After a rummage in his pockets, which
develops miscellaneous and varied, but as yet by no means valuable,
possessions, he at last comes to the object of his search, a crumpled
bit of paper, and spread it out,--a fifty-pound bank-note! All sums of
money were measured by him through the common standard of immediate use;
and, with more solemn pomp of diction than he applied to the bank-note,
might he inform you, that, with the gentleman opposite, to whom he had
hitherto been entirely a stranger, but who happened to be the nearest to
him at the time when the exigency occurred to him, he had just succeeded
in negotiating a loan of two-pence."
These pictures, though true to certain phases of De Quincey's outward
life, are yet far from personally representing him, even to the eye.
They satisfy curiosity, and that is about all. As to the real character
of the man, they are negative and unessential; they represent, indeed,
his utter carelessness as to all that, like dress, may at pleasure be
put on or off, but "the human child incarnate" is not thus brought
before us.
Pages:
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327