No one of these erratic visitors
can remember the time when she was not making a stir somewhere in the
universe, or when a cloudy night, intercepting her from vision, would
not have been as surely execrated as are the colds which afflict _prima
donnas_.
Strikingly similar to our interest in these heavenly bodies is that
which we manifest in mortal men. Here, too, it is the darkened orb or
the eccentric comet that bespeaks especial notice. Judged by this
interest, considered in its vulgar aspects, De Quincey would suffer
gross injustice. Externally, and at one period of his life, I am certain
that he had all the requisite qualifications for collecting a mob about
him, and that, had he appeared in the streets of London after one of his
long sojourns amongst the mountains, no unearthly wight of whatever
description, no tattered lunatic or Botany-Bay convict, would have been
able to vie with him in the picturesque _deshabille_ of the whole
"turnout." Picture to yourself the scene.
Pages:
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320