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Show Ancient Irish Laws in Poetry. Even a subject so essentially prosaic pro-saic as the law was interwoven with poetry in ancient Ireland, where justice jus-tice was administered by the File, or poet, the most Important person in the country after the king. In olden times verse was employed when the matter to be recorded was of particular importance, im-portance, or of a nature that called not only for grace and beauty of expression, expres-sion, but for dignity of language as well. Wheu the ancient laws of Ireland were revived, says the Christian Science Monitor, under the direction of St. Patrick, a File was summoned "to put a thread of poetry around them." This ' is believed one of the reasons that so much of the text of the Irish laws Is in metrical form. From 12 to If) years of special study was reedejLto qualify a File for the legal profession. |