The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-03-18
s.No Man IL n Hero te his Valet"

''NO Man is n Hero te his Valet.
1t is a very dangerous thing to come too near
a famous character. 1t kills romance, like
frost upon first flowers of spring. No skin Is
so smooth that it can bear inspection through
a microscope. CULVER might have admired
the gigantic proportions OF the Brobdlgnags,
if seen at safe distance. Little GLuMDAL-
DITCH might have appeared to him the very
model of a colossal female. But when he be-
came her pet and plaything, he was sadly
disguised with the animalcul9 creeping out
and in from her cheeks, and no more visible to
those of her own class than worms are upon
the cheek of beauty. If we were great man
poet, or a historian, or any of the things that
| are wont to run men and women mad-We
should prefer to live secluded a life AS posi-
Bile. Certainly we think SHAKESPEARE loses
nothing by the twilight, in which his personal
entity is enveloped, and we are not sure that
JOHNSON gains much by the full glare of noon
! day in which his huge figure stands.
BYRON is the great pet of all young ladies
and young gen tlemen. The time has gone by, to
| be sure, when the latter were in the habit of
shaving their foreheads and limping in their
gait, to be as much like him as possible. His
| personality now makes much less impression
| than his genius, which certainly was very
| great, since MILTON, we think, unrlvalled
among the poets. STILL it is customary with
| the class to which we have alluded, to regard
him as the very mpersonation OF everything
| that is interesting. His pictures of Corsairs
and Giaours-the most miserable of mankind,
miserable indeed, as no other men ever We're
miserable before, or have been since, or Will
be again-still continue to be regarded as PIC
lures of himself. We are disposed to think
they were anything else-that they We're as
unlike BYRON, as they were anybody else that
ever liyed-that they were fancy pieces, paint
ed for the market of the day, and designed
not to be true to nature but to sell. We have
had many proofs to this point of late years.
Here is another.
| The New York Times, although Republi-
can journal, has a correspondent at Charles
ton, who is a full -blooded disunionist. This
writer's contributions are very Sprlghtly,
and very readable. The Times has been
taken to task by its Black Republican pa
irons for publishing the letters, but it ex'
cuses itself on the plea of justice to both
sides. Occasionally, he lets Major ANDERSON
and Fort Sumter drop, and takes up Other
subjects. He says, in a late letter, that he
has met with an old fellow. who anywhere
else would be a lion The person in question
is one ANTONIO JoBE, commonly known IL
Charles ton AS Capt. JoBE. He is Genoess
by birth, commands the Esmeralda, q boat o
fifteen tons, has a beautiful daughter jus
sixteen, is tall, erect muscular, white haired
seventy six, and very much of MAJ
in every respect He came to the United
T States before the last war, because it was
land of freedom; was petty officer on board
the Constitution when she captured tn
Guerrier; served in several other engagements
II
with great freedom against the Palmetto
After the war, he returned to Europe ant
, entered the service of LORD BYRON, at Venice
He was well acquainted with SHELLEY, tn
Guiccioli, and others, about BYRON. He use
to rig SHELLgY's boat for him, and BEGAN
vely much attached to him. He warned him
, on the day he was drowned, of the very DANCE
to which he fell a victim. Of SHELLEY h
speaks in high terms of BYRON exactly tn
, reverse Indeed, he goes so far as to say, "i
Lord BYRON had not been Lord, shout
, say he was id rascal" The correspondent
4 says farther, "he u oBg) added that to hi
equals, he Q3yRoS) was generous to q fault
but to his interiors, he was supercilious, over
bearing, and mean that he looked upon a
: women as mere toys, TO be imposed upon an
deceived if opportunity offered. This ma
|
: old JoBE says SO, and insists upon it with grea
vehemence.'
!. Now, We regard BYRON, not only as th
!, greatest poet, but decidedly the greatest ma
;, that England has produced within the preser
century. Europe can show bat one othe
comparable to him in the gift OF intelIec
: and that was NAPOLEON himself; SO, at Ieas
. we think ALISON said of NApoLEos, che wa
!. not great man because he was great GEL
!. erai, but great General because he was
great man." This sentence, although some
!, what obscure, Is full of meaning. Militar
J, skin was not all that NApoLgos had. Ill
mind considered Us an unit, was capable
: everything. Successful generalship was onl
: one Of its capabilities. So we may say
: BYRON. He was great poet, because he wa
: great man, not 4 great man because he wa
: great poet His views upon all subject t,
# detailed Ia his conversation and letters, ind
! cate !. mind OF unlimited grasp. II he ha