Not the Opium-eater, but the opium, is the true hero of the tale, and the legitimate centre on which the interest revolves. - Thomas de Quincey

For if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begin [sic] upon this downward path, you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time.

People begin to see that something more goes to the composition of a fine murder than two blockheads to kill and be killed - a knife - a purse - and a dark lane...

Let there be a patron like Maecenus, Flaccus, and your lands will give you a poet like Virgil