The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-08-10

some extent. their mood And Mr.. Ma
thews draws the cognate conclusion that
the history of literature, taking constant
ly a larger cognizance OF those writers
who exert upon an age a formative in
f1uence, uSt admit as a stronger element in
the making of the fuller and anal esti-
mate of PoeS relative power and place,
the fact that he made a more marked
impress upon the manner of those Brit
ish poets succeeding him than has any
other man of his generation. The service
to his own land is not less pronounced,
for II is concluded that the maSterful way
in which he preached the doctrine OF
beauty-not as a dry philosophy, but ar
tistically. POLITICALLY, as was done most
of his work-marks this as a service sec
ond in Importance to none that he per-
!, formed. and the fact that he was the
first who officiated in this high service
of esthetics in America accentuates its
significance and emphasizes the obligation
that we owe the author lone also owed
to a pioneer. who. like the pioneer in all
ages and all provinces, Is entitled to
especial honor.
There is not a name in literature whose
emtnence in contemporary Thought could
afford more resistless answer to the
tnoictmen. OF CONNER ciaAtS PIT rca ptlously
brought against American life today. than
the name of Poe. All that blossoms ahD Il
us today in the form of fearless criticism
and enhancing lyric, and artistic tale.
owes a debt to his dauntless spirit. All
our sens in the mystic ca1snces OF sJr-
row, and the haunting presence of I'M
aNating regret, and the sweet though
painful symphony of the bereaved cham
Der and the midnight tomb, are but the
echoes of notes first sounded by his ge-
MUS. These various minor chords of
weird and contemplating solemnity, as
they have come to us in the pages OF
Bret IIarte and Sidney Lanier and Bourke
Marston and Mr.. Aldrich, as well as in
SwinbLIne and Baudelaire. were strung
by his master-hand at the terror grit
couch of Ligela, the sepulchral vault Of
Jlalume, the halls where Berenice play
ed, the spot by the sounding sea whence
Annabel was reft. the catacomSs of For
tunato, the Swallowed chamber that still
perchance is visited by the lost Lenore,
the window niche where Helen stood, the
vortex OF this southern pole, the crash
ing towers of Usher. the lutte Of ISRAELI,
and the Grand Canal of Venice-'the
wide windows of whose palladian palaces
look down with deep and bitter mean
ing upon the secrets of her silent wa
tcrS.
who shall measure and who requite the
obligation OF humanity to the harassed
and darkened soul that amid III its inl-
perfection of wiz and weakness OF mora
fiber preserved to people the imagina-
ton of all succeeding time with these
countless visions of solemn beauty and
unearthly sadness and unutterable awe?
Who that Looks upon the boiling ocean
can fail to hear there the shrek of Poe
Maelstrom and feel the touch of the
Spirit of Ed? Who that has loved and
lost, but derives some increment of solacs
from the ravens shadow and the legend
of Annabel Lee? Who that sits by the
lone couch of death cannot hear in fancy
the tapestries of the haunted chambers
and feel the spell woven long ago by the
gifted ard unhappy author who furnished
in his life moral as impressive as the
artistic splendor of his handiwork? That