Up to this time he had written nothing, but had been steeping his mind in German metaphysics, and out-of-the-way learning of various kinds; but in 1819 he sketched out _Prolegomena of all future Systems of Political Economy_, which, however, was never finished. In the same year he acted as ed. of the _Westmoreland Gazette_. His true literary career began in 1821 with the publication in the _London Magazine_ of _The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater_. Thereafter he produced a long series of articles, some of them almost on the scale of books, in _Blackwood's_ and _Tait's_ magazines, the _Edinburgh Literary Gazette_, and _Hogg's Instructor_. These included _Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts_ (1827), and in his later and more important period, _Suspiria De Profundis_ (1845), _The Spanish Military Nun_ (1847), _The English Mail-Coach_, and _Vision of Sudden Death_ (1849). In 1853 he began a _coll._ ed. of his works, which was the main occupation of his later years. He had in 1830 brought his family to Edinburgh, which, except for two years, 1841-43, when he lived in Glasgow, was his home till his death in 1859, and in 1837, on his wife's death, he placed them in the neighbouring village of Lasswade, while he lived in solitude, moving about from one dingy lodging to another. De Q. stands among the great masters of style in the language. In his greatest passages, as in the _Vision of Sudden Death_ and the _Dream Fugue_, the cadence of his elaborately piled-up sentences falls like cathedral music, or gives an abiding expression to the fleeting pictures of his most gorgeous dreams. His character unfortunately bore no correspondence to his intellectual endowments. His moral system had in fact been shattered by indulgence in opium. His appearance and manners have been thus described: "A short and fragile, but well-proportioned frame; a shapely and compact head; a face beaming with intellectual light, with rare, almost feminine beauty of feature and complexion; a fascinating courtesy of manner, and a fulness, swiftness, and elegance of silvery speech." His own works give very detailed information regarding himself. _See_ also Page's _Thomas De Quincey: his Life and Writings_ (1879), Prof. Masson's _De Quincey_ (English Men of Letters). _Collected Writings_ (14 vols. 1889-90). DERMODY, THOMAS (1775-1802).--Poet, _b._ at Ennis, showed great capacity for learning, but fell into idle and dissipated habits, and threw away his opportunities. He _pub._ two books of poems, which after his death were _coll._ as _The Harp of Erin_.