" De Quincey,
led on by the current of his own thoughts,--though he was always too
courteous to absorb the entire conversation,--talks on "till it is far
into the night, and slight hints and suggestions are propagated about
separation and home-going. The topic starts new ideas on the progress of
civilization, the effect of habit on men in all ages, and the power of
the domestic affections. Descending from generals to the specials, he
could testify to the inconvenience of late hours: for was it not the
other night, that, coming to what was, or what he believed to be, his
own door, he knocked and knocked, but the old woman within either
couldn't or wouldn't hear him, so he scrambled over a wall, and, having
taken his repose in a furrow, was able to testify to the extreme
unpleasantness of such a couch?"
"Shall I try another sketch of him, when, travel-stained and foot-sore,
he glided in on us one night like a shadow, the child by the fire gazing
on him with round eyes of astonishment, and suggesting that he should
get a penny and go home,--a proposal which he subjected to some
philosophical criticism very far wide of its practical tenor.
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