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Thoughts for the Waverly [[Waverley]].

IF Poe gained “notoriety” by choosing to imitate a particular style which he evidently admired, it is undoubtedly proper that the inventor of that style should receive the benefits arising from the invention. But if Poe wrote for the “Broadway Journal” in praise of Chivers poems, and afterwards frequently imitated his style, probably he intended no deception, but merely followed the dictates of his own taste, as it is said Byron, Southy [[Southey]], Moore, and others, have done before him.

It has been admitted that Poe was a “great artist — a consummate genius” and one who had a “high sense of the poetic art,” and yet it is asserted that “had he been a strictly sober and temperate man, his notoriety, which is not fame, would have died into an echo long ago!”

Is a natural poet — “a great artist — a consummate genius,” the sort of a man to “die into an echo?” Has not such a man the abilities that enable the possessor to stand on his own basis?

We think so; and while we say “Let justice be done,” we say let it be done, not to one merely, but to all.

M.