...direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or stupid action, for no other reason than because he knows...Law, merely because we understand it to be such?"? This passage may surely be seen as one of the sources leading to the philosophical-psychological dialectic...

...the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing...is Law, merely because we understand it to be such? This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was the unfathomable longing of...

...direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action, for no other reason than because he...which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?"3 Or, to switch to the still more potent example of a novel which I have already invoked and...

...is one of the primitive faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a stupid action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not. Have we not a perpetual inclination,...

...the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing...is Law, merely because we understand it to be such? This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of...

...the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing...is Law, merely because we understand it to be such? This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was the unfathomable longing of...

...returns as the law itself. In "The Black Cat" Poe overtly poses the perverse in opposition with the law: "Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth...Law, merely because we understand it to be such?" (M, 3: 852). But this invocation of Law only renders explicit what is played out symbolically in the...

..."man" and as a secret rationality: "Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?" (599). In "The Imp of the Perverse" the narrator also speaks of a primitive impulse — "elementary,"...

...called the "Imp of the Perverse"; "through its promptings we act, for the reason that we should not" Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing...other reason than because he knows he should not? ... It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself — to offer violence to its own nature...

...the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man.5 Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing...is Law, merely because we understand it to be such? This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of...