The Works of Thomas De Quincey, "The English Opium Eater"
The Works of Thomas De Quincey, "The English Opium Eater" (1863) De Quincey Thomas 1785-1859,
Publisher: General Books LLC
ISBN: 0217289045
Edition: Paperback; 2009-08-10
Summary:
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for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book:
SECRET SOCIETIES. At a very early age commenced my own interest in
the mystery that surrounds Secret Societies; the mystery being often
double—1. what they do; and 2. what they do it /or. Except for the
prematurity of this interest, in itself it was not surprising.
Generally speaking, a child may not—but every adult will, and must,
if at all by nature meditative—regard, with a feeling higher than
vulgar curiosity, small fraternities of men forming themselves as
separate and inner vortices within the great vortex of society;
communicating silently in broad daylight by signals not even seen;
or, if seen, not understood except among themselves; and connected by
the link either of purposes not safe to be avowed, or by the grander
link of awful truths which, merely to shelter themselves from the
hostility of an age unprepared for their reception, are forced to
retire, possibly for generations, behind thick curtains of secresy.
To be hidden amidst crowds is sublime; to come down hidden amongst
crowds from distant generations is doubly sublime. The first incident
in my own childish experience that threw my attention upon the
possibility of such dark associations, was the Abbe Baruel's book,
soon followed bya similar book of Professor Hobison's, in
demonstration of a regular conspiracy throughout Europe for
exterminating Christianity. This I did not read, but I heard it read
and frequently discussed. I had already Latin enough to know that
cancer meant a crab; and that the disease so appalling to a child's
imagination, which in English we call a cancer, as soon as it has
passed beyond the state of an indolent schirrous tumour, drew its
name from the horrid claws, or spurs, or roots, by which it connected
itself with distant points, running underground, as it were, baffling
detection...
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