40 THE BRONX SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



kind of portrait painting in which the details are true and the 

 general effect distorted and false. There are evil elements 

 in every man. but to paint a man as if he were a devil is to 

 violate a fundamental canon of art as well as of morals; for 

 truth is the foundation of morals and art. It would be well 

 if we conld erase everything we know and the vast number 

 of things we have been told about Poe and make fresh 

 acquaintance with him through his work; but since that is im- 

 possible let us erase our preconceptions and prejudices and pay 

 him the tribute we owe to all men. great or small, obscure or 

 famous — the clear recognition and the frank statement of the 

 truth. 



We should have no concern with Poe's personal history 

 on this anniversary if distorted reports and exaggerated state- 

 ments bad not affected the judgment of a host of people and 

 were not thrust upon us by those who are afflicted with an 

 ignoble relish for the weakness of their fellows, by those to 

 whom insignificant personal details are more interesting than 

 artistic achievements, and by those unimaginative and un- 

 sympathetic persons whose judgments are matters of the tape 

 line and foot rule. 



Fortunately it is possible to put this matter of I'oe's in- 

 firmities and the principles of judgment to be applied in such 

 cases succinctly and be done with them. It is. in the first 

 place, immoral and useless to attempt to conceal the facts or to 

 minimize their effects; the first duty to a man of Poe's quality 

 is to state the facts dispassionately and to give them their 

 full weight. It is, in the second place, immoral and useless 

 to attempt to ignore the fact that the law is supreme and that 

 it is executed with exact impartiality on the man of genius and 

 on the average man; both pay the same penalties, but the 

 man of genius pays most obviously and pays most dearly, and 

 he p;ivs where the penalty falls most heavily: on his power 

 of growth, on his sanity of vision, on his grasp and concen- 

 tration. Poe paid heavily, not in the charm of his art nor 

 in his technical skill; but in the richness of his production, 



