constitution of his own country, was that he wished to see it transplanted on the Continent, and over the world: and his first and last aspirations were for Greece, her liberty and independence.

Like Petrarch, disappointed love, perhaps, made him a poet. You know my enthusiasm about him. I consider him in poetry what Michael Angelo was in painting: he aimed at sublime and effect, rather than the finishing of his pictures; he flatters the vanity of his admirers by leaving them something to fill up. If the eagle flights of his genius cannot always be followed by the eye, it is the fault of our weak vision and limited optics. It requires a mind particularly organized to dive into and sound the depths of his metaphysics. What I admire is the hardihood of his ideas the sense of power that distinguishes his writings from all others. He told me that, when he wrote, he neither knew nor cared what was coming next.* This is the real inspiration of the poet.

I never know the word which will come next."

Don Juan, Canto IX. Stanza 41.

"Which is the finest of his works?—It is a question I have often heard discussed. I have been present when 'Childe Harold,' 'Manfred,' ' Cain,' 'The Corsair,' and even 'Don Juan,' were named ;-a proof, at least, of the versatility of his powers, and that he succeeded in many styles of writing. But I do not mean to canvass the merits of these works,-a work on his poetical character and writings is already before the public.*

"Lord Byron's has been called the Satanic school of poetry. It is a name that never has stuck, and never will stick, but among a faction.

"To superficial or prejudiced readers he appeared to confound virtue and vice; but if the shafts of his ridicule fell on mankind in general, they were only levelled against the hypocritical cant, the petty interests, and despicable cabals and intrigues of the age. No man respected more the liberty from which the social virtues emanate. No writings ever tended more to exalt and ennoble the dignity of man and of human nature. A generous action, the memory of

* I alluded to Sir E. Brydges' Letters.

patriotism, self-sacrifice, or disinterestedness, inspired him with the sublimest emotions, and the most glowing thoughts and images to express them; and his indignation of tyranny, vice, or corruption, fell like a bolt from Heaven on the guilty. We need look no further for the cause of the hate, private and political, with which he has been assailed. But in defiance of politics,in defiance of personality,—his strength rose with oppression; and, laughing his opponents to scorn, he forced the applause he disdained to solicit.'

"That he was not perfect, who can deny? But how many men are better?-how few have done more good, less evil, in their day?

Bright, brave, and glorious was his young career!'

And on his tomb may be inscribed, as is on that of Raleigh

The high admiration in which Lord Byron was held in Germany may be appreciated by the following communication, and tribute to his memory, which I have just received from the illustrious and venerable Goethe, who, at the advanced age of seventy-five, retains all the warmth of his feelings, and fire of his immortal genius.

"Weimar, 16th July, 1824.

"It has been thought desirable to have some details relative to the communication that existed between Lord Noel Byron, alas! now no more! and Goëthe: a few words will comprise the whole subject.

"The German poet, who, up to his advanced age, has habituated himself to weigh with care and impartiality the merit of illustrious persons of his own time, as well as his immediate contemporaries, from a consideration that this knowledge would prove the surest means of advancing his own, might well fix his attention on Lord Byron; and, having watched the dawn of his great and early talents, could not fail to follow their progress through his important and uninterrupted career.

"It was easy to observe that the public appreciation of his

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merit as a poet increased progressively with the increasing perfection of his works, one of which rapidly succeeded another. The interest which they excited had been productive of a more unmingled delight to his friends, if selfdissatisfaction and the restlessness of his passions had not in some measure counteracted the powers of an imagination all-comprehensive and sublime, and thrown a blight over an existence which the nobleness of his nature gifted him with a more than common capacity for enjoying.

"His German admirer, however, not permitting himself to come to a hasty and erroneous conclusion, continued to trace, with undiminished attention, a life and a poetical activity equally rare and irreconcileable, and which interested him the more forcibly, inasmuch as he could discover no parallel in past ages with which to compare them, and found himself utterly destitute of the elements necessary to calculate respecting an orb so eccentric in its course.

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In the mean while, the German and his occupations did not remain altogether unknown or unattended to by the English writer, who not only furnished unequivocal proofs of an acquaintance with his works, but conveyed to him,