His two most remarkable achievements consisted in saying the right thing at the right time. The right thing consisted of the expression of that conservatism which is in most of

The right time was chosen with that shrewd calculation which he has developed. The right words were chosen after a lifelong concentration on the importance of what he says and the way he says it.

84

Greatness is not so tight as Mr. Coolidge is. A powerful and original mind is more careless, bolder than his. At this moment, when we are enjoying the delight of finding "there is something in the fellow," we are in danger of forgetting that series of articles Mr. Coolidge as Vice-President wrote for a woman's magazine when the "red terror" made us shiver most. The series was entitled "Enemies of the Republic: Are the Reds Stalking our College Women?" I acquit Mr. Coolidge of the caption. The first article is aptly led by a large picture of a sheep in spectacles lecturing with book and pointer to a group of little sheep. At second glance one sees that the teacher sheep is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The case he makes out against the wolf consists of extracts from college magazines. Here are a few of the terrors that then infested the Vice-Presidential mind.

"In the Vassar Miscellany we find that Miss Smith, of the Vassar faculty, during the 1920 spring vacation, 'was in Washington, where she went to various hearings before the Senate committee. The most interesting was the Marten's hearing, where Miss Smith was quite favorably impressed by

the Soviet Ambassador, and struck by his moderation and intelligence compared to the narrowness of some of the committee.' [The italics are Coolidge's.]

"At the Socialist Club soirée Miss Hutchinson, discussing Bebel's Women under Socialism, said: "The inspection of one radical idea usually acts as an entering wedge for others,"" and in a description of the society's convention he quotes and italicizes: "A man from Harvard took first prize for his scholarly speech on conscription of wealth."

At Wellesley "There is a Mary Calkens, professor of philosophy (she is said to have voted for Debs for President at the recent election) who is reported in the Wellesley College News of Oct. 4, 1918, as holding that 'It is not necessary for us to part with our flag as long as it stands for nothing wholly and separately American, and as long as it represents the highest spiritual ideals of truth, righteousness and brotherhood." "

A large mind would not busy itself with such trifles, nor would real courage be disturbed by the bleating of the lambs.

I recall these articles merely to round out the picture of the man who is now President and who may be President for four years more after 1924. But despite them I think that he is better than he looks. If he has not the energy or imagination to be constructive for the future, he has a mighty faculty for getting done the things of to-day. He is more on the job than any President I have ever known. He works like a Vermont farmer teasing a living out of a thin soil. The routine of the Presidency is a thin soil. is a thin soil. Mr. Coolidge is raising a good crop out of it.

D

URING the summer of 1835, between the dates July 20 and August 20, Edgar A. Poe-so he signed his name left Baltimore to accept an assistant's position on the "Southern Literary Messenger," in Richmond. The "Messenger" was a struggling local magazine, less than a year old, with a small circulation, without a permanent editor, and dependent upon unpaid contributors for its contents. Thomas W. White, the owner, was a practical printer of sturdy character, but possessed of only moderate business ability and almost no education. The young assistant was scarcely better known than the publication which he was to help edit. Brilliant as Poe's work was, it had been published obscurely and had attracted little, if any, attention. There was startling originality in some of this work, but none the less when J. P. Kennedy "discovered" Poe in 1833, as the result of having read his stories in the Baltimore "Saturday Visiter's" prize contest, Poe was in such poverty that he was unable to accept Kennedy's dinner invitation for lack of presentable clothes, and when in 1835, through the same friend's recommendation to White, he received a tentative offer from the "Messenger," he replied that he "would gladly accept it, were the salary even the merest trifle." He

was seeking the opportunity for the reputation that he was confident he could make. By December, though it seems there was a brief period during which, because of Poe's habits, he and Mr. White had separated, he had been put in editorial charge of the "Messenger." The fire of his criticisms had already kindled a blaze of interest throughout the South.

It was at this period that Judge Beverley Tucker began the correspondence of which Poe's part can now be printed for the first time. Carefully preserved among the Tucker papers, these letters have been brought to light by Mr. George Preston Coleman, late highway commissioner of Virginia, the grandson of Judge Tucker.

Judge Tucker himself invited the letter which began the correspondence. From Williamsburg, on November 29, he wrote to White: "I am much flattered by Mr. Poe's opinion of my lines. His history, as I have heard it, reminds me of Coleridge's. Without the tithe of his genius, I am old enough to be his father (if I do not mistake his filiation, I remember his beautiful mother when a girl), and I presume I have had advantages the want of which he feels." He wrote his criticisms at length of "MS Found in a Bottle," objecting especially to "the mere physique of the horrible." The invitation came at the end of the

letter. "If Mr. Poe takes well what I have said, he shall have as much more of it whenever occasion calls for it. If not, his silence alone will effectually rebuke my impertinence."

Poe had no choice but to reply, and his answer, now published for the first time, is beyond question the most interesting letter, intrinsically, of all that have been printed of his personal correspondence. His contention that the whole of a work of art may be original, though the parts are not, his defense of his levity in his reviews, his confidence that he has creative power and that his next story will be better than "Morella," his latest, his theories of verse, and his delicate, but sincere, response to the reference to his mother, are all significant in themselves, and characteristic of Poe at his best.

The letter is given as Poe wrote it, except for the exquisite penmanship of it.

"Dear Sir,

"Richmond "Dec: 1.35.

"Mr. White was so kind as to read me some portions of your letter to himself, dated Nov 29, and I feel impelled, as much by gratitude for your many friendly expressions of interest in my behalf, as by a desire to make some little explanations, to answer, personally, the passages alluded to.

"And firstly-in relation to your own verses. That they are not poetry I will not allow, even when judging them by your own rules. A very cursory perusal enabled me, when I first saw them, to point out many instances of the Toiσis you mention. Had I the lines before me now I would particularize them. But is there not a more lofty species of originality than originality of individual thoughts or indi

vidual passages? I doubt very much whether a composition may not even be full of original things, and still be pure imitation as a whole. On the other hand I have seen writings, devoid of any new thought, and frequently destitute of any new expression-writings which I could not help considering as full of creative power. But I have no wish to refine, and I dare say that you have little desire that I should do What is, or is not, poetry must not be told in a mere epistle. I sincerely think your lines excellent.

So.

"The distinction you make between levity, and wit or humour (that which produces a smile) I perfectly understand; but that levity is unbecoming the chair of the critic, must be taken, I think, cum grano salis. Moreoverare you sure Jeffrey was never jocular or frivolous in his critical opinions? I think I can call to mind some instances of the purest grotesque in his Reviews downright horse-laughter. Did you ever see a critique in Blackwood's Mag: upon an Epic Poem by a cockney tailor? Its chief witticisms were aimed not at the poem, but at the goose, and bandy legs of the author, and the notice ended, after innumerable oddities in-'ha! ha! ha!— he! he! he!-hi! hi! hi!-ho! ho! ho!hu! hu! hu'!. Yet it was, without exception, the most annihilating, and altogether the most effective Review I remember to have read. Of course I do not mean to palliate such indecency. The reviewer should have been horse whipped. Still I cannot help thinking levity here was indispensable. Indeed how otherwise the subject could have been treated I do not perceive. To treat a tailor's Epic seriously, (and such an Epic too!) would have defeated the ends of the critic, in weaken

"Your opinion of "The MS. found in a Bottle' is just. The Tale was written some years ago, and was one among the first I ever wrote. I have met with no one, with the exception of yourself & P. P. Cooke of Winchester, whose judgment concerning these Tales I place any value upon. Generally, people praise extravagantly those of which I am ashamed, and pass in silence what I fancy to be praise worthy. The last tale I wrote was Morella and it was my best. When I write again it will be something better than Morella. At present, having no time upon my hands, from my editorial duties, I can write nothing worth reading. What articles I have published since Morella were all written some time ago. I mention this to account for the 'mere physique' of the horrible which prevails in the 'MS. found in a Bottle'. I do not think I would be guilty of a similar absurdity now. One or two words more of Egotism.

"I do not entirely acquiesce in your strictures on the versification of my Drama. I find that versification is a point on which, very frequently, persons who agree in all important particulars, differ very essentially. I do not remember to have known any two persons agree, thoroughly, about metre. I have been puzzled to assign a reason for this-but can find none more satisfactory than that music is a most indefinite conception. I have made prosody, in all languages which I have studied, a particular subject of inquiry. I have written many verses, and read more than you would be inclined to imagine. In short I especially pride myself upon the accuracy of my ear-and have estab

own satisfaction at least, by some odd chromatic experiments. I was therefore astonished to find you objecting to the melody of my lines. Had I time just now, and were I not afraid of tiring you, I would like to discuss this point more fully. There is much room for speculation here. Your own verses (I remarked this, upon first reading them, to Mr. White) are absolutely faultless, if considered as 'pure harmony'-I mean to speak technically-'without the intervention of any discords'. I was formerly accustomed to write thus, and it would be an easy thing to convince you of the accuracy of my ear by writing such at present-but imperceptibly the love of these discords grew upon me as my love of music grew stronger, and I at length came to feel all the melody of Pope's later versification, and that of the present T. Moore. I should like to hear from you on this subject. The Dream was admitted solely thro' necessity. I know not the author.

"In speaking of my mother you have touched a string to which my heart fully responds. To have known her is to be an object of great interest in my eyes. I myself never knew herand never knew the affection of a father. Both died (as you may remember) within a few weeks of each other. I have many occasional dealings with Adversity-but the want of parental affection has been the heaviest of my trials.

"I would be proud if you would honor me frequently with your criticism. Believe me when I say that I value it. I would be gratified, also, if you write me in reply to this letter. It will assure me that

you have excused my impertinence in addressing you without a previous acquaintance.

"Very resp & sincerely
"Y. ob. st.
"EDGAR A. POE

"Judge Beverly Tucker."

Judge Tucker's interesting reply covers three pages in Harrison's Virginia Edition of Poe's works. He congratulates himself upon the success of his "attempt to draw" him "into correspondence," and then takes up Poe's theory of discords, and presents a view closely like Lanier's as developed in "The Science of English Verse," that "such irregularities are like rests and grace-notes. The time of the bar must be the same, no matter how many notes are in it." His own lines, he says, are "Faulty because, as you say they are faultless."

Poe wrote again in the next month, but his letter has not come to light, if preserved; but from Judge Tucker's letter of January 26 to White it appears that Poe felt that White did not put as much confidence in his editorial capacity as was necessary for "mutual comfort"; and a misconstruction of one of Tucker's letters to White is considered by him in part the origin of this doubt. Tucker wrote his letter at Poe's request, but the qualified praise could scarcely have flattered the feelings of the young romancer. "That I have not admired all Mr. P's productions as much as I have some others, and that his writings are not so much to my taste as they would be, were I (as would to God I were!) as as young as he, I do not deny," is not strong praise, however sympathetic we may be when we remember that "King Pest" was one of the produc

tions; but Tucker declares that had he meant more he would have said more and reaffirms his sincerity in what he had formerly said in Poe's praise. Of a recent Poe review he speaks with enthusiasm as "a specimen of criticism which for niceness of discrimination, delicacy of expression, and all that shows familiarity with the art, may well compare with any I have ever seen." Yet near the close he repeats, "Mr. Poe is young, and I thought him rash. I expressed this full as strongly as I thought it."

When Poe addressed Tucker again it was at White's instance and in a tone of polite formality. The letter furnishes new material for students of Poe's life, chiefly as an indication of relations between Poe and the owner of the "Messenger" and for the light it throws upon the young Poe's methods as an editor. Its penmanship, though clear, is not of the same perfection as that of the earlier letter.

"Dear Sir,

"Richmond "May 2. 1836.

"At Mr. White's request I write to apologize for the omission of your verses "To a Coquette' in the present number of the Messenger. Upon making up the form containing them it was found impossible to get both the pieces in, and their connection one with the other rendered it desirable not to separate them-they were therefore left for the May number.

"I must also myself beg your pardon for making a few immaterial alterations in your article on Slavery, with a view of so condensing it as to get it in the space remaining at the end of the number. One very excellent passage in relation to the experience of a