"You will now understand what I
meant in suggesting that, had the purloined letter been hidden
anywhere within the limits of the Prefect's examination --in other
words, had the principle of its concealment been comprehended within
the principles of the Prefect --its discovery would have been a matter
altogether beyond question. This functionary, however, has been
thoroughly mystified; and the remote source of his defeat lies in
the supposition that the Minister is a fool, because he has acquired
renown as a poet. All fools are poets; this the Prefect feels; and
he is merely guilty of a non distributio medii in thence inferring
that all poets are fools."
- Edgar Allan Poe, "The Purloined Letter"
descensus Averno facilis est