Personal Character Of Lor...
The Times, 1824-09-30T00:00:00

[Thie following account of Lord Byron, which upon the w~hole may be cotxsidered to be written with an impartial spirit, is:taid to proceed from a nman whio hiad ample and unuznpl oppostisni?iea of observing the extraordinary habits, feelings, and opinions of the noble Poet.] 17rom the London Magazvine just publishsed.] Lord Byrona's address was the most a~eble and courtpotxs perhaps ever seen ;isi8 manners, whcen in a good humour, and dtesirous of being well withi his gnest,were win"' g-faselnatiitg lIt the extreme, anid though blanld, still spirited,an with an air of franlatess and geneeosayt...qualities in which lie certainly was not deficient. fie was open to at f.,ult-a chai'acteristlc probably the result of' his fear- lessnesa anEi indeopendence of the vrorld ; but so -open wvas he,that his friends iwere obliged to live upon their gunti with him. He was the worst person' in th wvorld to confide a secret to; and if any charge against anyv bocly was mentioned to himn, it was probably, the first commtunication he made to the persorn in questiozn. Ile hated scan.. dal ainrl tittle-tattle-loved the manlv straightforward couirse ; he wvould harbour no doubts, and never'live with another with suspi. cions in his; bosomi-out camne the accusation, and he called uponi the individual to stand clear, or be ashiamed of himself. He de- tested a lic-r.otling enraged him Po muich as3 a lie he wasi by teni. Pieratnent and education excessively Irritable, and a lie completely unclhalned him-ii-is indignation knew no boundsi. He had consider- able tact in dletecting untruth, hie would smell it ouit almost instine. tively ; he avoided the timid driveller, and generally ahose his comn. panions atnong the lovers and practisert of' sincerity and candour. A mar; tells the f'alse and conceals the true, because-he is afraid that tile dleclaration of thec thing sas it is, wilt hurt hbusi. Lordl Byron was above all the fear of this sort ; he flinched from telling no one whiat he thoughit to Iiis face ; from his infancy he had been afraid of no one : falsehood is not the vice of the powerful ; the Greek slave lies, the Turkish tyrant is4 remarkable for his adlecence to truthi. Lord Byron was irritable (as I have said), irritUcirttin h extremne; and this is aniother fault of those whio have beea accustomed to the unmyurmnuring obalience of obseqilious attendants. It' he hatd lived at horme, and helti undisputed swayover hired sermants, led captain,, servile aPothecaries, and willing county maigisitrates, probably he nmight have passed through life with an ur,tuffled temper, or at least his escapades of temnper would never have been head of; bait he spent his timne in adventure andt travel, amiongst friends riv,als, and foreignei,rs ; and, doubtless, he had often reason to find t' 4 i early i Feha ungitted htim for dealing -with men on an eqlual footing, or for submnittingr to untoward accidents withi patienice. His vanity was exeessive-..unless it maLy with gre4ter propriety be called by a softer nansie-.a milder term, and perhaLps s.juster,would ba liis love of faime. He was exorbitantly desirous of being the sole ob,lect of interest: whether in thie circle in whtich he was living,or in the wider sphiere of the world,hletOUldbhear 1oTiVal; he could not tolerate the person who attracted attention from himself; he instantly became animated witlia bitter jealousy, and hated, for thetime, every greatter or more celebra%ted man than himself- he carried hiaijealousylup evenl to Buonaparte ; and it was the secret of his contempt of Wellington. It vas dangerous for his friends to rise in the world,if they valued his friendship mnore than thieir own fame-b.e hated them. It cannot be saidi that he was vour of any talent, accomplishment, or other quality in particular; it was neither more nor less than a morbid andi voracious appetite for fame, admiration, public applause ptprionubly he dreaded the public censure; and though fromirri- tation an spite, and somnetimes through desiign, he acted in some re. _let si edespised the opiniion of the world, no man was eye. or alive to it. The English newspapers talked freely of him ; and he thought the English public did the samye; aud for this reason he feared, or hated, or faxncied that he hated England : in fact, as far as this one cauise went, he did hate England, but the balance of love in its fal- von:rwas immnense; all his views were directed to Engla-nd; he never rode a mile, wrote a Iinie, or hela a conversation, in which England antl the English public were not the goal to whicih he was looking, whatever acorn he might hiave on his tongue. Before he went to Greece, he imasgined that ho had grown very unpopular, and even istfamuus, in England, when he left Musrray engaged in the Liberal, which was unsuccessful, publisihed with the JHunts, lie fancied, and doubtlesst was told so by some of his aristo- cratic friends, that hie hiad become low, that the better English thought himi out of fashzioni, and voted him vul~gar; aknd that for the ilceniionuitess of Don2 Jeian, or for vices either practisied or suspected, the public had morally outlawed himn. This vias one of the deter. mining causes which led him to Greece, that he imight retrieve him- self, Ile thoughit that his name, coupled with the G-reek cause, wvouldI sound tvel at homne. When he arrived at Cephailomla, and found that lie was in goodI odour with the authorities,-that the re- giment stationed there, and other English reslidents in the island, re- ceived himn withi the highest consielerzation, he was gratified to a most extravagant pitchi; lie talked of it to the last witht a perseverance, and in a manner which showed hiow anxious his fesa hiad been. that he was lost with the Englishi people. 0 Lord B3uron cannot be said to have been per.tonasll vain In any extraordiriary degree-that is, not much more than mren usually are. Hei knewr the powver of' his co-antenance, and hie tool, care tuat it shioulti always be displayed to the greatest advantage. He never fatiledl to ap pear remarikatble- and no person, whether from the beauty of Seepession of his features, the magnificent heigh t of' hiis lorehead, or thre singularitlyl of hils dress, could eyer pass himn in the street without feeling thiat tie was passing no commnon persois. Lord Byron has been fiequently recollected when lilt portraits have been shown. "1Ali ! (thte spectator has excliahed, on either picture or engraving being seen,) I mnet that person) in such or such a place, at such or such it timie."1 Hill Tamieness, a slight mal-forrination of the foot, did not in the least imlPede his activity: it miay, perhaps, account in some mnea- sure for his Passion forc ridling, sailing, and swimiming. He nearly dividedl liis timne between thiese three exercises: he rode from four to eighit hiours every day whien be was not engaged in boatinig or xwim-. iningK. Anid in thiese exercises, so careful was he of his handa (9ne oi' those little vanities whichi sometimes beset men) that be wore gloves eveii in swimming. Bie indulged in another practice which-lis not contsidered in Flog. landl genteel-that is to say, it is not juist now a fashion with the up. per classes in this counitry-..he elhewed tobacco to some extent. At times, too, he was excessively given to drinking; but thisl in niot so uncommion. In his passage from Genoa to Cephalonlai, he spent the lprincipal part of' the time in drinking with the captain of the vessel, He could bear an immnense quantity of lIfuor without intoxication, and was by no means particular either in the nature or in the order of the fluids he imbibed. He was by no means a drinker constantly, or, in other words, a drunkard, and could, indeed, be as abstemnious as any body; but when his passions blew that waly, he dranik, ats lie did every thing else, to excess. This was, indleedi, the ispirit of his life-a round of pas.,Iion, Indul- gence, atid( satiety. He hadl tried, as most nien do who htave the powecr, every species of gratification, however sensual. Let no richi young miani here, who is not living ulnder the s'erveillsncec of his re- lations or in fear of the puhhic..4et no cucli person turn up his nose. NO liien are more given to ring the changes uipon gratification of all thle sensual kinids titan the English, especially the Englishi on thec conitinent-the ENrglish, who, in speec'h, are the moat modest peoiple of the uiniverse, and whio, if 'You inight trust their shy and reserved mn-aisner, tbpk of nothinigbut dec-orumtt. ord Byron did no more in thuis tespect titan a-lmost every oilicr lordI or esquire of degree has donle, andt is doing, if lie dare, mtt this iimonment, whethier in London, Paris, Natples, Vfenna, or elsewhere, wiith this difl'ererice-L,urtd By. ron was a matn of'strong powers of intellect sod active imagination ; hie drew conclutsions, and took lessons from what fie saw.Allord By. ron), too, was a mian capable of initense passion, which every one whoa pursues tbmegratification of Ihis appietite isi not; consequenitly lie went to) w;ork withi a hteadlong reckless sipirit, probably dlerivedl exquisite erijoynielnt, quiickly exhausted himiself', anid was then left stranded it) satiety. 'l'here was scarcely, a passion whiceh he hiad not tried-.ever, that of' aivaric. Before he left Italy he alarmied all his friends by becom- in pentirious:mbsolutely niiuerly-after the fashiion o h le utimltiothrKgreatinisers on record. The pleaseresof5'avariceeare dwelt onI with evident Satisfaction iii) ote of'thec late cantosoti (tDoei ,hiont pleasures wlhich wvere nio fictions of' the poet's brain, but whtich lie hailenjyctlandwasrevelling in at that momnnent at ocourse lie in- dulge to ecess grew tired, andi turned to Aosmsctling else. TLhe passion htv ch last anittiated himi was, that whiclt is, said to be the last infirmiitv of noblemiinits-aimabition. There cart be littledoubt that lie had growvn ivearv of' being known ottly as a wr-iter l ie de- tertiiniedi to distiniguish himiself by .uction. 11lany etlher inotives, however, wvent to istaks tip the htundle whiich took hins to the succour oif tlte (creekq. Italy, was waninig in favour, hec was beginning to grow wveary of the s6ceity of' tite lady to whiom, after the manners of Ifaly, he hiad been attached, and u tnfortunately her passion out- lived hila; evets in Greece slticewould have gladly joined thint ; but lilt Lordship hatl cliangril. Then, again, Grecce wvas a land otad. ventttre, buistle, struiggle, senssation), and excitensent, tewhere the in- habitants haive beaiutiutb forusis, and (dress in romtantic habits, attnI dwell in rite itost pieturesquccuistry of thie world ; andl Lord Byron, as lie s-aidi himself, hati "1 an orienital twist in his imiagination.'' lie ktscw thait tie. Greeks looked uip to him as, what he really was, one of' their greatest regenerators ; lie was aware that hiis timoncy atid ranik wculd givec himiu nlinmitdl powver, influence, tind respect n iil of whticlm lie tieaarly, lovetl. Then again, if sity man evcr gympathiized deepl y withi bravery sullering iii a generous causte, it wvas lord Byron; and whects lie was rouseui, ii tronstents of excitenient, this sympathy, was a violently propelling and a very virtuous nmotive. htclie ant(i oilir secondary eoissideratiOng le himi to Greee, to sacrihic mluc of lisapessoinalcomiforts, iiitich ofhisgproperty, his health aniL hislife. No two meni wvere ever itiore unlike tItan 'Lord Byroit excitedi aittl Lorid Byron in the ordinary state of calimi. lilt friends aLbout liilu used to cal i piipratmion; andi when itien of their stanip taWit about tnispiration, there must ito roitinyon change rakeyplace. WVhen ex- citetl,ll sois stitnents wvere tioble, his ideas grand or beauitiful, hits Ilatiguiage richi and enthusiastic, lils views elevated, and all lila feel- ingys of' tltmit d(isinterestedI and otarty-r-like east whtichi mar-ks the grest miitin. ',iTen in the usual dehulmlttood in whiceh alnmost every botdy wearies thecir friem'ds niricliorrs out o1' th;e ton, hi4 ideass were gross, hi% langtisige coarse, lilascuitlisents not istean certatitily, but of a low anti mesetaal kitid;, his utooci gnecring and satiricitl, uticss iii a -very good hutiouir, whiichl ntleedl lie ohilen, I may say generally, wats. TIhis is, however, the wvrong tside of' the pictiAre in Lord Byron he msimy be said hiere to be takets alt thie worst. wmithliot being whiat I harei- called ea-rciele, Ihis cotiversation was ollen verY ferlighitfiml, thiough atlusost alwaIYS POllutedl by gross. nless -grossnessi01 the very broadest atd lowest description, like, I canniot help sayringagain, likeaultuiost all hiisclass-al1 of thiemi that do n,ot lire eite Tt cic n fer of (loed, or ot' thxe public. His grass.. )Cbss,tono,hn-dt)len(lvantagcofafeltile fancy, and8uch!iIiiiectswere he ready Pource of a petty kitid of excitement; the forbiddeni words, Cte forbidden topics, the coticealed actions of our nature, and thie se- cret sites of society, stinialated his imagination, and stimulants he loved, and iisy be said at tiCles to hiave wanted. He certainly did J:emlit in3 thucy to feed on this dunghill garbaFge; nowy and then, ndceed, ct-en herc he scratched up a pearl ; butso dirty a pearl, few wvouhil be at the pains of vashiing it for all i4t price. His letters are charming; he never wrote thetn vwIth the idea of 'Thc Lctters of the Right Hon. LQrd Byron, in 6 vols., 12ino," beore hia eves AS unfortWusately our great meti nmust now almost necessarilv r o. The ptblic are so fond of this kind of' reading, and so iustly too, that thete is great reason to fear that it rill consume %ivlt it h'etcls OD. Lord Byron's letters ate thie models of a species of con1position vhlicl slould be written Wiithout an eye to any models. His fancy Irintied on paper; he touches no subject in a coirituon every-day ay ;*; tie reader smiles all thirough, and loves the vwriter at thae end ; longs for his socety, and Tidtiires his happy genius and lIlis amiable disposition. Lord Byron's letters are i .e what Ii:s conaversation was, but hetter,-he had aiore undistutbed leisure to let lig fancies ripen in; he could point his wit with nmore security, and his irrita- abic ten er n4et with no opposition on paper. Lord Xyron was not ill-tempered nor quarrelsoine 'bu stl3l he yas very difficult to live vith: lie w7as capricious, fail u of numou""' apt to be oi}'ended, and wilful. WYhen hlr. ilobhouse and he travel. led iri Greece together, they were enerally a tile asunder. and thoughEx some of his friends lived with him o'and on a long time, (Trelawneay, for ingaltse), it W4i~ tsqt Wltb04t ig94 WM ter- Pci', patience, and a#ectiOn. Il'e cOuld make a great point ofter 'about the~ least and most trifling thing imaginable, and adihere to hii purpose with a pertinacity truly rasuarkable, and almoat unaccount. able. 'A love of #icstoryr might witnetimes account for little disputet and petty triumphs, otherwise inecxplicable, and always unworthy of' his great genius; but, as I have said, he was only a great genhuEs now and theia, when excited ; when not so, he was sometimes little in his condoc~ and in his writings dull, at totally destitute of al.l powers of production. He was very good&natured ; and when asked to write a siong or a copy of verse% in an albu-m or an in- scriptionk, fr so poets are plagued. b-e wouid genierally atmt to comply, but he seldom. 'aucceededi in doing, any thng nd wheni he did, he generally gave birthi to such Grub- streetdoerla s friends were a,haednsl sti, and, it is to be hoped, chaitablyg put into the fire. WVheni, on the contrarg, in a stte o' ethusast he wrote withl great facility, and corrected very litte leued to boa,st of an inldifference about his writ. ings which he did not feel, and would %emark with pleasure that he never saw thlensin prn; anld never met with aniybody that did not know more about te than himself', H-e left very little behind him. Of' late he hadl been tno much occupied by the Greeks to write, and, indeed, lhad turoied his atten. tion very much to action, as has been observed. Doni Jucan fie cer- tanly intended to cnntinue; and E belte'rs tixaL'L he real reason foer hi holding so many conferences with Dr. Kennedy in Cephalonia was, that he might master thie slaag of a. relisious sect, in otder to hit off' the character with miore verisimilitude. 1-ji religious principles were by no meari4 fixed ; habitnially, like mosvt offhis class, he was an unbeliever; at tines, however, hle re- lapsed into Christianity, and, in his fitterview s with Dr. Ke 'nedy, maintained the part of a Unitarian. Like all mien whose im4girna' tiorie are much styonger than, the rfeasoninig power-thegcuiding and determiniing factoltv..he was in dantger of falling into fanaticisr,aiti somse of hit friends who knew himy wvell, used to predict that' he Iwould die a Mfetholi-st ; a consummation by no means impossible. From the sanne tceuse-the preponderance of the imagination- there mighit have been some ground fhr the fear whichi beset his later momenits that he shouldi go mad. The immediate cause of this feat was, the deep impression which, tile fate of Swift bad miade upon himn. Hecreadthe life of Swift tliring the whiole of his voyage to Greece, end the melancholy termination of the Dean's life haur.t- ad his imnagination. Strong, overruling, and irree-nlar as was Liord Byron's imagi's7a. tiono-a rich 'vice which inspired him with. hia poetry, and whidi~ is too suirely but the diseae of a great mind--strorg as was thi-B imagination..setrsitve and susceptible as it was- to all exter-nal in- fluemce, yet Lord Byron's reanoning faculties were by no means o low o-der; but they had never been cultivated, anid, Without enthries tion, whether by spontanieouzs exertion, or under the guidance of dis.. cipline, to expect t man to be a good reasonter, even) on tlte commnon aff'irts of life, is to expect a crop wheti, the seed has not been sown, or whea the weeds have boeen suffered to choke the corn. Lord IByro'n was shrewd, formed freqently judicious conclusions, and, though,he did not Yeason with1 anv accutracy or certainty, very often hitupon the right. He had occasional glimpses, and deepp onies, too, into the nature of the institutions of society and the foundations of morals, and by his experiennceof the passions of men speculated ably upon human life; yet withazl he was any-thing but logical or scientific. Uncertain and wavering, he never knew himself whether ho was right or wrong, and was always obliged to write and feel for thie MGMen onth supposition thiat hiis opinion was the true one. fie usd to decIr thathe had no fixted principles ; which rraizns he knewnothng cienifially Inpolitics, for instance, he wats a lover of ibety,fro prjudce,habt, or sornec vague notion th-at itwas genrou tobe o;but in wha liberty really consists..-how it ope- rate fo thedvatagofm ma nd-lihow it isto be o~btainied, secured, reglatd, ws a igorant as a child. Whie h wa inGrece,almost every elementary question of' go- verniment was neceissaiyt be discussed ; suchli naa the crisis of Greek afFasirs, about alowhich he showred himself' perfectly ignlo- rtant, In the case of the press, for instance, and in all questions relating to pvbl&ity, he was complet-ly wrong. He saw nothinig but a few immediate effiectP, which appeared to him pernicious or the contrary, and he set himself agains.t or in boehalf' ofthe press ac- cordlingly. Lordl Byron complaining of the licentiousness of the press may sounid rathersringular, and yet suzh are necessarily the iticon. sistenciesot'men who suffer themselves to be guided by highi-sound. ing vrords, and vague generalities, and who expect to understanil the art ofgovernment and the important interests of societY bY instinct. In spite, however, of Lord Byon, the press was established is Greece, and maintained free and Yunshackled, by one of tite greatest benefactors that country has as yet known l'rom Englandtl-thEHon, Colonel L. Stanhope, who, by his activitv, Iiis eliergy, courwg, but above all by his enlightened knowledge af the princitples of legisla- tion and civilizationf, succeeded in carry-ing into effect all his inca. sureR, as t.gent of the Greek Committee, andt who, by spreesding useful infonnation, and above all by the establishment of tite pres's in all the principal poinats of re-union in Greece, has advanced that country in civilization mnany years, how mnany we tiare n?t spy. As a proof of Lord Byron's uncertainty anti unfix-dilesshe at one momnent gaLvea, very handlsome dlonation CI. to otIle aper, the GrecA C/rronicle,tberrmost independent ofithiem jatl,aod prcimi~ed toassistin its compilation. Hlis friendlaid secretary, too, witli his approbation, esta- blished a plyglot newspaper, tile Greek Telegraph, with Ihis coutite. nance and support. The want if' any fixed principles and opinions on theseimprtnt s,ubjects galled hiim excessively-, and he could never discusste witout passion. About thtle samne press, schools, so- cieties foe mutual instruction, and all otlier institvotions tor the prir- pose of educating aLnd adva-ncing the Gxreeks in) civilization, he wouldi expreRss himself withi scorn antd disgust, He would put it ott the ground that the presenit was not the time for these thiings ; that the Greeks must conquer first, and then set abouit learning-an opinion which no one could seriousHly entertain whioLknew, as he well did, the real situation of the Greeks, who are only niow and then visited by the Turks, descending at particular seasons in shoals, like hierritete, anti like them, too, to be netted, knocked on thec head, and left to aitz itn heaps till the whole country-side is glutted with their caresses nhe aptitude of the Greeks is as great as their leisure ; and if c-tee thne men were actively engaged for the mpost part of their timie, whirl they are not, surely no exertion of. benerolence could he atteridek with miore advantage than itistructing the children at home. 'Ibhis, to be sure, is a Quaker-kind of warfare, and little likely to -Please poet ; though it must be_ confessedl, that in respect to the pomp) ant circumistance of' war, andt all the sad delusions of military gloery,at nian coulld have ritoresane notions than? Lord Byron. Alerecrnar7vwar. fatre and the life,antd.death struggle of oppredssea tinn f;~r freede nart very difTerent thlings ; and Lord Byron felt a military ardour in Greect whiceh he was too wvise a nian ever to have felt under other ci7cutr. stance. He was at one iliac, in Greece, absolutely soldier..niatl he had a lhelmnet matde, rind othier arttisotte, in which to lead the ~u. liotes to the storming of Lepanto, atid thonght,t,~f nothing but ot guns and blunderbusses. it is very natural to supl%ose thkt ia matil of an enthtusiastic turn, tired of' every-tdsy enjoyments, in succouir- ing thte Greeks would look to the bustle, the Adverttorie, the moving accidents by flood and field, ast souircesv of great enijoytinex.t; but al- lowing for the romnantic chiaracter of' guerillaL warfisre in GleerP, fOr tCite excessively corotnantiic nature of projects fol establishing schools and ptrinting presses in s8afe paces, w'here the 'Tocks nevrr or very sleldoir reach-illown] h iliese, yet they were not the entises of'his Lordship's hioetilityt hs peacefiti but 'impyortant instruments in propagating happins: etas igitorant of the sqcience of' Civiliza. tion, anld li'e was jaoso thore, who both knew it anti liractisedI it, atnd consequently werehonnor good than hiinself, and began to be more titoughit 'bout to, in pte of hir Lords%hip's mioney, w1hichi in Greece is certainly vey itlesort of being all-powerful. The Greeeks. it is true, hadakn t veneration fort Lord Byron. on ac- count of" his havimig sngtit praises of Greece; bitt the thing whiichl ceased this arrival tom eso great a sensation tlicere, was the report that he wras imnm-ensel Ich amtd la(i brouight a ship full of sallsers ~as they call dellats) tI pay off, all their arrears. Sr, thlat as soon as itt tas understood lie hiatda'rrivetd, thte Creck fleet was presently set Nits otion to the port where he was sttttiofled-.was u-cry soon in a state of' the imostprceasing tlistress, aitd noLititig couldi relieve it but a loan of ",I Ol,l. ronti his iortithiip wh'ich loan wats vrntttiallv tob- utaied (thought with a sntaIll difficulty), anti ten titeGreek fleet sailed awaiy, and lef't his Locrdship's person to be nearly takemihi'b Cthe Tuirks in~ crossing to Mhissolorigbi, as anothier veRsel which con'.. taibled his suite astd idas stores, actually was captuired. thougit after- wards released. It teas this miotey too, Which Chasrtmed the Plrince Al avrocordatv,iwhto (did not sail away W.ith itis fleet, buit stayed be- hiind, thinking thiore wag to be obtaitied, as more, iti)leed seas, anid the whiole cotisunuct(i nobody knows how. However, thje erine pro.. curetd frosinitis Lordship wvere by, tin mecans so large as hasi been up posedfive thousand pounds svoulml pm'obablv' enter the wlolc, anid that ch ieffy by way of loan, sitlicii hai, I liear, been repaid sKince Lils death. 'Pi'hetrthll is, thiat tile only good fioed veron tlid, or probably ever could itlave dene to Greece was, thRt lis prmn4muc con. ferredI an eceitt on the cause all over Europie, and tiseposed t de people of linglitnd to)oin in thie loan. Tue lauiders were dazzltd, hy liis co-operation WIth the Greeks, into an ildca of' the secuirity of 'their tmoney, whiiclh they ouighitto i tivo been assured of on osucis better grounids ; hiut it requiires so: toe tim-e and labour to lcari thie.rr.l state of' a couintry, whiile it wits tilcasant gosisip to talk (a of ard hymn in Greece. The fitet is, ithat if atty of tite Foreign loans arc worth a fartliirg,liitCin thCatt the Greeks, whio are decidedly snore otlei the control01 0' En1iopean public opinion thait alit' othier nation its the world ; about thieir capaibility to pay no one canti dovbi, atid their hionesty is setecure by thieir interest. Lor Byron tvas noted for at kind of' poetical muisanthroPY, but it eriseniuc iiniore iniCthe itnagination of' ithe puiblic titan lit reality. li-e was fond of saociety, very good-natured when ncot irrilatedi, and. so far fronti being glooms'y, v;a, oni the conttrary, of' a citeerfvl jests tog teisiperanmen., and fond of witnessing even low buifioinery,,; such asIsettinga couple of' vulgar fellows to qJUarrel, tasin hen d ruid:, or disposing titenti in an), Qttier wsay to showr their folly. In his writ. logs ite certaitii, vtitelt with prlenvtire on a chiaracter whicjelt adi sotir- lhow or othier latid hold of' ,si, fancy, andi conic-quetitly undej thlis character hie Itts appteared Cathe icpublic; v'iz., thiat of a prouid and scortnfull being, who pret.cridti to be disgusted with hiis spreics, be. cause lie Imitiasieilmg )d boeti guiltty of all sorts of' reinies ur,aintis society, antIwi wo titade a poiltt.Of' dividinghstm bewn euetgand blessing, inurdering atii svn, robbing atid giv- ing,lt~itigandlovig, ssstas he ind f'his lIttinour blew. Thlgis etltteoulw n iae rtigitnaturailly enough fhow frou lie owtcaatr n tecruatne ofIlils lije, itholut there ben h lgts slnlnehtet her p,,oet atid thie cor. sale i-I bat a ind id gneros ban, od gorid in a splentlid piec ofbenvolnce tht isto ay,Cit tisret exercise oftitowter to nun vwas in unexpectedly dhanging the state ot another from i sery to bappinesi: he sywipathicet deeply witit tie joF he was tbe creates of. But lie was in great error with) respect to the mierit of' such actions, and in a greater still respectng thie rewari wvhici tie though. awaited biint. He inmagined that he ivas layhig tip a great capital at ceonpound interest. He reckoned upon a large return of gratitude and devotion, and was not content with the instant reconi- pense which charity receives. They wlto understand Cite principles of utnman actibn know that it is toolisht in a benefactor to look fuir. I tiher than the pleasure of consciousness a.,d sympathy, and that iT' he does, he is a credlitor, and not a donor, antI must be t ntenit to be viewed as rcedt!'rt are alwvays viewed by their debtors, with distrust and uneasiness. OtU t*Its mnisi OC Weree foUiIded m10ost of hisl ciarges against hamar nature ; but his feelings, trae to nature, and inot obey- tag the false direction of his prejudices anti erIcz!eotus opinions, still nirede him love liiS kind with in artdour whici remoned him as Car as possible fromt inisal-tiropy. ' - ' Another cause of' Lord Byron's misanthropical turn of' writing was his htigh respect foT I hmself. He h-.d a vast reverernce for his own person and all he did I and thought of doing, inculcated into lim, its into oth-2r lords, by uio.' thers, governors grooms, and nurse-maids. When he observed another nsan neglecting eis wants for tbe sake of sonie petty gratificatiott of' his own,ttappeared tolhn very base in the individual,andagenetal ell rtre against all mankind-hp tvas positively filled with indignazdon. i we mentious somewhere In his works with beconWitg scorn, that one of his relatives accomoanied a female friend to a millitet's in preference to colutig to take leave of him when he was goingabroad. The fact is, no one ever loved his fellow-..nan more than Lord Byron - lhestood in continual need of his symnpathiy, his resnect, his aitectien, his at- tOW10M i 4nd he was drormioably gstited aud depressmd rhen they were found waitin g: this Was foolish nough, but he was net mucl of a reasoncr on t1esa& points._he was a poet. a ~~~0 a GI 0 One day when Fletcher. his valet, was cheapening some nonk1-ej which he rhosight.exzorisieantsy dear, e.nd refused to purchasewithoixt abatetnent, his mastersaid to hi, aBuy them, buy them, Fletcher: like them better thant mnen_they ause, and nevcr plague me." In the same spirzt is his epitaph on his ewfourdland detg-a spfrit partly afFected and p2rtly genuine.c 0 * a * a~~~ ~~~~~ a a When he travelled, he communed -with the hilLs, and the valleys, and the occan. Certainly he did not travel for fashion's sake, nor would he follow in the wake of the herd of voyagers As much at he had been about thc Mediterranean, hbehadnever visited Vesuvius or 'Etrn, because all the world had; and whei any of the well_ lknowz European rolcanic mountains were mentioned, he would talk of the Andes, which he used to express himself as most anxious to visiL In going to Greene, the last time, he went out of hiis way to see Strosnboli; and when it happened that there was no eruption, during the night his vessel lay oti'there, he cursed and swore bitterly- tor no short dinie. I ii travelling, he was an odd mixture of indolence and capricdoun activit:: it was scarcely passiblo to get himl away fro a place undeP i siX minths, and very difficult to keep him longer. In thep Fcstmigc ,s14r Rrvien', there is an in?terestingK paper formed ontof his letters, and I out of Fletcher's axount of his last illness, vwhich,though vrittenvith fairnesr, has Unhappily the usual fault of going upon stilt. Al Lerd Byron's movements are ettriburel to some bigh motive or other, or sorn deco deliberation, when hisfriends wel knowthat he went just as the wind clid or did not blow. A atong a deal more of bambronzle. anent aso tLord Byron going to Greece, or staying here orthere, very rage reason-i nre given for his remaining in Cephalonia so long. Tie fact is, he blad got set down there, and he was too idle to be remcoved ; first, he was not to be got out of the vessel in whicth he had sailed, in which he dawdled ftr si.r -oetks after his arrival, when the chartcr of' the vessel expired,i and he WaY compelled to change his quarters. Ele then took up his residence in the little village of Met.eTta, where Iagain he was notto be moved te Misolonghi, whither he had declared his resolution of proceeding: ship af;er ship was sent for him br |llavrocordato, a3i messenger ttpon messenger: he promised and. Iprorniseti, un til ntlength, either worn out by asripartumey , or weary |of his abode, he hired a couple of vessels (refusing the CQreeh sbh:ps) and crossed. It is said that his intention was not to remain in Greece; thet hedeter- mined to retsirn after his attack of epilepsy. Probably it wu.9 onlyhis re_ moval into somne better climate that was intended.Certainly amore mi. serable and nnbealeh"bog than!llisatdonghiisnot To be found outofthe fensof Holland, o; the IsleofEly. Hte eitherfelt, orafftected to feel, a pt"erstiment that he should dlie'in Greece: and when hbi returL Wmv sroken of, considered it as out of the question, predicting that tbt Turks, the Greeks. or the Mlalaria, would eff'ectually puti . end to any designs he might have of retuming. At the ernsnent of his seizure with the epileptic fits pnor to his l--st illn ess, he waS . estizT with Parry, an enziner sesat out by the Greek Committee, who, br dint of being his butt, had got great powver over bim, and, indeed, ibeeasie every t*ing to him. Besides this man, there was Fletcher I who had live-a with him twenty years, and who was origin1lyv a shoemnaker, whom his L-ordship had picked up itn the villaxe where he lived, at Newstead: and who, after attending him in some of his rural adventures, became attached to his service: he had also a faithifl Italian servant, Battista: a Greek secretary; and Count Gain ba seems to have acted the part of his italian secrret,rv. Lord Byron spoke French vety imyiperfectly, and Italiau not correctlyv and it was with the greatest difficulty le could be prevailed noion to mal;e attempts in a foreign language. Hie would get any body about him to interpret for him, though lie iRght know tete language better tttt his interpreter. When dyine, he did not know his situation till a vero sbort time before he fell into the profound lethargy from whichhe never awoke - anti after he l-new his danger, he could never speak intelligibly, but muttered his indistinct directions in three 12nguages. ie seems to have spoken of his wife and his daughter-chirfly of the latter; to this child he was very strongly attached, with indeed an intense pa- rental fet ling; his wife I (lo not believe he ever cared much for, ead probably he married her from mercenary motives. I shall not attempt any summnilng up of the desultory observeitws which I have thrown together, in the hope of superseding the cant and trash that has, and veill be said and sung about the character of this great man. All that is necessary to add by way of conciu- sion. may be condensetinto a very few svords. Lord Byson was a Lord et very powerful intellect and strong passions ; these ate al_ most sufficlenir dat4 for a moral geometer to construct tile whole fizure; at least. adul the foliowing sentence, and sufficient is given- whether by early romantic expenence, or by a natural extreme sean sitiveness to extemnal impressions, it was of all his intellectual facal tes he imagination which was chiefly developed. Putting thet to- gether, we may conclude, as was the fact, that hewas irritable, ca. pricious, at times eyen childish, wilful, dissipated infidel, seual; with little of that knowledge which is got at 2cs3001, and much of that acquiredl afterwards: he was capable of enthusiasm: sAd though ntetusely sclfish, that is, enjoying hist own setisationa, hewas able to make grcat sacrifices, or, in other words, he had a taste for the high.. er kinds of selfishness, i. c. the most'useful aed valuable kinds: he was generous. teaTlesR, opCe, veracious, amnd a cordial lover of sokiety and of conviviali;y; be wras ardent in his friendships, but incoesztat and, however generally fond of his friends, more apt to be heartiy wearr ofthei: !tan people usual2y are. o more epithets need be heaped tozether; all tnat mer. have in general, le hat in more than ordinary force i some of the qualities which nen rately have, he possessed to a spendid degree of prfectian. Such' Is ite PERSONAL cl/araeter of Lord Byron, as I have beent able to draw it from having had access to peculiar sources of infor- ination, and from being placsed in a situation best calculated. as E think, to formo an impartial opinion. R. N. ,*P<ERSOYAL CHARACTER OF LouD RIno..