Evening star., 1926-04-09
Yet 1t has the genuine ring.
With knraai nf xuniNh rRQ nAd In

Yet 1t has the genuine ring.
With q foresight which reached into
the newer psychology. the poem traces
POe's troubles back to his very oirtn'
to the hidden hormones OF life. TO
something deep seated.
Poe, according to this latest view.
was not so much mysterious as Ill; ne
was not 70 be judged properly except
by the physician. and then only ny
the medical man who had probed the
deep recesses of the soul.
Since psychology, In the mooern
sense, was unknown in Poe'S day aho
generation, II is not 10 be wondered
at that some of his cotemporaries
regarded him as mad, others as q
testy boor, or that others, particularly
women, looked upon him as the nnest
type of gentleman, a VeritaDie angel
He was, indeed a strange man, one
that would have tested all the powers
of analysis OF DIR. Freud himself, or
DIR. Brill, or of our own DIR. White.
He locked up in his own soul the
forces that moved him, put iett
Slimpses of them In MS stranse
stories. Although we cannot proper
Iy disa ssociate his life from his works
in re.arding him as a case" the
happy thing is that we can 10 read ms
works.
In writing, one sta nds or falls on the
writing. Although there VIII aiways
be a desire on the part OF reaoefs 10
know what manner of man a writer
is, what the man writes IL Wnat ne
must be judged by.
In other words, II the devil were to
write a bca utiful. powerful sermon the
fact that the devil wrote 1t would not
detract-st least, 1t should not-from
the beauty or worth of the writing.
Therefore we have never had much
sympathy for those who sneer at Os'
car Wilde's works because the man
himself was not entirely moral.
On the other hand, there il little
doubt that the real man VIII nnaliy
show forth in his writings. This IL
"a silly seen In looking over the collect
ed works" OF any of the great writ
ers.
One cannot read Dickens for In
stance, without either consciously or
subconsciously coming to realization
that the man who wrote these stories
was q hearty eater. who enjoyed the
good things of the table.
Dickens characters are always eat
Ing.
There Is not a book Of his wherein
are not innumerable pictures OF eat
ing and drinking. Joe, the fat boy, Is
really typical. With his interest In
alimentation. Dickens combines a huge
and brooding pity. which sometimes
leads him into sentiment alism.
Joseph Conrad had an obsession Of
duty. He has scarcely story that
does not swing around this theme.
Lord jim" IL it's elimination.
Scarcely any story Of his ever ends
happily. either. so he must have been
the victim of inhibitions such as ruin
ed the life Of Poe.
If one will forget. however. the life
OF our Edgar Allan and read his col.
lected works he will be amazed at
this late date. at their worth. Even
his criticisms. dealing al they did with
the ephemeral writer's OF early Amer.
lea. contain many a solid reflection.
His ESSAYS. II one may call them 20
contain much of worth. His tales a nd
poems are the property OF the world
and have been accepted as such since
their writing.
A. TO his common sense. we hope To
present examples of 1t from time to
time in this column. merely to show
that he was not all fantasy.