The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-12-10
Unhappy MASTER,
Whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster,
Till his songs the burden bore
Till the dirges Of his hope, the


Every genuine author in greater or less
degree leaves in his works, whatever Their
design, traces of his personal character
elements ofhis immortal being, in which the
individual survives the person. While we
read the pages of the Fall Of the House OF
Usher, or of Mesmeric Revelations, we see in
the solemn and stately gloom which invests
one, and in the subtle metaphysical analy.
sis of both indications of the idiosyncra-
cles,-of what was most remarkable and
peculiar-in the authors intellectual ma
ture. But we see here only the better
phases of this nature, only the symbols OF
his juster action, for his harsh experience
had deprived him of all faith, in man or
woman. He had made up his mind upon
the numberless complexities of the social
world, and whole system with him was an
imposture This conviction gave a direc-
ton to his shrewd and naturally unamiab,e
character. Still, though he regarded So
ciety as composed altogether of villains,
the sharpness of his intellect was not OF
that kind which enabled him to cope with
villainy, while it continually caused him
by overshots to fail of the success of homes
ty. He was in many respects like Francis
&oh IL oulMCl llOfClO liz Sdh
Passion, in him, comprehended many of
the worst emotions which initiate against
human happiness. You could not contra
dict him, but you raised quick choler; you
could not,speak of wealth, but his cheek
paled with gnawing envy. The astonish-
ing natural advantages of this poor boy
his beauty, his readiness, the daring spirit
that breathed around him like fiery atmos-
phere-had raised his constitutional self,
confidence into an arrogance that turned
his very claims to admiration into prejudi-
ces against him, Irascible, envious-bad
enough, but not the worst, for these salient
angles were all vanished over with cold
repellent cynicism, his passions vented
themselves in sneers. There seemed to him
no moral susceptibility; and, what was
more remarkable in proud nature, little
OF nothing of the true point of honor. Tie
had, to morbid excess, that desire to rise
which is vulgarly called ambition, but no
wish for the esteem or the love of his spe-
cies; only the hard wish to succeed-not
shine, nor serve-succeed, that he might
have the right to despise world which
CALLED his selfconceit."
We have suggested the influence of his
aims and vicissitudes upon his literature.
1t was more conspicuous in his later than
in his earlier writings. Nearly all that he
wrote in the last two or three years-inclu
ding much of his best poetry-was in some
sense biographical; in draperies of his i'm
agination, those who had taken the trouble
to trace his steps, could perceive, but
slightly concealed, the figure of himself
In the following exquisite specimen of
versitication, the cadences of which are so
natural, and in such keeping, there is illus
trated less of the creative faculty than in
most of his pieces. 1t was addressed to a
woman Of kindred genius, to whom, it is
not secret that sometime since the death
of his first wife, he was for short time en-
gagged to be married. We know the
scene, in neighboring city; and we know
that the incident of his seeing the person
under such circumstances is literally true:
.