ng in the incidental discussions by Dupin,
throughout all these stories, but it is made effective. Much of their
popularity, as well as that of other tales of ratiocination by Poe, arose
from their being in a new key. I do not mean to say that they are not
ingenious; but they have been thought more ingenious than they are, on
account of their method and air of method. In "The Murders of the Rue
Morgue," for instance, what ingenuity is displayed in unraveling a web
which has been woven for the express purpose of unraveling? The reader is
made to confound the ingenuity of the supposititious Dupin with that of
the writer of the story. These works brought the name of Poe himself
somewhat conspicuously before the law courts of Paris. The journal, _La
Commerce_, gave a _feuilleton_ in which "The Murders of the Rue Morgue"
appeared in translation. Afterward a writer for _La Quotidienne_ served
it for that paper under the title of "_L'Orang-Otang_." A third party
accused _La Quotidienne_ of plagiary from _La Commerce_, and in the
course of the legal investigation which ensued, the _feuilletoniste_ of
_La Commerce_ proved to the satisfaction of the tribunal that he had
stolen the tale entirely from Mr. Poe,[A] whose merits were soon after
canvassed in the "_Revue des Deux Mondes_," and whose best tales were
upon this impulse translated by Mme. Isabelle Meunier for the _Democratic
Pacifique_ and other French gazettes.

[Footnote A: The controversy is wittily described in the following
extract from a Parisian journal, _L'Entr*ficte_, of the 20th of October,
1846:

"Un grand journal accusait l'autre jour M. Old-Nick d'avoir vole un
orang-outang. Cet interessant animal flanait dans le feuilleton de _la
Quotidienne_, lorsque M. Old-Nick le vit, le trouva a son gout et s'en
empara. Notre confrere avait sans doute besoin d'un groom. On sait que
les Anglais ont depuis long-temps colonise les orangs-outangs, et les ont
instruits dans Part de porter bottes. Il paraitrait, toujours suivant le
meme grand journal, que M. Old-Nick, apres avoir derobe cet orang-outang
a _la Quotidienne_, l'aurait ensuite cede au _Commerce_, comme propriete
a lui appartenant. Je sais que M. Old-Nick est un garcon plein d'esprit
et plein d'honneur, assez riche de son propre fond pour ne pas
s'approprier les orangs-outangs des autres; cette accusation me surprit.
Apres tout, me dis-je, il y a eu des monomanies plus extraodinaires que
celle-la; le grand Bacon n