, music, and the other ornaments of the service, will be found in The Catholic Encyclopedia.        More