Page:Edgar Allan Poe - how to know him.djvu/325

 THE FRONTIERSMAN 305 �laughed. And I could not laugh with the Demon, and he cursed me because I could not laugh. And the lynx, which dwelleth forever in the tomb, came out therefrom, and lay down at the feet of the Demon., and looked at him steadily in the face. �THE CONVERSATION OF EIROS AND CHARMION (1839) HvQ 001 Jipocroiaco. �I will bring fire to thee. �EURIPIDES, Androni. [257.] �[The conversation pre-supposes the fulfillment of those "passages in the most holy writings which speak of the final destruction of all things by fire." Char- mion and Eiros meet in the other world. Charmion has been an immortal for ten years but Eiros is new- fledged with immortality, having met death only a few days before in the universal conflagration. Char- mion knows only the bare fact of the catastrophe and is eager to learn the details. Eiros's description seems to me unparalleled even in Poe's works for a certain lurid vividness and sense of flame-licked intensity. The best touches are the increased "elasticity of frame and vivacity of mind" as the comet approached and "the wild luxuriance of foliage, utterly unknown before."] �Eiros. Why do you call me Eiros? �Charmion. So henceforward will you always be called. You must forget, too, my earthly name, and speak to me as Charmion. �Eiros. This is indeed no dream ! �Channion. Dreams are with us no more; but of ��� �