The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-11-28
ARcMpRAcoN FAIRFAX ON
 BYRON.

AfCnueaCoH PAfrAf, tn ntS lecture on the poet Bsowniug. indulges himself in a thrust at Byron, of the true conventiona al order. He exalts Browning as essentially great h his moral tendency. "A poet without moral teaching," he says, "is no poet for me" an automatic proposition from which no one will dissent. But when he goes on to compare Browning with Byron, and disparaGes the latter by saying that Browning spoke of Byron with contempt "because he was essen- tially base in hts ideas of man." there Is room for difference of opinion.
 lt Is true that the Eaglisl clergy have quite generally subscribed to the arch deacon's view of Byron. Westminster abbey was deemed by the Episcopal au. lhorities of the day too sacred 10 receive the dust of Byron, and the distinguished divine who is nov visiting Us merely per pesu ases the tradition oi his order in cast. ing stone at the memory of man who, with all his sins, might certainly have slept in the abbey without materially di- minishing its odor of sanctity There arc some precious scoundrels laid away within its hoary walls, compared with whose lives that ot Lord Byroa was fair and sweet, It is the memorial place of the k,ngs and queens, aud Byron wrote some hard things ahoat ,hose sacred peo- pie. The prelates of the Eaglish church have never forgiven him and never will for this blasphemy. Their prayer book contains to this day a special form of ser vice in memory of "our lord. kng Charles the martyr" and they remember that Byron, when hc saw the prince re gent (George) standing between tho coE fins ot Henry VII and Charles |. in the royal vault at Windsor, wrote those vit- riolic liaes:
 Famed for contemrtuous breach oi sacred
 ties,
 ny headiess Charles, see heattess Henry Between them stands another seep,red
 thing
 tt moves, U rcigss--in all but name king; Chatlcs to his people, Heats ts his wife In him the double ,yran, starts to li'r;
 usncc and death have miS'd their dast in
 vain.
 Each TO, al vampire wakes to life again;
 >h ~ha, can tsmbs avail-sinoe these dis.
 gorge
 The blood and dust of both--io mould a
 George.
 The standing army of English ecclosi- Astics, whose 6rst duty 1t is to iaud and magnify royalty. past and present, cannot be expected to look with favor upon a poet whose muse vas ap, to take such ir- reverent flights as this. Byron has al ways been, in their eyes, an enemy of the state and, which Is worse, a scoffeT at the state chur,h.
 Robcit >outhey, who was the court poe, of Byrons time, earned a large par' oi hts salary by assailiug the author ot E" Don
 uan as tho CoTyphaus of the Sa'anlc school.' In one ot hts rAving moods he said ot Byron: have fastened his name upon the gibbet for reproach and igno- miny As long as 1t shall endure Take it down who can |" Yet it would be much easier to induce pos,erity to regard Byron As a saint than to read Southey.
 Tho main line of attack upon Byron in his own C, untry is, as it always has been, that he was a radical thinker, and, there. fore, a foe To the " "throne, the church and tho constitution" the conventional Eng lishmans three most cherished idols lt is undeniable that he was so but in this age and country, at any rate, somethius worse will have 70 be said of him to i'm. pair his standing ATchdeacon FAuar tells us that he "was essentially base in his ideas of man" it that be true, then Byron is entitled 10 our reproduction.
 But Is ituuef Other men, equally em. inent with Archdeacon Farrar, have not thought so and some Of them were By. ron's contemporaries. who had far better means of knowing just what manner oi man he vas Hear what noble Tom Moore says of him, and he knew him sell. if any man did !" It would not be. !" says Moore, in the power sf the most poetical friend to allege anything more convincingly favorable of his character than Is contained in the few simple facts that. through lite, with all his faults, he never lost a friend that those abou, him is his youth, whether as companions teachers or servants, remained attached to him to the last that the woman to whom he gave the love Of his maturer years idolxes his name, and that, with a single unhappy exception, scarce an in- stasce IS to Dc found of any one ones brought, ho~ever briefly, into relations of amity with him, that did not feel to- wards him kind ef regard in life and retain f,ndness for his memory" Is it just 10 say of such ch .racter as Moore thus portrsys that "he vas essentially base in his ideas of mani" Evidently those nearest to him never found it out The Disrseiis, f.theT and son, both made a more generous estimate of Byion's oh lrac,er.
 No doubt there Is spirit oi misan- thropy and flavor of still worse things in much of his poetry. but the great vol ume of 1t is noble and elevating. He was, as we all know unfortunate in bis | marriage, and MAcauiay Is probably near the truth in attnbutiog all that is dark in his career to that sad fact. That he was | a man full of benevoleoce to all aSounA | him is certain. There is ample proof that | Byrop vas quite entitled to say, as he did: "If salvation Is to be bought by | charity. have given more to my isilow- creatures in this life than 1 now posess" |