crept in at crevices, and endeavoured to
shine through every transparent part, he
called the darkness Hght, and the bitter
sweet, and said Peace when there was no
Peace.

As long as Lord Byron continued to re-
sist his temptations to evil, and to refrain
from exposing publicly his tendency to in-
fidehty, so long he valued the friendship of
the author of the foregoing chapters, who
failed not to seize every opportunity of
supporting the struggle within him, in the
earnest hope that the good might ul-
timately be successful. The contents of
this book may give some idea of the nature
and constancy of that friendship, and cannot
fail of being highly honourable to its au-
thor, as well as of reflecting credit on Lord
Byron, who, on so many occasions, gave
way to its influence. But it is a strong
proof of the short-sightedness of man s

Z2



340 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

judgment, that upon the most remarkable
occasion on which this influence was ex-
cited, by inducing him to publish Childe
Harold instead of the Hints from Horace,
though the best intentions guided the opi-
nion, it was made the step by which Lord
Byron was lost ; and he who, in a literary
point of view, had justly prided himself upon
having withheld so extraordinary a mind
from encumbering its future efforts with the
dead weight of a work which might have
altogether prevented its subsequent buoy-
ancy, and who was alive to the glory of
having discerned the neglected merit of
the real poem, and of having spread out
the wings which took such an eagle flight —
having lived to see the rebellious presump-
tion which that towering flight occasioned,
and to anticipate the destruction that must
follow the audacity, died deeply regretting
that he had, even though unconsciously.



LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 341

ever borne such a part in producing so la-
mentable a loss. One of the last charges
which he gave me upon his death-bed, but
a few days before he died, and with the
full anticipation of his end, was, not to let
this work go forth into the world without
stating his sincere feeling of sorrow that
ever he had been instrumental in bringing
forward Childe Harold's Pilgrimage to the
public, since the publication of it had pro-
duced such disastrous effects to one whom
he had loved so affectionately, and from
whom he had hoped so much good — effects
which the literary satisfaction the poem
may afford to all the men of taste in the
present and future generations, can never,
in the slightest degree, compensate.

In obeying this solemn charge I should
have concluded these remarks, had I not
found, in looking over the manuscript of
the work upon this subject, which was



342 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE

first intended to have been left to posterity
as a posthumous offering, and which was
written about the year 1819, a passage
which appears to me to form a fitter con-
clusion to this Chapter, and which, there-
fore, I copy from the author's writing : —

" I have suffered Time to make a pro-
gress unfriendly to the subject to which I
had attached so great an interest. Had
Providence vouchsafed me the happiness
of recording of Lord Byron, from my own
knowledge, the renovation of his mind and
character, which was the object of my last
letter to him, my delight would have sup-
plied me with energy and spirits to continue
my narrative, and my observations. Of his
course of hfe subsequent I will not write
upon hearsay; but I cannot refrain from
expressing my grief, disappointment, and
wonder, at the direction which was given



LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 343

to it by the impulse of his brilliant success
as a Poet. It seemed not only to confirm
him in his infidelity, but to set him loose
from social ties, and render him indifferent
to every other praise than that of poetical
genius. I am not singular in the cooling
of his friendship, if it be not derogatory to
call by that name any transient feeling he
may have expressed ; and his intended pos-
thumous volume will, probably, shew this,
if he has not, in consequence of what I
said to him in my last letter, altered or
abandoned it. In the dedications of his
poems there is no sincerity; he had neither
respect nor regard for the persons to whom
they are addressed; and Lord Holland,
Rogers, Davies, and Hobhouse, if earthly
knowledge becomes intuitive on retro-
spection, will see on what grounds I say
this, and nod the recognition, and I trust
forgiveness of heavenly spirits, if heavenly



344 RECOLLECTIONS, &c.

their's become, to the wondering Poet with
whose works their names are swimming
down the stream of Time. He and they
shall have my nod too on the occasion, if,
let me humbly add, my prayers shall have
availed me beyond the grave."



'^'" c^ THE



THE END.



LONDON :

PIUNTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES,

Northumberlandcourt.



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DEC 12 1^32

NOV 27 1935



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