Such are not
infrequently the dreams of children. De Quincey's experience is not
unique; but with him imagination, the imagination of childhood,
remained unimpaired through life. It was not wholly opium that made
him the great dreamer of our literature, any more than it was the
effect of a drug that brought from his dying lips the cry of "Sister,
sister, sister!"--an echo from this sacred chamber of death, where he
had stood awed and entranced nearly seventy years before.
Not all of De Quincey's boyhood, however, was passed under influences
so serious and mystical as these. He was early compelled to undergo
what he is pleased to call his "introduction to the world of strife."
His brother William, five years the senior of Thomas, appears to have
been endowed with an imagination as remarkable as his own. "His genius
for mischief," says Thomas, "amounted to inspiration." Very amusing
are the chronicles of the little autocracy thus despotized by William.
The assumption of the young tyrant was magnificent. Along with the
prerogatives and privileges of seniority, he took upon himself as well
certain responsibilities more galling to his half-dozen uneasy
subordinates, doubtless, than the undisputed hereditary rights of
age. William constituted himself the educational guide of the nursery,
proclaiming theories, delivering lectures, performing experiments,
asserting opinions upon subjects diverse and erudite. Indeed, a
vigorous spirit was housed in William's body, and but for his early
death, this lad also might have brought lustre to the family name.
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