THE UNCOLLECTED WRITINGS
OF
THOMAS DE QUINCEY.
WITH
A PREFACE AND ANNOTATIONS
BY
JAMES HOGG.
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.
LONDON:
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO.,
PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
1890.
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
London & Bungay.
PREFACE.
'The last fruit off an old tree!' This, in the wordsof Walter Savage Landor, is what I have now thehonour to set before the public in these hitherto'Uncollected Writings of Thomas De Quincey.'
It was my privilege to be associated intimatelywith the Author some thirty to forty years ago—fromthe beginning of 1850 until his death in 1859.[1]Throughout the whole period during which he wasengaged in preparing for the Press his SelectionsGrave and Gay, I assisted in the task.
Of the singularly pleasant literary intercourse ofthat memorable time I have given some reminiscencesin Harper's Magazine for this month. I may yetcombine in a Volume with these some amusing,scholarly letters in my possession, and a Selection ofPapers from the original sources, which I feel warranted,by the Author's own estimate, in calling DeQuincey's Choice Works. Meantime, in dealing withthe various Essays and Stories here gathered together,I limit myself to such notes as are necessary to point[Pg vi]out the special circumstances under which some ofthe papers were written; in others the nature ofthe evidence I have found as to the indisputableauthorship.
My special opportunities, derived from constantcompanionship and the continuous discussion with DeQuincey of matters concerning his writings, gave methe key to some of the admirable papers here reprinted.It also entitles me to say, that he would have includeda number of them in his Collected Works alongsidethe Suspiria de Profundis (Sighs from the Depths),had he lived to continue his labours.
When we find that most part of the Suspiria—perhapsthe highest reach of his intellect in impassionedpower—did not appear in the Selections at all, thereader will at once understand that, in the Author'sown opinion, the Essays and Stories now first collected,were neither less dignified in purpose nor less finishedin style than those which had passed under his handin the fourteen volumes he nearly completed. Ratherlike the Suspiria, some of these papers were reservedas material upon the revision of which his energymight be fitly bestowed when health would permit.
The interesting papers which appeared in Tait'sMagazine are all duly vouched for in that p