Case of Philosophy

8 Pages 2110 Words

brary on the stormy evening of February 3, 1848, to a "crowd" of some sixty persons. Reactions to the two-and-one-half hour lecture were mixed. One listener rhapsodized that the lecture constituted "'a nobler effort than any other Mr. Poe has given to the world.'" (Silverman 338) Evert Duyckinck, a friend of Poe's disparaged the effort, calling it "a mountainous piece of absurdity..." (Silverman) By May, Poe had penned Eureka, a 150-page essay based on the lecture. Based on his belief that "all [listeners] absurdly misrepresented" his lecture, Poe seems to have expected his new work to be misunderstood, perhaps even ignored; (Silverman) yet Poe's Eureka is nothing less t!
han a universal model from which many of his tales stem. Eureka presents an astro-physical/spiritual system; many of Poe's tales and poems serve as allegories of the system. This essay, the first in a series, purposes to summarize and discuss the many novel concepts presented in Eureka, then tie those ideas to Poe's symbolic narratives "A Descent Into the Maelström" and "MS Found In a Bottle." Subsequent essays will tie Poe's astro-physical/spiritual concepts to his psychological theories, which he utilized in shaping many of his protagonists.


The publication of Eureka brought Poe a vehement censure, presented anonymously in the Literary Review, a response believed by Poe to have been penned by John Henry Hopkins, Jr., a young theological student, who had previously criticized the work as pantheistic and thus, "'a damnable heresy'" that "conscience would compel him to denounce..." (Silverman 341) Hopkins was also instrumental in convincing Loui Shew, a nurturing female friend of Poe's that she should see less of him for his blasphemy, thus reinforcing the alienation that Eureka brought its author. (Silverman 340)


Poe presents his Eureka as an offering "to those who feel rather than those who think--to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams as the on...