Poetry has always occupied a unique position in literature; and though
from a pecuniary stand-point usually unprofitable, it enjoys the decided
advantage of longevity.

The mysterious ages of antiquity have bequeathed to all succeeding time
several of earth's noblest epics, while the contemporaneous prose, if
any existed, has long lain buried in the inscrutable archives of the
remote past.

The two most notable of these, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are believed
to have been transmitted from generation to generation, orally, by the
minstrels and minnisingers, until the introduction or inception of the
Greek alphabet, when they were reduced to parchment, and, surviving all
the vicissitudes of time and sequent political and religious change,
still occupy a prominent place in literature.

The Book of Job, generally accepted as the most ancient of writings, now
extant, whether sacred or secular, was doubtless originally a primitive
though sublime poetical effusion.

The prose works contemporaneous with Chaucer, Spencer, and even with
that most wonderful of literary epochs, the Elizabethan age, are now
practically obsolete, while the poetical efforts remain in some
instances with increased prominence.

Someone, (although just who is difficult to determine,--though it savors
of the Greek School of Philosophy,--)has delivered the following
injunction: "Do right because it is right, not from fear of punishment
or hope of reward." Waiving the question as to whether it is right or
not to compose poetry, he who aspires in that direction can reasonably