ABSTRACT
A most extraordinary essay upon the material and spiritual Universe, — but one to which we are at this moment unable to do anything like adequate justice, — the work itself having barely made its appearance from the press of Mr Putnam. Those of our readers who remember a report of Mr Poe's Lecture at the Society Library, a few months ago, which appeared in this journal at the time, may gather some idea of the work before us from the fact that the lecture has been expanded, with really consummate art — but this was to be expected from the admitted genius of its author — into an elegant volume of nearly r so pages, in which the ideas which were then set forth with such novelty and effect, have been carefully arranged in a more elaborate form for the public eye. We shall be greatly surprised if this work does not create a most profound sensation among the literary and scientific classes all over the union — displaying as it does a reasoning power and grasp of thought which cannot possibly fail to excite the ‘Special Wonder’ of even the most careless reader. In respect of novelty, Mr Poe's new theory of the Universe will certainly attract universal attention, in as much as it is demonstrated, so to speak, with a degree of logical acumen which has certainly not been equalled since the days of Sir Isaac Newton, and can hardly be said to have been excelled even by that great philosopher. But we must bring a brief notice of this extraordinary book to a hurried close here — earnestly recommending it to everyone of our readers as one that can in no event fail to shed an unfailing lustre upon the American name, as a work of almost unequalled power in respect to philosophical research and speculative force. Mr Poe has appropriately dedicated it ‘With very profound respect,’ to Alexander von Humboldt, whose well known Cosmos he very just1y ranks higher than any other work upon the same subject.
