Where neither guilty glory glows,
Nor despicable state?

Yes one- the first - the last

The Cincinnatus of the West,

Whom envy dared not hate,

the best

Bequeath'd the name of Washington,
To make man blush there was but one! 1

the commonwealth was gone the republic was long past all resuscitation. Had Brutus and Cassius gained the battle of Philippi, it would not have restored the republic. Its days ended with the Gracchi; the rest was a mere struggle of parties. You might as well cure a consumption, or restore a broken egg, as revive a state so long a prey to every uppermost soldier, as Rome had long been. As for a despotism, if Augustus could have been sure that all his successors would have been like himself— (I mean not as Octavius, but Augustus) or Napoleon could have insured the world that none of his successors would have been like himself-the ancient or modern world might have gone on, like the empire of China, in a state of lethargic prosperity. Suppose, for instance, that, instead of Tiberius and Caligula, Augustus had been immediately succeeded by Nerva, Trajan, the Antonines, or even by Titus and his father - what a difference in our estimate of himself! So far from gaining by the contrast, I think that one half of our dislike arises from his having been heired by Tiberius and one half of Julius Cæsar's fame, from his having had his empire consolidated by Augustus. Suppose that there had been no Octavius, and Tiberius had 'jumped the life' between, and at once succeeded Julius? And yet it is difficult to say whether hereditary right or popular choice produce the worser sovereigns. The Roman Consuls make a goodly show; but then they only reigned for a year, and were under a sort of personal obligation to distinguish themselves. It is still more difficult to say which form of government is the worst-all are so bad. As for democracy, it is the worst of the whole; for what is, in fact, democracy?- an aristocracy of blackguards."]

1 [On being reminded by a friend of his recent promise not to write any more for years" There was," replied Lord Byron, "a mental reservation in my pact with the public, in behalf of anonymes; and, even had there not, the provocation was such as to make it physically impossible to pass over this epoch of triumphant tameness. 'Tis a sad business; and after all, I shall think higher of rhyme and reason, and very humbly of your heroic people, till Elba becomes a volcano, and sends him out again. I can't think it is all over yet."]

HEBREW MELODIES.

[Lord Byron never alludes to his share in these Melodies with complacency. Mr. Moore having, on one occasion, rallied him a little on the manner in which some of them had been set to music, -"Sunburn Nathan," he exclaims, "why do you always twit me with his Ebrew nasalities? Have I not told you it was all Kinnaird's doing, and my own exquisite facility of temper?"]

VOL. II.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE subsequent poems were written at the request of my friend, the Hon. Douglas Kinnaird, for a Selection of Hebrew Melodies, and have been published, with the music, arranged by Mr. Braham and Mr. Nathan.

January, 1815.