RKS British Literature: A Comparison of Opium and Wine (Part Three) (Thomas De Quincey)

“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.

RKS British Literature: A Comparison of Opium and Wine (Part Two) (Thomas De Quincey)

“But still, wine constantly leads a man to the brink of absurdity and extravagance, and, beyond a certain point, it is sure to volatize and to disperse the intellectual energies: whereas opium always seems to compose what has been agitated, and to concentrate what had been distracted. In short, to sum up all in one word, a man who is inebriated, or tending to inebriation, is, and feels that he is, in a condition which calls up into supremacy the merely human, too often the brutal, part of his nature: but the opium eater (I speak of him who is not suffering from any disease, or other remote effects of opium) feels that the diviner part of his nature is paramount; that is, the moral affections are in  state of cloudless serenity; and over all is the great light of the majestic intellect.”

Thomas De Quincey, “Confessions of an English Opium Eater”, 1822.

RKS British Literature: A Comparison of Opium and Wine (Part One) (Thomas De Quincey)

“But the main distinction is this, that whereas wine disorders the mental faculties, opium, on the contrary (if taken in a proper manner), introduces amongst them the most exquisite order, legislation, and harmony. Wine robs a man of his self-possession; opium greatly invigorates it. Wine unsettles and clouds the judgement, and gives a preternatural brightness, and a vivid exaltation to the contempts and the admirations, the loves and hatreds, of the drinker; opium on the contrary, communicates serenity equipoise to all the faculties, active or passive: and with respect to and moral feelings in general, it gives simply that sort of vital warmth which is approved by the judgement, and which would probably always accompany a bodily constitution of primeval or antediluvian health.”

Thomas De Quincey, “Confessions of an English Opium Eater”, 1822.

RKS British Literature: Natural Courage and a Sudden Influx of Money (Thomas De Quincey)

“…that vast power and possessions make a man shamefully afraid of dying: and I am convinced that many of the most intrepid adventurers, who by fortunately by being vey poor, enjoy the full use of their natural courage, would, at the very instant of going into action news were brought to them that they has unexpectedly succeeded to an estate in England of £50,000 a year, feel their dislike to bullets considerably sharpened-and their efforts at equanimity and self-possession proportionally difficult. So true is it in the language of a wise man whose own experience made him acquainted with both fortunes, that riches are better fitted-

To slacken virtue, and abate her edge

Than tempt her to do aught may merit praise

Parad, Regained

Thomas De Quincey, “Confessions of an English Opium Eater”, 1822.

RKS British Literature: The World as a Stage is Badly Cast (Oscar Wilde)

“Actors are so fortunate. They can choose whether they will appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears. But in real life it is different. Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications. Our Guildensterns play Hamlet for us, and our Hamlets have to jest like Prince Hal. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.”

Oscar Wilde, “Lord Arthur Saville’s Crime”, 1891

RKS British Literature: Who Are the Opium Eaters in England? (Thomas De Quincey)

“Reader, I am sorry to say, a very numerous class indeed. Of this I became convinced some years ago by computing at that time, the number of those in one small class of English society (the class of men distinguished for talents, or of eminent station), who were known to me, directly or indirectly, as opium-eaters; such for instance, as the eloquent and benevolent ——, the late dean of ——–; Lord ——; Mr ——–, the philosopher; a late under-secretary of state (who described to me the sensation which first drove him to the use of opium, in the very same words as the dean of ——-, viz. ‘that he felt as though rats were gnawing and abrading the coats of his stomach’); Mr —— and many others, hardly less known, whom it would be too tedious to mention.”

Thomas De Quincey, “Confessions of an English Opium Eater”, 1822.

RKS British Literature: A Philosopher’s Reflection on Opium (Thomas De Quincey)

“I may affirm that my life has been on the whole, the life of a philosopher; from my birth I was made an intellectual creature: and intellectual in the highest sense of my pursuits and pleasures have been, even from my school-boy days. If opium eating be a sensual pleasure, and if I am bound to confess that I have indulged in it to an excess, not yet recorded of any other man, it is no less true with a religious zeal, and have, at length, accomplished what I have never yet attributed to any other man-have untwisted, almost to its final links, the accursed chain which fettered me.”

Thomas De Quincey, “Confessions of an English Opium Eater”, 1822.

RKS CANADIAN WHISKY: Bearface Elementally Aged Triple Oak Canadian Whisky

A single grain Canadian Whisky matured in ex-bourbon oak barrels then aged in French red wine oak barrels and new Hungarian oak and with select barrels matured in repurposed shipping containers “exposed to the elements in the Canadian wild in our extreme northern climate…” “Bearface appeals to “adventure loving” whisky drinkers and bartenders”.

Aroma: Apricot, honey, marmalade and a smidge of vanilla.

Palate: Orri tangerine, caramel with lingering spicy finish.

Overall: Simplistic perhaps best suited to cocktails.

Price: $40 CDN.

Hand it to the marketing. As it’s Canadian play up “bears”, “wild” and “adventure”. Well sounds more appealing to some large whisky factory in Windsor, Ontario?

RKS CANADIAN WHISKY RATING 69/100.

Bearface Elementally Aged Triple Oak Canadian Whisky, Bearface Spirits, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 750 mL, 42.5%).  

RKS British Literature: What is So Revolting to Englanders (Thomas De Quincey)

“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: and for any such acts of gratuitous self-humiliation from those who can be supposed to be in sympathy with the decent and self respecting part of society, we must look to French literature, or to that part of the German, which is tainted with the spurious and defective sensibility of the French.”

Thomas De Quincey, “Confessions of an English Opium Eater”, 1822

RKS Literature: Bozo the British Beggar Comments on the Cremation He Saw in India (George Orwell)

“Have you ever seen a corpse burned? I have, in India. They put the old chap on the fire, and the next moment I almost jumped out of my skin, because he started kicking. It was only his muscles contracting in the heat-still it gave me a turn. Well, he wriggled around a bit like a kipper on hot coals, and then his belly blew up and went off with a bang you could have heard fifty yards away. It fair put me against cremation.”

George Orwell, “Down and Out in Paris and London”, 1933.