I have often thought that if I were compelled to forego England, and to live in China, and among Chinese manners and modes of life and scenery, I sho… - Thomas de Quincey

No terrors of impending vengeance, had they been a thousand time stronger than they were, could at this moment have availed to stifle the cry of triumphant pleasure -long, loud, and unfaltering- which indignant sympathy with the oppressed extorted from the crowd.

no moment was his sense of the complete suspension and pause in ordinary human concerns so full and affecting, as at that moment when the suspension ceases, and the goings-on of human life are suddenly resumed.

Nothing, indeed, is more revolting to English feelings than the spectacle of a human being obtruding on our notice his moral ulcers or scars, and tearing away that “decent drapery” which time or indulgence to human frailty may have drawn over them; accordingly, the greater part of our confessions (that is, spontaneous and extra-judicial confessions) proceed from demireps, adventurers, or swindlers.