Poe had also another trait, and that was a sadistic one. This accounts for his tales of people torturing and being tortured, as _The Pit, and the Pendulum_, and the _Cask of Amontillado_. He was sadistic as any one can see by his delight in writing critical articles calculated to cause writers intense pain. He punished his enemies by venting his hatred upon them in his essays. He had an unconscious instinct to cause pain for the mere sake of pain. He hints at this in his _Imp of the Perverse_, where he lays down a theory which is undoubtedly true, but which moralists try to shun. "I am not more certain that I breathe than that the assurance of the wrong or error of an action is often the one unconquerable _force_ which impels us and alone impels us to its prosecution." He was also masochistic, he unconsciously liked to cause pain to himself. In his _The Black Cat_ he calls perverseness one of the primitive impulses of the human heart, and he speaks of it as "the unfathomable longing of the soul _to vex itself_--to offer violence to its own nature, to do wrong for the wrong's sake only." Poe, as a child, had the sadistic and masochistic instincts. He is fascinated by contemplation of suffering, and in his _Premature Burial_ speaks of the pleasurable pain we get from reading of terrible catastrophes. His sadism and masochism figure considerably in his art. He could not carry out his desires to punish in life, and hence found a refuge in literature. We often carry out in imagination what we cannot actually do; and we wreak punishment and revenge that way; if we are authors we make books with such ideas. A very simple illustration will serve in Poe's case, yet it has never been noted. In Poe's tale _The Cask of Amontillado_ the motive is revenge. The narrator vowed vengeance upon Fortunato, who had added insult to injury. He buries him in a vault. In his fancy Poe was punishing a real enemy, and though he had several, he hated none more than the author of _Alice Ben Bolt_, Dr. Thomas Dunn English. It is related he once sought the doctor, saying he wanted to kill him. The tale was published in _Godey's Lady's Book_ for November, 1846, and was written probably a few months before. In July of that year Poe published the savage and violent letter to English in retaliation for English's reply to a very hostile article about him by Poe in the _Literati_. Poe's hatred for Dr. English is almost murderous. It is plausible to assume that a writer would unconsciously have his most bitter antagonist in mind while writing a bitter tale of revenge at the time of his most intense hatred for him. Poe was not satisfied with his own savage reply, and instituted a suit of damages for defamation of character, which was rewarded with a verdict several months after the publishing of his tale. In the story Poe wrote: "I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser." He calls Fortunato a quack