of those that were prominent in his time. From 1821 to 1825 we find
him residing for the most part in London, and here his public career
began. It was De Quincey's most distinctive work which first appeared.
The _London Magazine_, in its issue for September, 1821, contained the
first paper of the _Confessions of an English Opium-Eater_. The
novelty of the subject was sufficient to obtain for the new writer an
interested hearing, and there was much discussion as to whether his
apparent frankness was genuine or assumed. All united in applause of
the masterly style which distinguished the essay, also of the
profundity and value of the interesting material it contained. A
second part was included in the magazine for October. Other articles
by the Opium-Eater followed, in which the wide scholarship of the
author was abundantly shown, although the topics were of less general
interest.

In 1826 De Quincey became an occasional contributor to _Blackwood's
Magazine_, and this connection drew him to Edinburgh, where he
remained, either in the city itself or in its vicinity, for the rest
of his life. The grotesquely humorous _Essay on Murder Considered as
One of the Fine Arts_ appeared in _Blackwood's_ in 1827. In 1832 he
published a series of articles on Roman History, entitled _The
Cæsars_. It was in July, 1837, that the _Revolt of the Tartars_
appeared; in 1840 his critical paper upon _The Essenes_. Meanwhile De
Quincey had begun contributions to _Tait's Magazine_, another
Edinburgh publication, and it was in that periodical that the
_Sketches of Life and Manners from the Autobiography of an English
Opium-Eater_ began to appear in 1834, running on through several
years. These sketches include the chapters on Wordsworth, Coleridge,
Lamb, and Southey as well as those _Autobiographic Sketches_ which
form such a charming and illuminating portion of his complete works.