Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-07-16
ALEXANDRIA,:
THURSDAY MORNING, JULY l6.
cuuDE H.RoLD-cAsro ~.

CHILDE HAROLD-cANTo Nv.
The fourth canto of Childe Harold's Pill
grimsge, lately published by Moses l no.
mas in Philadelphia. will neither dlmlnisn
the fame Of that first Of living poets' lora
Byron, nor disappoint the expectations OIL
his admirers. For affluence OF conception
and sound philosophical observations, 1t
fully equals, indeed we think exceeds any
of the preceding cantos. The extensive
learning and profound knowledge OF his
tory which this poet brings Win MN 10
every exertion OF his muse makes nea'
vier demands for certain share oil cru
di,ion on his readers, than The majority
of them can readily meet, and therefore
there will be many more disposed to read
than prepared 10 understand this work, SO
entirely as to do justice to its excellence.
A considerable proportion OF the authors
thoughts and inductions, are at once SO
profound and so refined, that the Kind OF
perusal which incident and inattentive
readers are willing, or perhaps able TO be-
stow upon il, will be very inadequate to
impart that high relish which every reader
OF thorough erudition, intelligence and
taste, must derive from the poetry Of lord
, Byron.
Not many months ago we'laid before our
readers long and highly wrought charac'
ter of the works Of lord Byron, and OF him
! self. He who reads the fourth canto OF the
Glide, will perceive that it throws an adj
ditional and correspondent light upon The
subjects discussed in that character. The
dedication to Mr.. Hobhouse, shows that
his bosom, however obscured with clouds
il may be when his own fate is the guest,
blazes with no vulgar lustre when thrown
open for the reception Of friend. The
affection with which he speaks OF MIR. Hob
house, even more than that with which he
speaks of Thomas Moore in the dedication
to his Corsair, shows that he is as exlui-
sitely sensible to the more refined and ami
able feelings Of the heart, as if there was
nothing within to throw the pitiable dark
shade of melancholy over his life. In the
present dedication, he seems TO afford the
public clue to the solution OF the question
how far he had sat to himself for the pic
ture of Childe Harold in the former cantos,
and he complains that though he had sedu-
iously labored in those poems to separate
the pilgrim from the author, the public
seemed obstinately bent upon not under
standing him. with regard TO the con-
duct OF the last canto," says he, there
will be found less of the pilgrim than in
any of the preceding, and that little slight
ly, if at all, separated from the author
speaking in his own person. The fact IS,
that had become weary of drawing line
which every one seemed determined not TO
perceive like the Chinese in Goldsrnith's
Citizen of the World, whom nobody would
believe to be Chinese, it was IN vain that
asserted and imagined, that had drawn
a distinction between the author and the
pilgrim; and the very anxiety to preserve
this difference, and disappointment at find
Ing it unavailing, so far crushed my efforts
I in the composition, that | determined TO
abandon it aItogether-and have done So"
In the character we have heretofore
given, and to which reference is made a.
bove, the following remark was made -
Lord Byron had unon one occasion entered
formal protest against the public lever
anxious, in curiosity or malignity, to attach
to fictitious characters rea; prototypes) OBJ
stinately declaring that his lordship had in
the stern, bad features Of his heroes, CO.
| pied the individual features reflected in his
own mrror-In the character above al
luded to, the writer said, " men no more
expected to meet in lord Byron, the Cor
sair who knev himself a pillain,' than they
looked for the hypocrisy Of Kehama in
Southey, or the proaigacy Of Marmion in
Scott. But by the arowal OF lord By
ron himself, in the dedication TO DIR. Hob
house, now before US, what is said Of the
pilgrim in the fourth canto, is but slightly
if at all separated from the author speaking
in his own person. Taking this for grant
ed, can any thing be much more affecting
to a soul formed for sympathy with the mi
series Of the good, than to take the follow
ing stanzas as picture Of the bosom suf-
ferings OF a man OF the most exalted nature,
and one of the most highly gifted minds