ability and their courage. Right or wrong, he was terribly in earnest." And," as Mrs. Wiritman adds, "like De Quincey, he never supposed anything, he always knew."

This last lady, in her thoughtful work on "Edgar Poe and his Critics" recounts an incident of the poet which occurred at one of the soirées he was accustomed to attend. "A lady, noted for her great lingual attainments, wishing to apply a wholesome check to the vanity of a young author, proposed inviting him to translate for the company a difficult passage in Greek, of which language she knew him to be profoundly ignorant, although given to a rather pretentious display of Greek quotations in his published writings. Poe's earnest and persistent remonstrance against this piece of méchanceté alone averted the embarrassing test." Trifling as this anecdote may appear, it is a good proof of that generous and charitable disposition which those who know him only through Griswold's "Memoir" have so unwarrantably denied him the possession of. Reverting to Mrs. Whitman's book, we learn that " sometimes his fair young wife was seen with him at these weekly assemblages in Waverley Place. She seldom took part in the conversation, but the memory of her sweet and girlish face, always animated and vivacious, repels the assertion, afterwards so cruelly and recklessly made, that she died a victim to the neglect and unkindness of her husband, who, as it has been said, 'deliberately sought her death that he might embalm her memory in immortal dirges." Gilfillan tells us that Poe caused the death of his wife that he might have a fitting theme for "The Raven;" but, unfortunately for the truth of that reverend gentleman's theory, the poem was published two years previous to the event which he so ingeniously assumed it to commemorate. Friend and foe alike, who knew anything of Poe, bear testimony to the unvarying kindness and affection of the poet for his youthful wife. "It is well known to those aquainted with the parties," says Mra

Whitman, "that the young wife of Edgar Poe died of lingering consumption, which manifested itself even in her girlhood. All who have had opportunities for observation in the matter have noticed her husband's tender devotion to her during her prolonged illness. . . . It is trua that, notwithstanding her vivacity and cheerfulness at the time we have alluded to, her health was even then rapidly sinking; and it was for her dear sake, and for the recovery of that peace which had been so fatally imperilled amid the irritations and anxieties of his New York life, that Poe left the city and removed to the little Dutch cottage in Fordham, where he passed the three remaining years of his life."

The labours of Edgar Poe during his possession of the Broadway Journal must have been enormous. Week after week he wrote a large portion of its folio pages himself, in addition to performing the thousand duties of an editorial proprietor-the "much friendly assistance," which Griswold, who said also that he was friendless, asserts he received in his management of the journal, being chiefly confined to the contribution of a few verses. He was only able to comply with this great strain upon his mental and physical strength by reprinting many of his published tales and poems in the columns of his paper, and even this system could not have afforded very material relief, as every article was submitted to the most scrutinizing supervision, and an infinity of corrections and alterations made. A journal of his own, in which he could give vent to his untrammelled opinions, unchecked by the mercantile, and, undoubtedly, more prudential views of publishers, had long been one of Poe's most earnest desires, and he attained his wish in the possession of the Broadway Journal; but poverty, ill-health, want of worldly knowledge, and a sick-a dying wife, all combined to overpower his efforts. What could the unfortunate poct do? During the few months that he had complete control of the moribund journal he made it,

considering all things, as good a cheap literary paper as was ever published. All his efforts, however, were insufficient to keep it alive, so, on the 3d of January, 1846, the poor poet was obliged to resign his favourite hobby of a paper of his own. It may be pointed out that whilst in possession of his journal he availed himself of the opportunity of displaying his almost Quixotic feelings of gratitude-those feelings denied him by the ruthless Griswold-towards all who had befriended him, and not only to the living, whose aid might continue, but towards those who had already entered into the "hollow vale." His generous tributes to departed worth are proofs of his nobility of heart, of greater weight than any disproof the malignity of Griswold would invent.

Besides the work on his own paper, Poe had somehow contrived to contribute a few tales and sketches to some of the magazines, and, among others, to Mr. Godey's Lady's Book. In the May number of this publication he commenced a series of critiques, entitled the "Literati of New York," "in which he professed," remarks Griswold, with his wonted sneer, "to give some honest opinions at random respecting their authorial merits." These essays were immensely successful, but the caustic style of some of them produced terrible commotion in the ranks of mediocrity, as may be seen from Mr. Godey's notes to the readers respecting the anonymous and other letters he receives concerning them. "We are not to be intimidated," he remarks, "by a threat of the loss of friends, or turned from our purpose by honied words. . . . Many attempts have been made and are being made by various persons to forestall public opinion. We have the name of one person. Others are busy with reports of Mr. Poe's illness. Mr. Poe has been ill, but we have letters from him of very recent dates, also a new batch of the Literali, which shows anything but feebleness either of body or mind. Almost every paper that we exchange with has praised our new enterprise, and

spoken in high terms of Mr. Poe's opinion." Dissatisfied with the manner in which his literary weakness had been reviewed by Poe, a Dunn English or Dunn Brown, for he is duplicately named, instead of waiting, as Griswold did, for the poet's death, when every ass could have its kick at the lion's carcase, "retaliated in a personal newspaper article," remarks Duyckinck, in his invaluable Encyclopedia, and "the communication was reprinted in the Evening Mirror in New York, whereupon Poe instituted a libel suit against that journal, and recovered several hundred dollars" for defamation of character.

If there be any one entertaining the slightest belief in Griswold's veracity, let him now refer to his unfaithful. account of this affair in the soi-disant "Memoir," and compare it with the facts of the case. He states that Dunn English "chose to evince his resentment of the critic's unfairness by the publication of a card, in which he painted strongly the infirmities of Poe's life and character." "Poe's article," he continues, "was entirely false in what purported to be the facts. The statement of Dr. English appeared in the New York Mirror of the 23d June, and on the 27th Mr Poe sent to Mr. Godey, for publication in the Lady's Book, his rejoinder, which Mr. Godey very properly declined to priut.” This led, asserts Griswold, "to a disgraceful quarrel,” and to the "premature conclusion" of the Literati; and that Poe "ceased to write for the Lady's Book in consequence of Mr. Godey's justifiable refusal to print in that miscellany his 'Reply to Dr. English."" Poe's review of "English" appeared in the second or June number of the Literati, and from our knowledge of Griswold's habitual inaccuracy, we were not surprised to find, upon reference to the magazine, that the sketches ran their stipulated course until October, and after that date Poe still continuing a contributor to the Lady's Book; nor were we surprised to find Mr. Godey writing to the Knickerbocker magazine in defence and praise of Poe's "honourable and

blameless conduct;" but what certainly did startle us was, to discover that the whole of the personalities of the supposed critique included in the collection of Poe's works edited by Griswold, were absent from the real critique published in the Lady's Book!

Recoiling from such unsavoury subjects, it is a pleasant change to look upon the charming picture of the cruelly belibelled poet, and his diminutive ménage, as portrayed by Mrs. Osgood. "It was in his own simple yet poetical home," she remarks, "that to me the character of Edgar Poe appeared in its most beautiful light. Playful, affectionate, witty, alternately docile and wayward as a petted child-for his young, gentle, and idolized wife, and for all who came, he had, even in the midst of his most harassing literary duties, a kind word, a pleasant smile, a graceful and courteous attention. At his desk, beneath the romantic picture of his loved and lost Lenore, he would sit hour after hour, patient, assiduous, and uncomplaining, tracing in an exquisitely clear chirography, and with almost superhuman swiftness, the lightning thoughts, the rare and radiant' fancies as they flashed through his wonderful and everwakeful brain. I recollect one morning towards the close of his residence in this city, when he seemed unusually gay and light-hearted. Virginia, his sweet wife, had written me a pressing invitation to come to them; and I, who could never resist her affectionate summons, and who enjoyed his society far more in his own home than elsewhere, hastened to Amity Street. I found him just completing his series of papers entitled 'The Literati of New York.' 'See,' said he, displaying in laughing triumph several little rolls of narrow paper (he always wrote thus for the press), 'I am going to show you, by the difference of length in these, the different degrees of estimation in which I hold all you literary people. In each of these, one of you is rolled up and fully discussed. Come, Virginia, help me!' And one by one they unfolded them. At last they came to