The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-07-13

for days in studying afresh his high
gifts n writing a twenty page es-
say upon his qualities as a writer and
his productions with which he enrich
ed the world. When the reading world
drops such a writer as DeQuincey it
has no one living to substitute for him.
The critical studies and reflective es-
says OF this author are full Of inspira-
ton and learning and insight and are
"a JOY forever" TO the sympathetic and
receptive reader. We have found in
more than half a century OF reading
in the worlds rich literatures that
there are no more fascinating modern
authors than DeQuincey. Macaulay,
Thackaray and Froude. Today we wish
to glance at DeQuincey, and many fol-
low it hereafter, D. V.
He has left US many admirable bio
graphical papers that are indeed wor-
thy Of all praise. We know Of nothing
finer, nobler in English thar his dis
cussions Of Shakespeare and Pope, in
the Encyclopaedia Britannica" They are
written with that acuteness of thought
and splendid eloQuence which distin-
guish him when in his Ioftiest mood.
His remarkably able paper on the
Logic of Political Economy is full Of
intellectual power, and should be read
by all who would see the great strength
of u author, when he has a subject
undo discussion that appeals to his
~profoundest sympathy and is specially
adapted to his great analytical and
ratiocinative abilities. In hat produc-
ton he displays much mastery, and
proves himself to be in the severer
walks Of letters-"Ay, every inch a
king"
His powers of narration were extra
ordinary as every attentive student of
his works will allow. He manifests
this gift in many papers, notably in
his "Suspiria de Profundis" and in his
! unique essay-"Murder, considered as
n Of the Fine Arts" But we know
not to what volumes to direct atten-
ton specially that you may see how
varied and splendid were his endow-
ments. AS We have said, his published
writings are contained in some twenty
odd Volumes. Probably you may gath
er from a patient reading of six or
eight Of them a fair idea of his supreme
excellencies-his noble elo~quence, his
| pure taste, his intellectual strength,
his mellowed %splendor, the golden glow
of many of his best passages, and his
lavish Opulence Of thought, of humor,
Of learning, of Illustration. We would
mention the opium Eater and its
Sequel" Biographical Papers: The
illogical Papers," and those volumes
containing his critical articles on the
poets, on Plato and other great think
erS.
In boyhood DeQuincey became a vic
time of the opium habit. It mastered
him for a long time and he never COM
pletely abandoned the vicious habit
He gives a very interesting history of
his own experience with this ~fateful,
dominating habit, in his most unique
n original, THE Opium Eater" In
the Sequel the most wonderful "Sus-
piria de Profundis''-he gives some of
the dreams he had under its baleful
power, and nothing in English litera-
ture is more wondrous and splendid.
With all of his vast natural gifts and
most solid and varied learning; with
all Of his accomplishments and a style
of unsurpassed richness and f~ullness
since Milton wrote his prose pam
phlets and essays; with great and man.
fold endowments and acquisition, he,
like the great Samuel Taylor Coler-
idge, never accomplished but a small
part of what he might have done, but
e. 49, z-.
habit. He was always planning, as
did COleridge, some maSterfud york,
but was paralyzed in his energies by
the potent liquor he drank (taking
laudanum by the wine glass, and at
one time consuming daily from 5000 to
$500 drops, perhaps even more), and
his plans ended in dreams, in promises.
Af1uent, gorgeous sometimes, Of ORR
entail magnificence and multifariOus
qualities as are his writings, he has
given but imperfect attempts, produced
no great continuous work, left only
broken fragments when he might have
chiselled and perfected the most ex-
Quisite columns of marble that would
have rivalled those Of the great Greek
builders. he has left but married and
unfinished creations when his rich,
fecund brain and cunning hand might
have wrought beautiful statues that
would have equalled in purity of exc
cution and completeness of design the
marvellous works Of Phidias and Prax-
titles. In a word he has ~bequeathed to
the world only a torso When he could
have produced a statue in all of its
rounded completeness. His products
are fragments and not completed
works. But no one who has read the
best he has done, and it is not incon-
siderable if fragmentary ard not sub
stantive, and has been taken into the
inner circle of delight and fascination
a most charming tutelage-would never
agree 10 surrender what las been be-