strange matters that we dream of. It is only when we

wake that we wonder that so material an omission in the thread of the events should have been unnoticed by the mind at a time when it could dream in other respects so plausibly - with such detailed minuteness with such self-possession.

But I must come to a conclusion, as I tire myself with this out-of-the-way sort of writing.

I will subscribe to the Gentlemn's Mag. shortly & also contribute" to it.

Yrs. sincerely

P. P. COOKE.

CHARLESTOWN, Sep. 16, 1839

P. S. I would not say "saith Lord Verulam” — it is out of the way.

I am very impertinent.

POE TO COOKE.

PHILADELPHIA, September 21, 1839. MY DEAR SIR, - I received your letter this morning and read it with more pleasure than I can well express. You wrong me, indeed, in supposing that I meant one word of mere flattery in what I said. I have an inveterate habit of speaking the truth and had I not valued your opinion more highly than that of any man in America I should not have written you as I did.

“Li

I say that I read your letter with delight. In fact I am aware of no delight greater than that of feeling one's self appreciated (in such wild matters as geia ") by those in whose judgment one has faith. You read my most intimate spirit like a book," and with the single exception of D'Israeli, I have had communication with no other person who does. Willis had

a glimpse of it - Judge Tucker saw about one half way through but your ideas are the very echo of my own. I am very far from meaning to flatter — I am flattered and honored. Beside me is now lying a letter from Washington Irving in which he speaks with enthusiasm of a late tale of mine, "The Fall of the House of Usher,” — and in which he promises to make his opinion public, upon the first opportunity, but from the bottom of my heart I assure you, I regard his best word as but dust in the balance when weighed with those discriminating opinions of your own, which teach me that you feel and perceive.

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Touching Ligeia" you are right—all rightthroughout. The gradual perception of the fact that Ligeia lives again in the person of Rowena is a far loftier and more thrilling idea than the one I have embodied. It offers in my opinion, the widest possible scope to the imagination — it might be rendered even sublime. And this idea was mine - had I never written before I should have adopted it- but then there is "Morella." Do you remember there the gradual conviction on the part of the parent that the spirit of the first Morella tenants the person of the second? It was necessary, since "Morella " was written, to modify Ligeia." I was forced to be content with a sudden half-consciousness, on the part of the narrator, that Ligeia stood before him. One point I have not fully carried out - I should have intimated that the will did not perfect its intention - there should have been a relapse a final one and Ligeia (who had only succeeded in so much as to convey an idea of the truth to the narrator) should be at length entombed as Rowena the bodily alterations having gradually faded away.

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