"pilgrims in the valley," reference to Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan (5.1)
Parsees, Zoroastrian sect (5.3)
"sword [...] imaginative head," reference to the Greek myth of Damocles (8.15)
"to bind and to lose," reference to Matthew 18:18 (8.16)
"funny enough to make angels weep," reference to Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare (9.1)
"one scolding desperately in a wilderness," reference to John 1:23 (18.7)
"daily bread," allusion to The Lord's Prayer (19.1)
"So halt' ich [...]" quote from Goethe's Tasso, which reads, "I hold it thus, at last, within my hands. And in an unambiguous sense can call it mine." (20.11)
"my very young brother," reference to Genesis 4:9 (21.6)
"snatched from the fire," reference to Jude 5:23 (27.7)
"who once gives way [...]" quote from William Hazlitt (36.7)