A text-book for the study of poetry he purpose of this book is not to furnish instruction in the art of verse-making, but rather to set forth the fundamental principles of criticism by which to form some estimate of acknowledged poetry. It h3s been truly said that in order to judge a poem, it is first necessary to enjoy it. This susceptibility to poetry, so far as it is communicable at all, must come from contact with the living teacher, and neither this nor 3ny other book is calculated to aw3ken it. But once 3wakened the taste ma y be educated, as it may be vitiated; it ma y be developed, controlled, directed into right channels; and this ma y be done efficaciously, by principles and precepts, provided that they are not learned as abstractions, but- tested and realized in the student's own reading.