Thomas De Quincey: His Life and Writings : with Unpublished Correspondence, Volume 2

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Scribner, Armstrong, 1877
 

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Page 226 - And a magic voice and verse Hath baptized thee with a curse; And a spirit of the air Hath begirt thee with a snare; In the wind there is a voice Shall forbid thee to rejoice; And to thee shall Night deny All the quiet of her sky; And the day shall have a sun, Which shall make thee wish it done.
Page 236 - The mistake of most people is, to suppose that it is by the ear they communicate with music, and therefore that they are purely passive to its effects. But this is not so ; it is by the reaction of the mind upon the notices of the ear (the matter coming by the senses, the form from the mind) that the pleasure is constructed ; and therefore it is that people of equally good ear differ so much in this point from one another.
Page 174 - PARTING AT MORNING ROUND the cape of a sudden came the sea, And the sun looked over the mountain's rim And straight was a path of gold for him, And the need of a world of men for me.
Page 225 - I often heard in dreams — a music of preparation and of awakening suspense, a music like the opening of the Coronation Anthem, and which, like that, gave the feeling of a vast march, of infinite cavalcades filing off, and the tread of innumerable armies. The morning was come of a mighty day — a day of crisis and of final hope for human nature, then suffering some mysterious eclipse, and labouring in some dread extremity.
Page 65 - ... him, as if he were some martyr glorified by that shadow of death from which he was returning ; whilst, on his part, the soldier, stepping back, and carrying his open hand through the beautiful motions of the military salute to a superior, makes this immortal answer — that answer which shut up for ever the memory of the indignity offered to him, even whilst for the last time alluding to it:— "Sir," he said, " I told you before that I would make you repent it.
Page 225 - ... issue. I, as is usual in dreams (where, of necessity, we make ourselves central to every movement), had the power, and yet, had not the power to decide it. I had the power, if I could raise myself, to will it; and yet again had not the power; for the weight of twenty Atlantics was upon me, or the oppression of inexpiable guilt. 'Deeper than ever plummet sounded,
Page 63 - At length all is over; the redoubt has been recovered ; that which was lost is found again; the jewel which had been made captive is ransomed with blood.
Page 180 - ... granted from the secret burdens of the heart; some sabbath of repose; some resting from human labours. Here were the hopes which blossom in the paths of life, reconciled with the peace which is in the grave; motions of the intellect as unwearied as the heavens, yet for all anxieties a halcyon calm; tranquillity that seemed no product of inertia, but as if resulting from mighty and equal antagonisms; infinite activities, infinite repose.
Page 312 - Street, and in less time than could be imagined, returned to me with a glass of port wine and spices, that acted upon my empty stomach (which at that time would have rejected all solid food) with an instantaneous power of restoration...
Page 191 - ... know not where, but apparently about the region of the stomach) which compelled me violently to throw out my feet for the sake of relieving it.

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