He had discovered
a very remarkable anachronism in the commonly received histories of a
very important period. As he expounded it, turning up his unearthly face
from the book with an almost painful expression of grave eagerness, it
occurred to me that I had seen something like the scene in Dutch
paintings of the Temptation of St. Anthony."
I cannot refrain from quoting from Mr. Burton one more example,
illustrative of the fact that De Quincey, in money-matters, considered
merely the immediate and pressing exigencies of the present. "He arrives
very late at a friend's door, and on gaining admission,--a process in
which he often endured impediments,--he represents, with his usual
silver voice and measured rhetoric, the absolute necessity of his being
then and there invested with a sum of money in the current coin of the
realm,--the amount limited, from the nature of his necessities, which he
very freely states, to seven shillings and sixpence. Discovering, or
fancying he discovers, that his eloquence is likely to prove
unproductive, he is fortunately reminded, that, should there be any
difficulty in connection with security for the repayment of the loan, he
is at that moment in possession of a document which he is prepared to
deposit with the lender,--a document calculated, he cannot doubt, to
remove any feeling of anxiety which the moat prudent person could
experience in the circumstances.
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