New-York tribune., 1910-11-30

| majestic. but more unsatisfy1ng, ana II
keeps Won wondering how far he de1o-
erately wishes to have the reaoer a.
every turn reminded of himself. In TINS
respect the ..Corsair" and Lara win
all their splendor. breathe 'hi''ei'0
the same perplexity
Cain" was no doubt the herce ie''i'
which the stern Scotch theology iio w."
taught in his youth wrought on Suoii
rebellious and defiant nature All oi"e'
ly gentleman still living among yo" oi'oi
ishes recollections of talk some years ago
with lady, much his senior WHO oi'0N
| told Of having seen the young psioii
limping down Fletcher Gate on 9uiioa'
mornings on his way to the Hlsn
ment Chapel The grandfather OF 3oui
present City Solicitor is another' l aiii
told. who handed on this signihcaht Iac'
in Byron's earliest residence IN Not'lhS
ham. Now this High Pavement Chapei
was originally Presbyterian, Ihoush
later, according to Coieridge, WHO
preached in 1T in 1885, it comprised Uni
tarians. Arians and Trinitarlans Inc
creed imposed upon the impressloildplo
child there and in the Scotch cnurcn al
Aberdeen Is the creed against which the
whole mad, despairing but sublime mys-
terry of Cain" is levelled. and to which
so many wild outbursts in his otner
works are to be referred
His youthful life here was marked, ac-
cording to local tradition. by two other
interesting facts. He was tortured by
quack in ignorant efforts to cure MS
lameness, and taught by an American
refugee, from whom he may have I'M
bibed other revolutionary ideas besides
his estimate Of Washington. He held
this tutor long after at any rate, in the
grateful memory which he was apt to
keep for all who ever rendered him
kindness.
In most Of Byron's poems that naturally
classify themselves in gloom and power
with Cain" one figure constantly re-
ours. Sometimes
There was a laughing Devil IN his sneer, :,
That. raised emotions both OF rage and
And where his frown OF hatred darkly fell,
HOPE, whitening. ded. and Mercy sigh
At other times this figure was depicted
merely -
Lord Of himsetf-that heritage Of woe,
That fearful empire which the human
breast
Then again the figure soliloquized:
-. have done men good.
And have met with good even among
But this avail'd not have had my foes.
And none have baf1ed. many have fallen
But hisia this avaiTd not: Good or evil, life.
Powers, passions. all see in other beings
Have been to me as rain unto the sands.
Since that all nameless hour.
Here Is the most joyous strain in this
strange figures whole wild creed:
II we do but watch the hour,
There never yet was human power
Which could evade, If untorglven,
The patient search and vigil long
OF him who treasures up a wrong.
And here was a fact that seemed to
give him comfort:
He knew himself detested, but he knew
The hearts that ioath'd him crouched and
dreaded too.
Lone, wild and strange, he stood alike ex-
empt
From all affection and from all contempt
When one recurs often to the many
passages like these, and then to his
equally frequent illusions to the per-
versity of the British public in identi-
flying the author with his creations, one
would be led, even now, merely on in
ternal evidence. to conclude that such an
Identification was probably what he de-
sired. There need surely be no wonder
that when his works were pouring from
the press 1t was nearly universal. He
frankly abandoned the effort at d1stin-
gushing between "Childe Harold" and
himself in the preface to the last canto;
and 1t would puzzle some people to in
terpret the comment in his journal on
the story Hobhouse brought that he was
his own hero in the "Corsair," and had
actually been concerned himself in pirat
cal ventures. except on the theory that
in a moment Of bad swagger he really
wanted to put about also that gross
story.
And yet. in frequent and more natural
moods, this Would-be misanthrope was
really one of the warmest hearted Of
men In his defence of your strikers
here, he hit upon a phrase inspired with
the same nobility which marked Burke's
declaration that you cannot frame an
Indictment against a whole nation.
Can you commit" exclaimed the Not
tingham peer, "can you commit whole
county to their own prisons?" When ne
heard, years after, that poor Italian
was condemned to the stake "fOr having
stolen a wafer box out Of a church." he
UP in arms against this piece of piety."
His Continental influence famed the rev.
olutionary fame against the family,
against religion. against property; but
he really had. himself. no deep-seated
wish to overthrow either-least Of all
the last He simply had not thought it
the least realize whittier his wild talk
tended. When a bereaved husband sent
him copy Of a written prayer for Lord
Byron, found among his Wife's papers,
instead Of being enraged at the intrusion
and the offence to his supposed creed,
Byron wrote that he had read the prayer
can arise from so melancholy a topic;
that in the course Of reading the story
of mankind he never met with anything
so unostentatiously beautiful: and that
he would not exchange the prayer of
the deceased in his behalf for the united