In the latter, there is beautiful order, as in a symphony of
Beethoven's; but in the former, looked upon from without, all seems
confusion. There is the same antithesis in every meditative mind; but
here opium has heightened each part of the contrast. The more we admire
the _en_centric harmonies of inwrapt power, the more do we find to draw
forth laughter in the eccentricities of outward habit. The very same
agencies which undisguised and unveiled the deep, divine heaven, masked
the earth with desert sands; and De Quincey's outward life was thus
masked and rendered abnormal, that the blue heaven in which he revelled
might be infinitely exalted.
Thus is it possible for the seemingly ludicrous to harmonize with
transcendent sublimity. We smile at De Quincey's giving in "copy" on the
generous margins of a splendid "Somnium Scipionis"; but the precious
words, that might perhaps have found some more fit vehicle to the
composer's eye, could have found no deeper place in our hearts.
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