The Florentines used to point Dante out to strangers in these words:
"There goes the man who has been in hell." With much truth could these
words have been spoken of Thomas De Quincey, at any time after he began
to suffer from his excess in opium eating, which was while he was still
a young man,--and especially would these words have been true of him,
after he began his struggles to free himself from the thraldom of that
most seductive vice. James Payn thus describes his appearance:--
"Picture to yourself a very diminutive man, carelessly--very
carelessly--dressed; a face lined, care-worn, and so expressionless
that it reminded one of 'that dull, changeless brow, where cold
Obstruction's apathy appalls the gazing mourner's heart,'--a face
like death in life. The instant he began to speak, however, it lit
up as though by electric light; this came from his marvellous eyes,
brighter and more intelligent (though by fits) than I have ever
seen in any other mortal."