" His, at least, was
the felicity of this echoless peace.
In no memorial is it so absolutely requisite that a marked prominence
should be given to its first section as in De Quincey's. This is a
striking peculiarity in his life. If it were not so, I should have
seriously transgressed in keeping the reader's attention so long upon a
point which, aside from such peculiarity, would yield no sufficient, at
least no proportionate value. But, in the treatment of any life, that
cannot seem disproportionate which enters into it as an element only and
just in that ratio of prominence with which it enters into the life
itself, No stream can rise above the level of its source. No life, which
lacks a prominent interest as to its beginnings, can ever, in its entire
course, develop any distinguishing features of interest. This is true of
any life; but it is true of De Quincey's above all others on record,
that, through all its successive arches, ascending and descending, it
repeats the original arch of childhood.
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