SELECTED

FROM THE WRITINGS

OF

THOMAS DE QUINCEY,

AUTHOR OF CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM EATER," ETU.

NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON.

BOSTON: H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

Cambridge: The Riverside Press.

1877.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by.

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

PREFACE.

THE writings of Thomas de Quincey occupy more than a score of volumes.

Comparatively few persons have leisure for the pereusal of so many miscellaneous works by the same author; yet, all who pretend to a knowledge of English Literature should be familiar with the chefs-d'œuvre of De Quincey-one of the greatest masters of the English Language.

His autobiography, scattered through many volumes, is here collected and so arranged as to give a complete view of his early life and his peculiar character. The other selections from his various works, furnish striking examples of the pathetic and the humorous, the quaint and the ludicrous, the serious and the sublime. The miscellaneous nature of De Quincey's writings renders them specially fit for this kind of eclecticism. It is hoped that the present volume will prove an acceptable addition to our current literature, and induce a desire for a still farther acquaintance with the elegant author.