Page:Edgar Poe and his critics.djvu/62

 We are not of those who believe that any order of genius is revealed to us in vain; nor do we believe that the age would have gained anything if the author of “The Raven” had proved another Wordsworth, or another Longfellow. These farwandering comets, not less than “the regular, calm stars,” obey a law and follow a pathway that has been marked out for them by infinite Wisdom and essential Love. That the genius of Poe had its peculiar mission and significance in relation to the age we cannot doubt. Every man of electric temperament and prophetic genius represents, or rather anticipates, with more or less of consciousness and direct volition, those latent ideas which are about to unfold themselves in humanity. It is thus that Miller accounts for the origin of the Greek Mythus, the simple invention of which he pronounces to be impossible, if by invention is meant a free and deliberate treatment of something known to be untrue. He regards the originators of the Greek Mythus merely as the more passive recipients and skilful exponents who first gave form and expression to