We look
at the hatless sleeper among the mountains: his face seems utterly blank
and meaningless, and to all intents and purposes he seems as good as
dead; but let us ascend with him in his dreams, and we shall soon forget
that under God's heavens there exists mortality or the commonplace uses
of mortality.
As we ascend from grotesque features to such as are more intellectual,
that peculiarity of his character which most strikes us is his
inimitable courtesy. Mr. F.,--to whom I am indebted for the most novel
and interesting portions of this memorial,--from his own personal
interviews with the man, among many other things, retains this chiefly
in remembrance,--that De Quincey was the perfectest gentleman he had
ever seen.
I take the liberty here of particularizing somewhat in regard to one
visit which this friend of De Quincey's paid him, particularly as it
introduces us to the man towards the last of his life (1851). Mr. F.,
curious as it may seem, found but one person in Edinburgh who could
inform him definitely as to De Quincey's whereabouts.
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