d timidity. He must be
his own master, his own editor; and hence his lifelong dream and desire
took form in the conception of the Stylus--that _ignis fatuus_ which he
pursued to the last day of his life--uncertain, elusive, yet ever
eagerly sought, and always ending in disappointment and bitterness of
soul. Time and again it seemed within his grasp, and, as he exultantly
proclaimed, "his prospects glorious," when, by his own weakness of will,
it was lost to him.

Undoubtedly, one of the chief factors in the non-success of Poe's life
and its consequent unhappiness was his marriage.

Setting aside the poetic imaginings which have been and doubtless will
continue to be written concerning this marriage as one of idylic mutual
love and "idolatry," the story, in the light of established facts,
resolves itself into a very prosaic one.

Mr. John Mackenzie, Poe's lifelong and only intimate and confidential
friend, never hesitated to say that had Poe been left to himself the
idea would never have occurred to him of marrying his little
child-cousin. In no transaction of his life was his pitiable weakness
more manifest than in this feeble yielding of himself to the dominant
will of a mother-in-law.

Had Poe remained single or have married another than Virginia, his
regard for her would have continued just what it had been in the
beginning and what it remained to the end--the affection of a brother or
cousin for a sweet and lovable child. But no one can believe that Poe's
nature could have found its satisfying in such a marriage; and, in fact,
whatsoever sentimental things he may have written concerning it, his
whole conduct goes to prove its insincerity.

Poe was of all men one who most craved and needed the love and sympathy
of a woman of a nature kindred to his own--a woman of talent and
qualities of mind and heart to appreciate his genius and all that was
best in him; one who would be to him not only a congenial companion, but
a "helpmeet" as well. Had he married one of Mrs. Osgood's tender
sensibilities and feminine charm, or Mrs. Whitman, with her talent and
strong character, or even a woman of the practical good sense and
judgment of Mrs. Shew, who knew so well how to care for him mentally and
physically--Poe would have been a different man.

But his imprudent and, as it has been called, unnatural marriage, cut
him off from what would probably have been the highest happiness of his
life, with its accompanying worldly a