THOMAS DE QUINCEY ***
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[Transcriber's Notes: Text that was in italics in the original book is shown between _underscore characters_ and text that was in small caps is shown as ALL CAPS. Footnotes from the article titles are at the end of the first paragraph of the article; all others follow the paragraph in which they are referenced. The variation in the spelling of some words is maintained from the original.]
[Illustration: (handwritten) Very truly yours, Thomas de Quincey.]
THE UNCOLLECTED WRITINGS OF THOMAS DE QUINCEY.
WITH A PREFACE AND ANNOTATIONS BY JAMES HOGG.
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.
[Illustration]
LONDON: SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
1890.
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON & BUNGAY.
PREFACE.
'_The last fruit off an old tree!_' This, in the words of WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR, is what I have now the honour to set before the public in these hitherto 'UNCOLLECTED WRITINGS OF THOMAS DE QUINCEY.'
It was my privilege to be associated intimately with the Author some thirty to forty years ago--from the beginning of 1850 until his death in 1859.[1] Throughout the whole period during which he was engaged in preparing for the Press his _Selections Grave and Gay_, I assisted in the task.
[Footnote 1: DE QUINCEY, LEIGH HUNT, and MACAULAY all died in that year.]
Of the singularly pleasant literary intercourse of that memorable time I have given some reminiscences in _Harper's Magazine_ for this month. I may yet combine in a Volume with these some amusing, scholarly letters in my possession, and a Selection of Papers from the original sources, which I feel warranted, by the Author's own estimate, in calling _De Quincey's Choice Works_. Meantime, in dealing with the various Essays and Stories here gathered together, I limit myself to such notes as are necessary to point out the special circumstances under which some of the papers were written; in others the nature of the evidence I have found as to the indisputable authorship.
My special opportunities, derived from constant companionship and the continuous discussion with DE QUINCEY of matters concerning his writings, gave me the key to some of the admirable papers here reprinted. It also entitles me to say, that he would have included a number of them in his Collected Works alongside the _Suspiria de Profundis_ (Sighs from the Depths), had he lived to continue his labours.
When we find that most part of the _Suspiria_--perhaps the highest reach of his intellect in impassioned power--did not appear in the _Selections_ at all, the reader will at once understand that, in the Author's own opinion, the Essays and Stories now first collected, were neither less dignified in purpose nor less finished in style than those which had passed under his hand in the fourteen volumes he nearly completed. Rather like the _Suspiria_, some of these papers were reserved as material upon the revision of which his energy might be fitly bestowed when health would permit.
* * * * *
The interesting papers which appeared in _Tait's Magazine_ are all duly vouched for in that periodical. I have not touched any of the autobiographical matter which appeared in _Tait_,--the Author having recast that as well as the _Sketches from Childhood_, published in _The Instructor_ in the 'Autobiographic Sketches' with which he opened the _Selections_. _The Casuistry of Duelling_, indeed, appeared in _Tait_ as part of the Autobiographic Series, but, practically, it stood as an independent paper. The touching personal passage in this article reveals the misery caused by the unbridled scurrility of certain notorious publications of the last generation.
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