e singular advantages and means of progress
enjoyed by the laborer in this metropolis. It is believed that there
cannot be found another city in the world in which the laboring classes
are as much improved, possess as many helps, enjoy as much
consideration, exert as much influence, as in this place. Had I
pursued this subject, I should have done what I often wished to do; I
should have spoken of the obligations of our city to my excellent
friend, James Savage, Esq., to whose unwearied efforts we are chiefly
indebted for two inestimable institutions,--the Provident Institution
for Savings and the Primary Schools; the former giving to the laborer
the means of sustaining himself in times of pressure, and the latter
placing almost at his door the means of instruction for his children
from the earliest age. The union of the Primary Schools with the
Grammar Schools and the High Schools in this place constitutes a system
of public education unparalleled, it is believed, in any country. It
would not be easy to name an individual to whom our city is under
greater obligations than to Mr. Savage. In the enterprises which I
have named, he was joined and greatly assisted by the late Elisha
Ticknor, Esq., whose name ought also to be associated with the
Provident Institution and the Primary Schools. The subject of these
lectures brings to my mind the plan of an institution which was laid
before me by Mr. Ticknor, for teaching at once agriculture and the
mechanic arts. He believed that a boy might be made a thorough farmer,
both in theory and practice, and might at the same time learn a trade,
and that by being skilled in both vocations he would be more useful,
and would multiply his chances of comfortable subsistence. I was
interested by the plan, and Mr. Ticknor's practical wisdom led me to
believe that it might be accomplished.

THE POETIC PRINCIPLE

BY

EDGAR ALLAN POE

_INTRODUCTORY NOTE_

_Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) was born in Boston, the child of actors who
died while he was very young. He was adopted by a Virginian gentleman,
Mr. John Allan, who put him to school in England for five years, then
in Richmond, and finally sent him to the University of Virginia. He
remained there only a short time, and after finding that he disliked
business, and publishing a volume of poems, he enlisted in the army.
Mr. Allan had him discharged and placed him in West Point, from which
he got himself dismissed. After