“Thus, for instance, opium, like wine, gives an expansion to the heart and the benevolent affections; but then with this remarkable difference, that in the sudden development of kind heartedness which accompanies inebriation, there is always more or less of a maudlin character which exposes it to the contempt of the bystander. Men shake their hands, swear eternal friendship, and shed tears-no mortal knows why: and the sensual creature is clearly uppermost. But the expansion of benigner feelings incident to opium, is no febrile access, but a healthy restoration to that state which the mind would naturally recover upon the removal of any deep-seated irritation of pain that had disturbed and quarrelled with the impulses of a heart originally just and good.”
Thomas De Quincey, “Confessions of an English Opium Eater”, 1822.
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