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?

6

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

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

• Reader! should you reflect on his errors,

Remember his many virtues,

And that he was a mortal!" "

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

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.

"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,

through the medium of travellers, more than one friendly salutation.

"Thus I was agreeably surprised by indirectly receiving the original sheet of a dedication of the tragedy of Sardanapalus,' conceived in terms the most honourable to me, and accompanied by a request that it might be printed at the head of the work.

"The German poet, in his old age, well knowing himself and his labours, could not but reflect with gratitude and diffidence on the expressions contained in this dedication, nor interpret them but as the generous tribute of a superior genius, no less original in the choice than inexhaustible in the materials of his subjects;-and he felt no disappointment when, after many delays, 'Sardanapalus' appeared without the preface: he, in reality, already thought himself fortunate in possessing a fac-simile in lithograph*, and attached to it no ordinary value.

"It appeared, however, that the Noble Lord had not

* Goëthe does not mention of what nature the lithograph was.

renounced his project of shewing his contemporary and companion in letters a striking testimony of his friendly intentions, of which the tragedy of 'Werner' contains an extremely precious evidence.

"It might naturally be expected that the aged German poet, after receiving from so celebrated a person such an unhoped-for kindness (proof of a disposition so thoroughly amiable, and the more to be prized from its rarity in the world), should also prepare, on his part, to express most clearly and forcibly a sense of the gratitude and esteem with which he was affected.

“But this undertaking was so great, and every day seemed to make it so much more difficult,-for what could be said of an earthly being whose merit could not be exhausted by thought, or comprehended by words?

"But when, in the spring of 1823, a young man of amiable and engaging manners, a Mr. S-, brought, direct from Genoa to Weimar, a few words under the hand of this estimable friend, by way of recommendation, and when shortly after there was spread a report that the Noble