Excerpt from The Fate of Genius, Other Poems I fear, that the very title of the principal poem in this collection, will appear like an assumption on the part of the author, because it may seem, to most readers, that a person should have some little claims to genius himself, before he ventures to talk so learnedly about it. I hope such will reflect, that I do not make any pretentions of the kind, and I imagine, that those who take the trouble to peruse it, will not be averse to hearing somewhat concerning its origin, since it may furnish an apology to myself for writing upon a subject which deserves a much abler pen. In 182 - I was appointed to deliver an oration for the U. L. S. of the Miami University. A senior suggested to me, the Fate of Genius, as a subject which would likely be new and interesting. I then threw together some hasty remarks upon it, being very far, at that time, from an elaborate effort of any kind. Within the last year, some circumstances (with which I do not wish to trouble the world, ) having changed the purposes of my life and driven me to the Muses, I came to the conclusion, to make a collection of my poems, written at different intervals from my fourteenth year, a few of the most serious of which are contained in this volume. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.