_Here is a story, one of the "Twice-Told Tales," the subject of which
might well have been selected for treatment by Poe. In his hands,
how different the result would have been; how much more physical and
poignant, how much less spiritual and charming!_
_The real difference in the two writers is not so much a conflict of
artistic methods as it is a difference of moral make-up. Hawthorne,
the son of a Salem sea captain, was descended from the grimmest
Puritans; Poe was the son of an actor._