1868. It appears to have produced no permanent impression. Poe seems to have put certain of his ideas before scientific men during his lifetime, but received no encouragement. Commenting on a letter from the present writer on "Eureka," published in the Times Book Review, of Philadelphia, Mr. Henry Newton Ivor of that city wrote, under date August 21, 1901, to that periodical:
To get to the starting point of Poe's speculations we should perhaps, go back to his youth, when we find him under the double influence of the eighteenth-century French philosophers and of Coleridge and Schlegel.[1] But how far these two streams of thought colored Poe's philosophy is not easy to say. Most of his speculations seem determined by the facts of contemporary science and his own intellectual activity. Not till his later years do we find any extensive expression of his views. "The Colloquy of Monos and Una,"[2] "The Island of the Fay,"[3], and "Mesmeric Revelation"[4] are some of the pieces in which he appears as a speculative thinker. But not till 1847, two years before his death, does he appear to have tried to form a definite system for himself. Early that year his dearly-loved wife died and her death seems to have impelled his mind towards attempting to unravel "the riddle of the universe." Throughout the fall and winter of that year he elaborated his thoughts,[5] and on February 3, 1848, an abstract of his speculations was delivered as a lecture at the Society Library of New York.[6] Shortly afterwards it was published by Putnam under the title "Eureka."
Nothing better exhibits the intense belief of Poe at the time in the truth of his theories than the account given by Mr. George Putnam of their strange interview in regard to the publication of the work. According to this account, a gentleman one day entered the publisher's office in a nervous and excited manner and requested his attention to a matter of the greatest importance.
- ↑ The evidence for these statements is largely based on inferences from the contents and citations of Poe's works, taken in connection with their dates of composition. A fragment of direct evidence in regard to the eighteenth-century writers may be found in Ingram, Vol. I., p. 52. The great influence of Coleridge on Poe is admitted on all hands. Cf. Woodberry's "Life," pp. 91-93.
- ↑ Published in 1841.
- ↑ Published in 1841.
- ↑ Published in 1844.
- ↑ See the interesting account, derived from Mrs. Clemm, in Didier's "Life."
- ↑ For contemporary newspaper notices of the lecture see Woodberry and Stedman's edition of Poe's works, Vol. IX., pp. 312-315. "All [the papers] praised it," says Poe in a letter to a correspondent,"—as far as I have yet seen—and all absurdly misrepresented it." Ingram, Vol. II., p. 140. He excepts partially an article in the "Express," Virginia edition. Vol. I., p. 277.
