Eureka is an 1848 lengthynon-fiction work by the American authorEdgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) which he subtitled "AProse Poem", though it has also been subtitled "AnEssay on the Material and Spiritual Universe". Adapted from a lecture he had presented,Eureka describes Poe's intuitive conception of the nature of theuniverse, with no antecedent scientific work done to reach his conclusions. He also discusses man's relationship withGod, whom he compares to an author.Eureka is dedicated to the German naturalist and explorerAlexander von Humboldt (1769–1859).[1][2]
ThoughEureka is generally considered a literary work, some of Poe's ideas anticipate 20th-century scientific discoveries and theories.[3] Analysis ofEureka's scientific content shows congruities with modern cosmology, stemming from Poe's assumption of an evolving Universe.[4][5]
In Poe's day,Eureka was received poorly and was generally described, even by friends, as absurd. Modern critics continue to debate the import ofEureka, and some doubt its seriousness, in part because of Poe's many incorrect assumptions and his comical references to historic thinkers. Poe callsEureka a "poem", whereas many critics compare it with his fiction works, especially hisscience fiction stories such as "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar". Poe's attempts at discovering the truth follow his own tradition of "ratiocination", a term he had used in hisdetective fiction tales. His suggestion that the soul continues to thrive even after death parallels his writings in which characters reappear from beyond the grave, as in "Ligeia". The essay contains aspects oftranscendentalism, despite Poe's disdain for that movement.
Poe consideredEureka his greatest work and claimed that it was more important than the discovery ofgravity.
To the few who love me and whom I love – to those who feel rather than to those who think – to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams as in the only realities – I offer this Book of Truths, not in its character of Truth-Teller, but for the Beauty that abounds in its Truth; constituting it true. To these I present the composition as an Art-Product alone: let us say as a Romance; or, if I be not urging too lofty a claim, as a Poem. |
| — Preface toEureka, by Edgar Allan Poe |
Eureka is Poe's last major work and his longest non-fiction work, at nearly 40,000 words.[6] The work had its origins in a lecture Poe presented on February 3, 1848, titled "On The Cosmography of the Universe", at the Society Library in New York.[6][7] He had expected an audience of hundreds; only 60 people attended, and many reportedly were confused by the topic.[8] Poe had hoped the profits from the lecture would cover expenses for the production of his new journal,The Stylus.[6] Some reviews in the contemporary press offered lavish praise for the lecture, while others critiqued it harshly.[9]
Eureka is Poe's attempt at explaining the universe, using his general proposition that "Because Nothing was, therefore All Things are".[10] InEureka, Poe discusses man's relationship to God and the universe[11]: 214 or, as he offers at the beginning: "I design to speak of the Physical, Metaphysical and Mathematical – of the Material and Spiritual Universe: of its Essence, its Origin, its Creation, its Present Condition and its Destiny".[12] In keeping with this design, Poe concludes "that space and duration are one"[12] and that matter and spirit are made of the same essence.[13]: 245 Poe suggests that people have a natural tendency to believe in themselves as infinite with nothing greater than their soul—such thoughts stem from man's residual feelings from when each shared an original identity with God.[14] Ultimately individual consciousnesses will collapse back into a similar single mass, a "final ingathering" where the "myriads of individual Intelligences become blended".[15] Likewise, Poe saw the universe itself as infinitely expanding and contracting[11]: 215 like a divine heartbeat which constantly rejuvenates itself, also implying a sort of deathlessness.[1] In fact, because the soul is a part of this constant throbbing, after dying, all people, in essence, become God.[14]
Eureka was published in a smallhardcover edition in March 1848 by Wiley & Putnam,[6] priced at 75 cents.[16] Poe persuadedGeorge Palmer Putnam – who had previously taken a chance on Poe by printing his onlynovel,The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, in England – to publishEureka, after Poe claimedEureka to be more important thanIsaac Newton's discovery of gravity. Putnam paid Poe fourteen dollars for the work.[11]: 219
Poe suggested an initial printing of at least one million copies; Putnam settled on 750, of which 500 were sold that year.[17] Other accounts say that Poe requested 50,000 copies, and that 500 were printed.[10][18] The publisher gave Poe the full $14 in advance.[7]
Eureka presents themes and sentiments similar to some of those in Poe's fiction work, including attempts at breaking beyond the obstacle of death[10] and specifically characters who return from death in stories like "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "Ligeia". Similar to his theories on a goodshort story, Poe believes the universe is a self-contained, closed system.[19] In coming to his conclusions, Poe uses ratiocination as a literary device, through his characterC. Auguste Dupin, as if Poe himself were a detective solving the mystery of the universe.[13]: 274–275 Eureka, then, is the culmination of Poe's interest in capturing truth through language, an extension of his interest incryptography.[20]
Eureka seems to continue thescience fiction traditions he had used in works like "MS. Found in a Bottle" and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar".[11]: 214 He further emphasizes the connection between his theory and fiction by saying that the universe itself is a written work: "The Universe is a plot of God", Poe says, and "the plots of God are perfect".[2]: 120 [21] Even so, Poe admits that the difficulty in explaining these theories comes in part from the limitations of language, often apologizing for or explaining his use of "common" or "vulgar" terms.[22]
Poe's decision to callEureka a "prose poem" goes against some of his own "rules" of poetry which he had laid out in "The Philosophy of Composition" and "The Poetic Principle". In particular, Poe had called the ideal poem short, at most 100 lines, and utilizing the "most poetical topic in the world": the death of a beautiful woman.[13]: 272 Poe himself suggested thatEureka be judged only as a work of art, not of science – possibly dismissing the seriousness ofEureka.[11]: 215 Though he is using mathematical and scientific terms, he may actually be talking aboutaesthetics[13]: 279 and suggesting that there is a close connection between science and art.[23] This is an ironic sentiment, considering his message in the poem "To Science", in which he had shown a distaste for modern science's encroachments on spirituality and the artist's imagination.[24] InEureka Poe also discusses severalastronomy-related matters, including the speed of the stars, the diameters of planets and distances among them, the weight of Earth, and the orbit of the newly discovered "Leverrier's planet",[2]: 110–111 [25] later christenedNeptune.
Eureka ventures intotranscendentalism, relying strongly onintuition, a movement and practice he had despised.[26] Though he criticized the transcendental movement for what he referred to as incoherent mysticism,Eureka is more mystical than most transcendental works.[11]: 214 Eureka has also been compared to the theories ofMary Baker Eddy, founder ofChristian Science, andJoseph Smith, founder of theLatter Day Saint movement.[11]: 214
The essay is written in a manner that anticipates its audience. For example, Poe uses more metaphors further into the work, in the belief that the reader becomes more interested.[27] Poe's voicecrescendos throughout, starting as the modest seeker of truth, moving on to the satirist of logic, and finally ending as the master scholar.[27]
The comical presentation of these historic thinkers, including thepuns on their names, suggests that Poe may have intendedEureka as aburlesque.[11]: 215 Alternatively, his criticism of them might indicate Poe's need to challenge their conclusions before presenting his own.[1]
Eureka has been read in many ways, in part because Poe's sincerity in the work is questionable. It has been considered prophetically scientific, intuitivelyromantic, and even calculatingly ironic.[23] Lacking scientific proof, Poe said it was not his goal to prove what he says to be true, but to convince through suggestion.[11]: 215
Though modern critics have dismissedEureka for having no scientific worth or merit,[11]: 214 [30] Poe's workpresages modern science with his own concept of theBig Bang.[31][32] He postulated that the universe began from a single originating particle orsingularity, willed by a "Divine Volition".[1] This "primordial particle", initiated by God,[13]: 282 divides into all the particles of the universe. These particles seek one another because of their originating unity (gravity), resulting in the end of the universe as a single particle. Poe also expresses a cosmological theory that anticipatedblack holes and theBig Crunch theory,[3] as well as the first plausible solution toOlbers' paradox (the night sky is dark despite the vast number of stars in the universe).[33] In 1987 astronomerEdward Robert Harrison published a book,Darkness at Night, on this paradox; it clarified why insufficient energy explains the paradox, and lays out how Harrison discovered that Poe'sEureka anticipated this conclusion. A scientific reassessment ofEureka also emphasizes that Poe was the first person to conceive a Newtonian evolving universe in which nothing can stop stars or galaxies from collapsing on each other.[34]
Many of Poe's conclusions, however, are speculative due to his rejection of analytic logic and emphasis on intuition and inspiration.[11]: 214 Further,Eureka contains many scientific errors. In particular, Poe's suggestions opposedNewtonian principles regarding the density and rotation of planets.[10] He also says thatJohannes Kepler came to his conclusions not through science but through guesswork.[11]: 214 For this reason, it has been suggested that what Poe claims inEureka to be true, is not actually about this universe but about a parallel, fictitious one that Poe creates.[35] If this is the case, as interpreted by poetRichard Wilbur, Poe is criticizing this world, suggesting that it has fallen away from God by elevating scientific reason above poetic intuition.[11]: 216
Some modern critics have suggested thatEureka is a sign of Poe's declining mental health at the end of his life.[36] AstrophysicistArthur Stanley Eddington has disputed this notion, declaring that "Eureka is not a work of dotage or disordered mind".[5] In the text, Poe wrote that he was aware he might be considered a madman.[11]: 215 The lecture on which the essay was based was delivered only a few days after the anniversary of his wifeVirginia's death, suggesting a connection between that anniversary and his new theories.[1] Poe seems to dismiss death inEureka, thereby ignoring his own anxiety over the problem of death.[37]
Some modern critics believeEureka is the key to deciphering meaning in all of Poe's fiction – that all his works involve similar theories.[13]: 274
Response toEureka was overwhelmingly unfavorable. Poe's friend Marie Louise Shew, who had helped his wifeVirginia on her deathbed, broke off their friendship, because it offended her religious beliefs.[14]
AfterEureka's publication, a vehement anonymous censure appeared in theLiterary Review. Poe believed it to have been written by John Henry Hopkins Jr. (1820–1889), a young theology student who had previously criticizedEureka aspantheistic and "a damnable heresy" that "conscience would compel him to denounce".[38] Literary criticGeorge Edward Woodberry in 1885 thought the essay was based on a crude understanding of the science a student learns in school, "rendered ridiculous" by absurdity and the density of his ignorance.[11]: 217
Thomas Dunn English, a writer, lawyer, and physician who frequently criticized Poe, wrote an article for theJohn-Donkey headlined "Great Literary Crash". The article reported that a shelf of books had crashed because someone had "imprudently" stacked an edition ofEureka on it, and that it was a miracle that the whole building had not fallen down as a result.[39]
The lecture on whichEureka was based also received negative reviews. Poe's friendEvert A. Duyckinck wrote his brother that the lecture had bored him to death and that it was "full of a ludicrous dryness of scientific phrase—a mountainous piece of absurdity".[6] A local newspaper called it "hyperbolic nonsense",[11]: 218 though one publication, theCourier and Enquirer, called it "a nobler effort than any other Mr. Poe has yet given the world".[7] Audience members said it was not persuasive or was simply too long.[16]
Even so, Poe consideredEureka his masterpiece.[11]: 246 He believed it would immortalize him because it would be proven true.[1] In thepreface, Poe wrote: "It is as a Poem only that I wish this work to be judged after I am dead."[6]
After its publication he wrote his aunt Maria Clemm: "I have no desire to live since I have doneEureka. I could accomplish nothing more."[40] He confided in a friend that he believed his contemporary generation was unable to understand it but that it would be appreciated, if ever, two thousand years later.[16]
Some critics, however, responded favorably toEureka. French writerPaul Valéry praised it for both its poetic and scientific merit, calling it anabstract poem based on mathematical foundations.[11]: 216 Albert Einstein, in a 1934 letter, wrote thatEureka was "a beautiful achievement of an unusually independent mind."[5]α
Eureka: A Prose Poem public domain audiobook atLibriVox