Laudanum and Fine Wine: Metaphors of Discernment in the Aesthetics of Hume and De Quincey

Abstract

In David Hume’s “Of the Standard of Taste” (1757), the philosopher adapts an anecdote on wine-tasting taken from Don Quixote in order to illustrate his theory of “the delicacy of taste” and the figure of the true judge. The same wine, argues Hume, will be experienced differently according to the abilities, propensities, and capacity for discernment of each drinker. A careful reader of Hume, Thomas De Quincey proposes a very similar model of taste in Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821). Using both wine and laudanum as metaphors, he constructs his own hierarchy of aesthetic competence and discernment—though with very different intentions from Hume. De Quincey’s aims in his own text are largely self-promotional: as will be the case in many future works as well, he boldly positions himself as a scholar, connoisseur, and true judge in the Humean sense, in order to justify his position in the new literary order and to recast the roles of non-fiction writer and critic as high status, creative endeavors.