Confessions of an English Opium-eater: Reprinted from the First Edition, with Notes of De Quincey's Conversations by Richard Woodhouse, and Other Additons |
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Alfred de Musset amongst appear Brasenose College c'est called character Charles Lamb child Coleridge Confessions cottage countenance darkness dit-il dreams drops Eater edition effect English épée Eton evanescent examination expressed feelings give Greek happiness heard heart honour hope human incident indulgence intellectual interesting knew Lamb language laudanum literary London Magazine looked Lord Malay manner matter MDCCC ment mind moral Musset narrative nature ness never night notice o'clock occasion once opium Opium-Eater Oxford Oxford-street pain passage passed perhaps person pleasure poet poor Quincey QUINCEY'S CONVERSATIONS reader reason Revolt of Islam scholar seemed sleep sometimes soon sort speak spirit stomach Street suffering summer suppose T. L. Peacock Taylor thing THOMAS DE QUINCEY thou thought tion took whilst whole Winkfield wished Worcester College word Wordsworth write young youth
Popular passages
Page 65 - ... of the world within me ! That my pains had vanished, was now a trifle in my eyes : — this negative effect was swallowed up in the immensity of those positive effects which had opened before me — in the abyss of divine enjoyment thus suddenly revealed. Here was a panacea — a ^UMO-/ nviyStt for all human woes: here was the secret of happiness, about which philosophers had disputed for so many ages, at once discovered : happiness might now be bought for a penny, and carried in the waistcoat...
Page 34 - ... and spices, that acted upon my empty stomach (which at that time would have rejected all solid food) with an instantaneous power of restoration ; and for this glass the generous girl, without a murmur, paid out of her own humble purse, at a time, be it remembered, when she had scarcely wherewithal to purchase the bare necessaries of life, and when she could have no reason to expect that I should ever be able to reimburse her.
Page 106 - But now farewell, a long farewell, to happiness, winter or summer ! farewell to «§£ smiles and laughter ! farewell to peace of mind ! farewell to hope and to tranquil dreams, and to the blessed consolations of sleep!
Page 35 - ... even so the benediction of a heart oppressed with gratitude, might have a like prerogative ; might have power given to it from above to chase, to haunt, to waylay, to overtake, to pursue thee into the central darkness of a London brothel, or (if it were possible) into the darkness of the grave, there to awaken thee with an authentic message of peace and forgiveness, and of final reconciliation...
Page 24 - The poor child crept close to me for warmth, and for security against her ghostly enemies. When I was not more than usually ill, I took her into my arms, so that, in general, she was tolerably warm, and often slept when I could not...
Page 104 - And, as it is very unpleasant to make tea, or to pour it out for one's self, paint me a lovely young woman, sitting at the table. Paint her arms like Aurora's, and her smiles like Hebe's; — but no, dear M., not even in jest let me insinuate that thy power to illuminate my cottage rests upon a tenure so perishable as mere personal beauty; or that the witchcraft of angelic smiles lies within the empire of any earthly pencil.
Page 103 - But here, to save myself the trouble of too much verbal description, I will introduce a painter, and give him directions for the rest of the picture. Painters do not like white cottages, unless a good deal weather-stained; but as the reader now understands that it is a winter night, his services will not be required, except for the inside of the house.
Page 263 - But, on the other hand, having the advantage of a prodigious memory, and the far greater advantage of a logical instinct for feeling in a moment the secret analogies or parallelisms that connected things else apparently remote, I enjoyed these two peculiar gifts for conversation : first, an inexhaustible fertility of topics, and therefore of resources for illustrating or for varying any subject that chance or purpose suggested ; secondly, a prematurely awakened sense of art applied to conversation.
Page 139 - However, a crisis arrived for the author's life, and a crisis for other objects still dearer to him, and which will always be far dearer to him than his life, even now that it is again a happy one. I saw that I must die, if I continued the opium : I determined, therefore, if that should be required, to die in throwing it off.
Page 114 - Mr. Ricardo had deduced, it priori, from the understanding itself, laws which first gave a ray of light into the unwieldy chaos of materials, and had constructed what had been but a collection of tentative discussions into a science of regular proportions, now first standing on an eternal basis.