For a philosopher should not see in the eyes of the poor limitary creature calling himself a man of the world, and filled with the narrow and self-re… - Thomas De Quincey

Es del todo evidente que, a menos que se consiga hacer más lento el ritmo colosal a que avanzos (y no cabe esperarlo) o bien -lo cual, por fortuna, es más probable- que se le opongan fuerzas contrarias de magnitud equivalente, en el sentido de la religión o la filosofía profunda, con irradiación centrífuga opuesta a esta religiosa tormenta centrípeta que nos arrastra al vórtice de lo meramente humano, lo natural es que este tumulto tan caótico, librado a sí mismo, tienda de por sí al mal, en algunos espíritus a la locura y en otros a una reactivación del letargo carnal.

The immediate occasion of this practice was the lowness of wages, which at that time would not allow them to indulge in ale or spirits, and wages rising, it may be thought that this practice would cease; but as I do not readily believe that any man having once tasted the divine luxuries of opium will afterwards descend to the gross and mortal enjoyments of alcohol, I take it for granted,

That those eat now who never ate before;
And those who always ate, now eat the more.

I ran into pagodas, and was fixed for centuries at the summit or in secret rooms: I was the idol; I was the priest; I was worshipped; I was sacrificed. I fled from the wrath of Brama through all the forests of Asia: Vishnu hated me: Seeva laid wait for me. I came suddenly upon Isis and Osiris: I had done a deed, they said, which the ibis and the crocodile trembled at. I was buried for a thousand years in stone coffins, with mummies and sphinxes, in narrow chambers at the heart of eternal pyramids. I was kissed, with cancerous kisses, by crocodiles; and laid, confounded with all unutterable slimy things, amongst reeds and Nilotic mud.