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Eureka – A Prose Poem – Edgar Allan Poe

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. I shall be so rash, moreover, as to challenge the conclusions, and thus, in effect, to question the sagacity, of many of the greatest and most justly reverenced of men.

In the beginning, let me as distinctly as possible announce � not the theorem which I hope to demonstrate � for, whatever the mathematicians may assert, there is, in this world at least, no such thing as demonstration � but the ruling idea which, throughout this volume, I shall be continually endeavoring to suggest.

My general proposition, then, is this: � In the Original Unity of the First Thing lies the Secondary Cause of All Things, with the Germ of their Inevitable Annihilation.