Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1831-02-03
From the Ne,c- FORK american.
MOORE,S LIFE OF BYRON.


Venice-where our last notice left him.
the most excep;ionable part of this volume
Moore has depicted the habits Of the subject ct
81, biography at this period with the minuteness
of Flemish painter, and the grossness character
istic of that school of the art. Indeed, the only
apology for plungng into these offensive details.
Is that il enables him to show how sterling must
the metal have been which was not thoroughly
corrupted bv such base alloy. The end, however,
would have been answered as we'll by less excep-
tionable means; and brief, but severe, notice OF
these disgr,ceful passages In the life OF the Bard
would ha, told with sufficient force TO the reader
the slough in which he was Immersed, and The en-
ergy that was requisite to extrlcate MN from IL.
II was the chains of the Guiceioli which Byron
exchanged for those degrading fetters,-a liason
which, in spite of the poetic charm that Moore
has thrown around it, sterner morallst would
hardly admit to be less degrading than the bon
daee from which he had just escaped. Fashion,
however that amiable custos mOrum which wlnks
at the p0iiticai amours of king Caucus IN Amerl-
ca, and looks leniently upon galopading into Doc
tors Commons in England, has sanctioned con-
nections like that of Byron in Italy. Nor is there
ouestion hut that at the early stages OF their In
tercourse, this lady exercised the happiest lntu-
ence over the disposition of Byren. In the source
of that influence is to be fIuna the Key TO ms
character. Naughty, hayward, and lmpetuous,
in spite of his violent and i'll regulated PASSIONS
he seems ever to have been easily governed by
those who showed an affection tor his person.
Love or woman (fOr the terms are SYNONYMOUS as
we are about to use them,l could always mould
his nature 10 GOOD or evil. Not to speak of the
effects of the thwarted passion OF his youth IN the
marriage of Miss Chaworth, marriage, he
saws long subsequently,. I'm which she SACRIFICED
n heart which was hers. from ten years old, anu
4 head which had never been quite right since;
il was the chilling of his domestic heartfelt was
woman. austere and uncharitable, that drove him
to waste the vigor Of his prime in the dissipation
of Il foreign land. 1t was woman, arttui and a
bandoned, that detained him In the circean LIE he
had embraced; and ii was woman, accomplished
and captivating, that won him back to refinement.
IL not TO virtue. And who shall say that mind
thus uaIleabe through its affections, might not
with Kindness have been moulded to purity and
yirtues We do not here mistake physical tenn
permanent for moral tendency, for we are convinc-
ed that gratitude, reciprocity of feeling for ten
deruess towards himself, entered as largely into
these attachments, as they did into those friend
ships for whose fidelity through life Byron was
DISTINGUISHED: ssFor.' we are told that ''through
life, with all his faults, he never lost trlend;-
that those about him i his youth, whether Us COM
uanions teachers, servants, remained attached
TO him to the last;-that the woman to whom ne
gave the love of his maturer years idolizes his
name; and that, with a sing lie unhappy exception,
scarce an instance is to be found OF any one, once
brought, however briefly, into relations OF amity
with him. that did not feel towards him KIND re-
gard in life, and retain fondncss for his memo
rv."
In fact. rmpatience Of injurious treatment and
gratitude for the slightest Kindness, are the most
81 Of hiS character
hurried him into nconsiderate hostility with his
countrvmen, and the last created by some fancied
obligation was often lavished upon strangers who
could not appreciate the emotion. lie misplaced
his affections upon catering INTO life, and IN mat
tiers of feeling was PLAYING at cross purposes with
the world ever afterward. And then the world
took him at hes word that his heart was steeled
against each kindly emotion.-as 1t poisoning one
fount of affection would petrify all. How little
he relishcd this concurrence IN opinion wits pim-
self, we NAV gather from his exertions afterwards
10 Law the phantom Of gloon. which he had raised
in his own shape. Moore has thOwn this view OF
his character into better hight IMAM we couiu nope
20 clothe 1t with:
The pride of personating every description OF
character, evil as well as good, iauenced but too
much. as we have seen, his ambition, and, not
little, his conduct; and as, in poetry, his own
experience of the I'LL effects OF passion was made
TO minister materials to the workings Of his ina
siaation, so. in return, his imagination supplied
that dark coloring under which he so often dis
guised his true aspect from the world. To such
a perverse length, indeed, did he carry this fam
CIV for self-deiamation, that if (as sometimes, in
his n oments Of gloom, he persuaded himself)
there was any tendency to arrangement IN his
mental confirmation, on this point alone could it
be pronounced to have manifested itself In the
early part of my acquaintance with him, when he
most gave way to this humor,-for it was observ-
able afterward, when the world joined in his own
opinion ofhmself, he rather shrunk from the echo,
Il have known him more than once, as we have
sat together after dinner, and he was, at the
time, perhaps little under the influence Of wine,
to fall seriously into tins sort of dark and sef-ac
cusinr mood. and throw out hints Of his past life
with an air of gloom and mystery designed evil
IDENTITY to awaken curiosity and interest He
vas, however too promptly alive to the least APP
proaches OF ridicule not to perceive. on these oc-
sa.ions, that toe gravity of his hsarer was only