in constitutional temperament and
susceptibilities _could_ be thence derived, although lacking, as Pope
also had lacked, the factitious circumstance and airy heralding of this
distinction, he was, in addition to this, surrounded by elements of
aristocratic refinement and luxury, and thus hedged in not merely
against the assault, in any form, of pinching poverty, (as would be any
one in tolerably comfortable circumstances,) but even against the most
trivial hint of possible want,--against all necessity of limitation or
retrenchment in any normal line of expenditure.

He was the son of a merchant, who, at the early age of thirty-nine,
died, leaving to his family--a wife and six children--an estate yielding
annually an income of sixteen hundred pounds. And as at his father's
death De Quincey was seven years old, we may reasonably infer, that,
during this previous period, while his father was still living, and
adding to this fixed a fluctuating income from his yearly gains, (which
to a wholesale merchant of his standing were considerable,) the
family-fortunes were even more auspicious, amounting to the yearly
realization of between two and three thousand pounds, and that at a time
when Napoleon had not as yet meddled with the financial affairs of
Europe, nor by his intimidations caused even pounds and shillings to
shrink into less worth and significance than they formerly had,--in view
of which fact, if we are to charge Alexander the Great (as in a famous
anecdote he was charged) with the crime of highway-robbery, as the
"snapper-up of unconsidered trifles" in the way of crowns and a few
dozen sceptres, what a heinous charge must be brought against this
Corsican as universal pickpocket! This pecuniary depreciation De Quincey
himself realized some years later, when, determining to quit school, he
thought himself compelled[A] to cut off all communication with his
guardians, and gave himself up to a Bohemian life among the Welsh
mountains, wandering from one rustic valley to another with the most
scanty means of support,--for just then the Allies were in full rig
against France, and the shrinkage of guineas in our young wanderer's
pocket became palpably evident in view of the increased price of his
dinner.

[Footnote A: But afterwards he discovered his mistake, and that it was
only by the lack on his part of that frankness which the kindness of his
guardians deserved that he had brought so much misery upon himself in
after-l