“The interpreter is anchored and stationary in my dreams; but great storms and driving mists cause him to fluctuate uncertainly, or even to retire all together, like his gloomy counterpart the shy Phantom of the Brocken – and to assume new features or strange features, as in dreams always there is a power not contained with reproduction, but which absolutely creates or transforms. This dark being the reader will see again in a further stage of my opium experience; and i warn him that he will not always be found sitting inside my dreams , but at times outside, and in open daylight.” (Thomas De Quincey, Suspiria de Profundis)

Gravestone of Thomas De Quincey in Edinburgh