Text: Nathaniel P. Willis (?), “Mr. Poe’s Eureka,” Home Journal (New York), February 5, 1848, p. 2, col. 4 ???

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EDGAR A. POE. — We, by accident, omitted to mention, in our last week’s paper, that our friend and former editorial associate, Mr. Poe, was to deliver a Lecture on Thursday evening, February 3d, at the “Society Library.” The subject is rather a broad one — “The Universe;” but from a mind so original, no text could furnish any clue to what would probably be the sermon. There is but one thing certain about it, that it will be compact of thought, most fresh, startling, and suggestive. Delivered under the warrant of our friend’s purely intellectual features and expression, such a lecture as he must write, would doubtless be, to the listeners, a mental treat of very unusual relish and point.

We understand that the purpose of Mr. Poe’s Lectures is to raise the necessary capital for the establishment of a magazine, which he proposed to call “THE STYLUS.” They who like literature without trammels, and criticism without gloves, should send in their names forthwith as subscribers. If there be in the world a born anatomist of thought, it is Mr. Poe. He takes genius and its imitations to pieces with a skill wholly unequalled on either side the water; and neither in criticism, nor in his own most singular works of imagination, does he write a sentence that is not vivid and suggestive. The severe afflictions with which Mr. Poe has been visited within the last year, have left him in a position to devote himself, self-sacrificingly, to his new task; and, with energies that need the exercise, he wilt doubtless give it that most complete attention which alone can make such an enterprise successful.