Page:Edgar Allan Poe - a centenary tribute.pdf/82

60 could only be avoided by confining myself strictly to a consideration of his commanding position in the literary world.

Sincerely believing as I do his own solemn asservation that his "soul was incapable of dishonor and that, with the exception of occasional follies and excesses, to which he was driven by intolerable sorrow, he could call to mind no act of his life done in his conscious moments which could justly bring to his cheek the blush of shame," I am not willing to ignore or belittle this sad side of his career, and upon this memorable occasion content myself with allusions exclusively to the mighty achievements of his superbly gifted intellect.

While there may be room for controversy as to the frequency and extent of the dominion which stimulants had acquired over him, and as to the errors which he committed whilst under their maddening influence, assuredly he was wholly free from the vices which stain the soul.

There was in him no dissimulation nor deceit, nor concealment of his frailties.

Conscious of his own splendid powers, no ignoble envy of the success of others degraded his haughty spirit.

he endured with proud reticence the extreme pangs of poverty and destitution.

He saw his idolized wife wasted by illness and disease passing through the dark valley of the shadow of death, suffering from the want of comforts which he was powerless to supply, and