276 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



the weight of nine times nine men ; whence, by the way, in the 

 ' circles' of the booksellers, the Review has got the name of the 

 JBreeches Review. 



" Thus much concerning the occasion of my letter. As to myself 

 — though I have written not as one who labors under much depres- 

 sion of mind — the fact is, I do so. At this time calamity presses 

 upon me with a heavy hand : — I am quite free of opium :* but it 

 has left the liver, which is the Achilles' heel of almost every human 

 fabric, subject to affections which are tremendous for the weight of 

 wretchedness attached to them. To fence with these with the one 

 hand, and with the other to maintain the war with the wretched 

 business of hack author, with all its horrible degradations — is more 

 than I am able to bear. At this moment I have not a place to hide 

 my head in. Something I meditate — I know not what — ' Itaque 

 e conspectu omnium abut.' With a good publisher and leisure to 

 premeditate what I write, I might yet liberate myself: after which, 

 having paid everybody, I would slink into some dark corner — 

 educate my children — and show my face in the world no more. 



" If you should ever have occasion to write to me, it will be best 

 to address your letter either ' to the care of Mrs. De Quincey, Ry- 

 dal Nab, Westmorelaud' (Fox Ghyll is sold, and will be given up 

 in a few days), or 'to the care of M. D. Hill, Esq., 11 King's Bench 

 Walk, Temple :' — but for the present, I think rather to the latter : 

 for else suspicions will arise that I am in Westmoreland, which, if I 

 were not, might be serviceable to me ; but if, as I am in hopes of 

 accomplishing sooner or later, I should be — might defeat my pur- 

 pose. 



" I beg my kind regards to Mrs. Wilson and my young friends, 

 whom I remember with so much interest as I last saw them at El- 

 leray, — and am, my dear Wilson, very affectionately yours, 



''Thomas De Quincey." 



In the following letter from my father to his friend, Mr. Findlay, 

 of Easter Hill, he refers to the death of his venerable mother, which 

 took place in December, 1824. The accident to my mother, to 

 which allusion is made, occurred in the previous summer ; he was- 

 driving with her and the children one day in the neighborhood of 

 Ambleside, when the axletree gave way, and the carriage was ovw 



* To the very last he asserted this, but the habit, although modified, was never abandoned. 



