but as it was a passion held sacred by him, and wedded with sorrow and conflict and remorse, he produced very little in quantity. But how great this little is! There is "The Raven," ," "To One in Heaven," "Israfel," "Annabel Lee," "For Annie," "Ulalume," "The Conqueror Worm," each a sepa rate star in a strange and vividly burning constellation. His poetry also found expression in his tales, and the finest of these have no parallel in fiction. Thus it may be said that he is greater or less than such or such a poet, according to the critic's taste, but it cannot be said that he is like any other poet. It is in the utter unlikeness to others that much of his singular fascination exists.

Much of Poe's labor was given to criticism, and he is not forgiven even now for his severity. It is the custom to sneer at him as a critic who concerned himself only with the mechanism of art, and not with its higher elements. But we believe that he rendered a great service to American literature by his analysis of forms, his direct censure of incompetent writers, and the war he ever waged against mediocrity and pretence. He was the Pythian of the age, and his arrows always hit the mark. In many respects we regard him as the ablest of American critics, and it is a misfortune for the literature of the present day that he is without a successor.

THE MONUMENT.

CEREMONIES OF DEDICATION.

Addresses by Prof. Shepherd, Prof. Elliott and Mr. Latrobe.Poe as a Man and an Author.-Letters from the Leading Poets and Others.-The Monument Unveiled.

THE ceremonies connected with the dedication of the Poe monument took place on Wednesday afternoon, November 17th, 1875, in the study hall of the Western Female High School for the greater portion, concluding in the graveyard of Westminster Church, where the monument is placed. The study hall was occupied by a large audience, ladies composing the major portion, some time before the hour set for the beginning of the exercises. The platform at the head of the hall was filled with a number of gentlemen. Principals of the High Schools, those who were to take part in the exercises, gentlemen who had been acquaintances or associates of the poetic genius in honor of whose memory the meeting was held, and other invited guests. Among them was prominent the venerable head of Walt Whitman, the poet, his silver hair sweeping his shoulders; Prof. John Hewitt, once editor of the Saturday Visitor, in which Poe's weird story of "The Manuscript Found in a Bottle" first appeared; Dr. John H Snodgrass, also a former editor of the Visitor; Prof. N. C. Brooks, who edited the American Magazine, in which some of Poe's earliest productions appeared, and Prof. Joseph Clarke, a very venerable gentleman, whose school at Richmond, Virginia, had been attended by Poe when a boy, were also upon the platform. Among others were Prof. J. C. Kinear, of Pembroke Academy; Dr. N. H. Morison, provost of Peabody Institute; Johu T. Morris, Esq., president of the

School Board; the Rev. Dr. Julius E. Grammer, Judge Garey, Joseph Merrefield, Esq., Dr. John G. Morris, Neilson Poe, Esq., Ichabod Jean, Esq., Summerfield Baldwin, Joseph J. Stewart, Esq., Professors Thayer and Hollingshead, John T. Ford, Esq., George Small, Esq., the Faculty of the Baltimore City College, M. A. Newell, Esq., State School Superintendent, as well as those who were to take part in the proceedings. The exercises began shortly after two o'clock with the performance of the "Pilgrims' Chorus" of Verdi, by the Philharmonic Society, who occupied raised seats in the rear of the hall, under the direction of Professor Remington Fairlamb.

At the close of the music Professor William Elliott, Jr., president of the Baltimore City College, delivered the following address, containing the

HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I purpose, in discharging the duty assigned me on this occasion, to give a brief historical sketch of the movement which culminates to-day in the dedication of a monument to the memory of the great American poet, Edgar Allan Poe, the first and only memorial expression of the kind ever given to an American on account of literary excellence.

This extraordinary and unique genius, born in Boston, January 20th, 1809, during a brief sojourn of his parents in that place, died on the 7th of October, 1849, in this city, which is undoubtedly entitled to claim him as one of her distinguished sons. Two days thereafter,

on the 9th of October, his mortal remains were interred in the cemetery attached to the Westminster Presbyterian Church, adjoining the building in which we are now assembled.

In this connection, acting as a truthful chronicler, I deem it proper to state some facts in relation to the circumstances of the interment. The reliability of the statement I shall now make is sufficiently attested by the evidence of at least three of the gentlemen present on that occasion-possibly the only three who yet survive.

I have been informed that the day was for the season more than ordinarily unpleasant, the weather being raw and cold; indeed, just such a day as it would have been more comfortable to spend within than without doors.

The time of the interment was about four o'clock in the afternoon; the attendance of persons at the grave, possibly a consequence of the state of the weather, was limited to eight, certainly to not more than nine, persons, one of these being a lady.

Of the number known to have been present were Hon. Z. Collins Lee, a classmate of the deceased at the University of Virginia; Henry