to the old. It implies preference at least. Preference, n the present instance, must be grounded upon those points, wherein Lord Byron entirely differs from the Greek poet. In the plain magnificence of his historical draught; in the faithful delineation of human character; in unaffected dignity of sentiment; in clearness of expression; in purity, harmony, and majesty of versification; we cannot conceive that the most enthusiastic, or the most puerile, of Lord Byron's admirers, will venture to compare him to the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. If they did, we should more than question the sincerity, because we should less than doubt the competency, of those gentry, in their professions of admiring the excellencies of their favourite. We should suspect that fashion had a greater share than passion, in conjuring up their transports. That this is the case with many of them, if not with most of them, we have very little doubt. But that Lord Byron is possessed of excellencies capable of exciting the admiration even of those, who will not admit of a comparison between the old new school of Poetry, we confess without hesitation. They are not, however, easily defined, and, like the feelings of his personages, are best described by negatives. Neither can it be said of his works, decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile; his very faults, as they seem to have been without a model, are beyond imitation. Impressed with a sense of wrongs, real or imaginary, his muse is always plena suî, full of her own personal resentments; and with all the energy, and much of the incoherency, of unmeasured indignation, facit indignatio versus. ROUSSEAU tells us that his ideas rushed upon him with such violence, that they threw all his mental faculties into a state of confusion, so as to render him, for a time, in capable of expressing what he so intensely felt. By degrees the effervescence abated; the torrent worked itself clear, and language came to his aid, language clear to transparency, and irresistibly powerful. It is true he tells us that much of the original fire had, by this time, evaporated, although, heaven knows, sufficient is left behind, to all intents and purposes. This seems to be, partly, the case with Lord Byron; but he never waits until the effervescence has subsided; and hence it is that, with much fire, he has likewise much smoak, and his meaning is often involved in obscurity. May we not suspect even that his sentiments often appear to assume a gigantic elevation from the very obscurity, in which they are involved, as bodies look greater to the eye, when beheld through a mist? FINIS. ERRATA. Page xiii of Dedication, for professons read professions. xvi of Ditto, for unparalell'd read unparallel'd. xl of Ditto, for o read of. S of Poem, 3rd line, letter g, referring to the Note in the Ap pendix, omitted. -14 of Poem, in the reference, at bottom, for le read les. 39 of Poem, in the reference 1, put before 'Ounpov. -93 of Appendix, line the 1st, put an i defore the ". |