Produced by Robert Connal, Paul Good and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr) [Transcriber's Notes: Text that was in italics in the original book is shown between _underscore characters_ and text that was in small caps is shown as ALL CAPS. Footnotes from the article titles are at the end of the first paragraph of the article; all others follow the paragraph in which they are referenced. The variation in the spelling of some words is maintained from the original.] [Illustration: (handwritten) Very truly yours, Thomas de Quincey.] THE UNCOLLECTED WRITINGS OF THOMAS DE QUINCEY. WITH A PREFACE AND ANNOTATIONS BY JAMES HOGG. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. [Illustration] LONDON: SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1890. RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNGAY. PREFACE. '_The last fruit off an old tree!_' This, in the words of WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR, is what I have now the honour to set before the public in these hitherto 'UNCOLLECTED WRITINGS OF THOMAS DE QUINCEY.' It was my privilege to be associated intimately with the Author some thirty to forty years ago--from the beginning of 1850 until his death in 1859.[1] Throughout the whole period during which he was engaged in preparing for the Press his _Selections Grave and Gay_, I assisted in the task. [Footnote 1: DE QUINCEY, LEIGH HUNT, and MACAULAY all died in that year.] Of the singularly pleasant literary intercourse of that memorable time I have given some reminiscences in _Harper's Magazine_ for this month. I may yet combine in a Volume with these some amusing, scholarly letters in my possession, and a Selection of Papers from the original sources, which I feel warranted, by the Author's own estimate, in calling _De Quincey's Choice Works_. Meantime, in dealing with the various Essays and Stories here gathered together, I limit myself to such notes as are necessary to point out the special circumstances under which some of the papers were written; in others the nature of the evidence I have found as to the indisputable authorship.