e
inconsistent but very human mood of sweet forgiveness for love's sake,
that sometimes overtakes the bitterest of us after some crisis in our
days.

The happy pair are shown, walking through the hills. Thrown upon the
clouds for them are the moods of the poet-lover's heart. They look into
the woods and see his fancies of Spring, the things that he will some day
write. These pageants might be longer. They furnish the great climax.
They make a consistent parallel and contrast with the ghoul-visions that
end with the confession to the detective. They wipe that terror from the
mind. They do not represent Poe. The rabbits, the leopard, the fairies,
Cupid and Psyche in the clouds, and the little loves from the hollow
trees are contributions to the original poetry of the eye.

Finally, the central part of this production of the Avenging Conscience
is no dilution of Poe, but an adequate interpretation, a story he might
have written. Those who have the European respect for Poe's work will be
most apt to be satisfied with this section, including the photographic
texture which may be said to be an authentic equivalent of his prose. How
often Poe has been primly patronized for his majestic quality, the wizard
power which looms above all his method and subject-matter and furnishes
the only reason for its existence!

For Griffith to embroider this Poe Interpretation in the centre of a
fairly consistent fabric, and move on into a radiant climax of his own
that is in organic relation to the whole, is an achievement indeed. The
final criticism is that the play is derivative. It is not built from new
material in all its parts, as was the original story. One must be a
student of Poe to get its ultimate flavor. But in reading Poe's own
stories, one need not be a reader of any one special preceding writer to
get the strange and solemn exultation of that literary enchanter. He is
the quintessence of his own lonely soul.

Though the wizard element is paramount in the Poe episode of this film,
the appeal to the conscience is only secondary to this. It is keener than
in Poe, owing to the human elements before and after. The Chameleon
producer approximates in The Avenging Conscience the type of mystic
teacher, discussed in the twentieth chapter: "The Prophet-Wizard."

CHAPTER XI

ARCHITECTURE-IN-MOTION

This chapter is a superstructure upon the foundations of chapters five,
six, and seven.

I have said that it is a quality, no