Poe refers
rather to physiognomy. The book was written by the English mystic,
Robert Fludd (1574-1637).

[18] 85:19 Jean d'Indagine and De la Chambre. Two continental writers
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries respectively.

[19] 85:21 Tieck. A great German romanticist (1773-1853).

[20] 85:21 City of the Sun. A sketch of an ideal state by Campanella
(1568-1639).

[21] 85:23 Directorium Inquisitorium. A detailed account of the
methods of the Inquisition by Cironne, inquisitor-general for Castile,
in 1356.

[22] 85:24 Pomponius Mela. Spanish geographer in the first century
A.D. Author of "De Chorographia," the earliest extant account of the
geography of the ancient world.

[23] 85:25 Oegipans. An epithet applied to Pan.

[24] 85:30 Vigiliae Mortuorum. No such book is known.

[25] 90:30 Mad Trist. No such book is known.

[26] 91:29 alarummed. Alarmed.

[27] 92:25 had fain. In the sense of was glad.

BIOGRAPHY

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, January 19, 1809. His parents, who
were actors, died before their son was three years old. Mr. Allan, a
wealthy Richmond merchant, adopted the child and gave him a splendid
home. How scantily Poe appreciated and improved the advantages of this
kindness he himself confesses in a letter to Lowell in 1844. "I have
been too deeply conscious of the mutability and evanescence of
temporal things to give any continuous effort to anything--to be
consistent in anything. My life has been _whim_--impulse--passion--a
longing for solitude--a scorn of all things present in an earnest
desire for the future." He was a dreamer who had a fair chance to be
happy, but he flung the opportunity away. He was a spoiled child who
remained ignorant of life even unto his death.

He entered the University of Virginia in 1826, where his conduct was
so bad that he was, after a year, removed from the college. This
action broke the strong friendship Mr. Allan had long held for his
adopted son. Poe, urged by a hot temper or possibly by a remorse for
his actions, ran away and enlisted in the regular army. In 1829 Mr.
Allan became partially reconciled with Poe, and again came to his
assistance. In 1830 Poe entered West Point, but was there only a short
time when he was dismissed for wilful neglect of duty.

Following this dismissal Poe went to Baltimore, where he did hack work
for newspapers. This was the beginning of a process of writing that
has brought him high rank and an imperishabl