The Portland daily press., 1879-03-19
Colonel Hfgginson's Estimate of Poe.

The Literary World for March contains the
second in the series of Colonel 7. W. Higgin-
sons 'Short Studies of American Authors, +"
the subject of the article being Edgar Allan
Poe. We copy the latter half of the sketch:
Poe's place in purely imaginative prose writ
ing Is as unquestionaOle aS HawthOrnes. He
even succeeded, which Hawthorne did not, in
penetrating the artistic indifference of the
French mind Neither Poe nor Hawthorne
has ever been fully recognized in England and
vet no EogIishInan of our time, except posi-
bly, De Qulncey, has done any prose imsgna-
tive work to be named with theirs. But in
comparing Poe with Hawthorne, we see that
the genius OF the latter has hands and feet as
we'll as wings. SO that all his work is solid as
masonry, while Poe's is broken and disfigured
by all sorts OF inequalities and imitation and
stGcco; he not disdaining, for want of true in :
tegrity. to disguise and falsify, to claim knowl
edge that he did not possess, to invent quota
tons and references and even, as Griswold
showed, to manipulate and exaggerate puffs of
himself. / remember the chagriu with which
looked through Tieck, in my student days, to
fnd the Journey into the Blue Distance" to
which Poe refers in the blouse of Usher" and
how one of the poets intimates laughed ME to
scorn for being deceived by any of Poe's cita-
lions; saying that he hardly knew word of
German,
But making all possible deductions, how
wonderful remains the power Of Poe's imagin-
atve tales, and how immense is the ingenuity
of his puzzles and disentanglements. 1t is
where spiritual depths are to be touched that
he shows his Weakness wher9 he attempts il,
as in ''Willism Wilson, it seems exceptional; |;
where there is the greatest display of philoso-
phic form he ia often most trivial, whereas
Hawthorne is often prOfoundest when he has
disarmed you by his simplicity. The truth is
that Foe lavished on things comparatively su-
perhcial those great Intellectual resources
which Hawthorne reverently husbanded and
used. That there is something behind even
genius to make or mar if, this is the lesson of
the two lives.
It is in the malice and fury Of bis own criti-
cal work that his low moral tone most betrays
itself No atmosphere can be more belittling
than that of his NEW York Lterst"; it is a
mass OF vehement dogmatism and petty per-
slnalities: OPTIONS warped by private feeling,
and VARYING rom page to page. He seemed to
have absolutely no standard Of critical judy
nent though it is true that there was very lit
tie anywhere in America, during those acrim y
uions days, when the most honorable head
might be covered with insult or neglect. while
any young poetess who smiled sweetly OIL Poe
or Grlsweld or Willis might find herself placed
among the muses.. No one ever did more than
Poo to lower the tone of literary criticism in
TINS country; and the greater his talent, the
greater the mischief.
AS a poet he held for time the place ear
lier occupied by Byron and later by SwiDburne.
as the patron saint cf all wilful boys suspected
OF genius, and convicted at least of its infirmi-
ties He belonged to the melancholy
class OF wasted men, like the German Hoffman
whom perhaps of all men of genius he most
resembled. No doubt, if we are to apply any
standard of moral weight or sanity to literary
men-a proposal which Poe would doubtless
have ridiculed-it can only be in a very large
aud generous way. II a career has only man
ly ring to it we can forgive many errors-as in
reading, for instance, the autobiography of
Benvenuto Cellini, carrying always his life in
his hand amid a brilliant aud reckless society.
Bat the existence Of a poor Bohe milan, ba-
Suited when he has money, angry and vindic-
tive when the money is spent, this is dismal
tragedy, for which genius only makes the foot
lights burn with more lustre.
like best to think of Poe associated with
his gifted betrothed. Sarah Helen Whilmau,
whom L saw sometimes in her later years. She
had outlived her early friends aud love and
hopes, ard perhaps her literary fame, such as
it was; she bad certainly outlived her Iecog-
nized ties with Poe, and all but his memory.
There she dwelt in her little suite of rooms,
bearing youth still in her heart, and in her
voice, and on her hair also, aud in her Dress
Her dimly lighted parlor was always decked,
here and there with scarlet; and she sat, robed
ia white, her back turned always to the light,
with discreetly tinted shadow over her still
thoughtful and noble face. She seemed per-
son embalmed while i'll alive; it was as if she
might dwell forever there, prolonging into an
indefinite future the tradition of poets love /;
and when we remembered that she had been
P0e's betrothed, that his kisses had touched
her lips, that she still believed in him and was
his defender, all criticism might WELL for her
sake be disarmed and her sanity life atone for
his stormy and sad career