Page:Edgar Allan Poe - a centenary tribute.pdf/80

 observing his conduct and behavior declares, that "though she had heard of aberrations on his part from the straight and narrow path she had never seen him otherwise than gentle, generous, well-bred and fastidiously refined."

And to this she adds, that "to a sensitive and delicately-nurtured woman there was a peculiar and irresistible charm with which he invariably approached all women who won his respect."

Indeed the proof of his habitual reverence for woman than which no more conclusive evidence of the nobility of manhood can be found, comes as the fitting climax of his lofty conception of the true poetic principle, which he delineates with such amazing beauty and power and whose mastery over him he so proudly avows.

Listening to these glowing words, who shall couple his name with depravity or dishonor?

The weakness, which undoubtedly did imperil his life, diminish to the world s great and irreparable loss the products of his genius and furnish to his enemies some