The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-07-21

cId-S u u ILL VI = piS1tAE ~ 49,
with suspicion and disfavor." This caus-
tic, bold writer says, ITO be a good Briton
"a man must trade proftably, marry
respectfully, live clearly, avoid excess,
revere the established order, and wear
his heart in his breaches pocket or any
where but on his sleeve. Byron did none
of these things" So popular were ByrOn's
poems at one time that he could not pro-
duce them in sufficient rapldlty, although
he was extraordinarily swift and prolific.
One OF his poems,| believe It was The
Corsair, sold 80, 900 copies the first day.
Remember that was long ago, much be
fore the time of the sales of
third, fourth, or tenth rate stories that
are devoured now by the undlScrimlnat-
ing million and considered great.
Goethe held Byron to be the greatest
of all English poets of his time. In fact
he was we'll nigh supreme, with possibly
enc or two exceptions, in the judgment OF
the greatest author and genius OF the
Germanic race. AS / have mentioned, the
probable other greatest German poet,
Heine, mad a most exalted admiration
of Byron. If the life and work of the
poet, with his extraordinary surroundings
are we'll studied, it will be difficult to de-
ny to him remarkable resource. spend'd
powers, brilliant achievement and most
distinguished productions Prof. Thomas
B.. Shaw, a writer of gifts and a critic
of judgment, insight and taste, who wrote
prior to 1850, regards him as the most
extraordinary man of his age, and perhaps
the most extraordinary person IN the mod
ern history OF Europe" He writes a
dozen pages to make good his contention.
Rev. George Gillfllan, Il forgotten Scotch
critic, who in the forties and ffties was
m,ch road and rplChp6 for bp wrote
some sparkling, striking, incisive critical
papers, writes interestingly OF Byron.
, His dicta as to many writer's are we'll
worth considering Tor he was bold and in
dependent, If quite falliblc. He has left
a paper on Byron rich III opinion and of
definite, decided impression. He analyses
his genius-What he was, what he failed
in, what he accomplished, what was his
proper rank as a poet. Somewhere about
1913, he wrote of Byron but not in a
vein of indiscrininate praise, but of
careful discrimination and determination.
OF his artistic glfts-hls execution as a
writer, handling uncommon material, he
wrote this: Strong, direct intellect, de-
scriptive force, and personal passion,
seem the main elements of Byron's poeti-
cal power. He sees clearly, he selects
jCdiciously for effect from among the
points ne does see, and he paints them
with a pencil dipped in his own fiery
heart. He was the last representative OF
the English character of mind X X and
every popularity of the English school,
tthe Dryden, Pope. Johnson, etc. SCHOOL,
, seems to have clustered in and around
him, as its last splendid specimen.
Byron was ultimus commemorative last,
and with the exception of Shakespeare and
Milton, the greatest purely English poet.
His manner had generally all of the
) clearness and precision of sculpture; in
deed his clearness serves often to dis
A guise his Depth He wisely places him
beneath and apart from the first class Of
poets, such as Homer, Dante, Milton,
Shakespeare and Goethe" the worlds
greatest verse builders.
!, While there is a vast deal of sourness,
of intense bitterness, of flashing sarcasm,
of eXcoriating denunciation of lurid in
v~ective, of scornful defamation, of
vitriolic portraiture, of s~cathing contempt
for the hollowness and the shams and
. the msincere, yet the great genius was
$ not blind or Indifferent to that which was
. pure and noble and benignant and good
e and beautiful. AS was finely said by
! Prof. Shaw, he Wore 1.-The mask of
MephistOpheles, but the features which it
concealed were the lineaments of an arch
$ angel"
The mot savage onslaught ever made
= upon him was just before Byron died. and
" it came from William Haztitt. His
diatribe is most bitter, and the great poet
- is almost denied every virtue, every gift,
:. every trait OF genius and greatness. Haz-
hit had high gifts as a critic-the ablest
: critical wlter among his contemporaries
= but he was not always just. sane or in
fallible. In later times, say April, 1870,
the most terrific, sweeping assailant is
the poet SWlnburne, ana he hates Byron,
and his hatred blinds him completely, sc
he really fails to discern anything of the
richness, splendor and power of the great
= genius. Swinburne is an eminent poet
himself, the best. | believe, living now,
but he is extreme in his likes and dislikes
He makes Hugo a demlgod; he reduces
Byron to a mass of rubbish, and declares
in effect that The stones are paste and
= talf the gold alloy to quote Andrew
Lang. Another living detractor is Saints
bury, to whom | have referred. Among
the highly cultured critics, the men OF
- most insight and best accomplishments
= admired Byron, and did justice to his
manifold powers He held that he wa
: the greatest poetic force. in this later
age of ours" to again quote Lang. That
eminent Scotch critic, biographer, poet
, novelist and historian, says of Byron:
And when our century has clomb it,
crest,
af And backward gazes Ger the plains OF
Time,
And counts its harvest, yours is still tn,
i best,
The richest garner in the field of rhyme.
This was published in 1886. and nt
e %ecuter, cleverer critical writer lives il
&c Great Britain today. Mr.. Lang quote.
from Swlnburne's savage assault, ant
says:
"a so living poets write of those that ar,
u gone,
1d And Ger the Eagle thus Bantam
II, crows"
IS, In the same poetic Letter" to Byron
a Dead Author the gifted and san
ad Lang writes in due aDpracjatiOn