And was no warrior, yet the thousand lives
Squandered, as stones to exercise a sling,
And the tame cruelty and cold caprice-

Oh madness of mankind ! addressed, adored!'"
Gebir [Works, etc., 1876, vii. 17).

I omit noticing some edifying Ithyphallics of Savagius, wishing to keep the proper veil over them, if his grave but somewhat indiscreet worshipper will suffer it; but certainly these teachers of "great moral lessons" are apt to be found in strange company.

THE VISION OF JUDGMENT.'

I.

SAINT PETER sat by the celestial gate:
His keys were rusty, and the lock was dull,
So little trouble had been given of late;
Not that the place by any means was full,
But since the Gallic era "eighty-eight"

The Devils had ta'en a longer, stronger pull,
And "a pull altogether," as they say

At sea-which drew most souls another way.

II.

The Angels all were singing out of tune,
And hoarse with having little else to do,
Excepting to wind up the sun and moon,
Or curb a runaway young star or two,"
Or wild colt of a comet, which too soon

Broke out of bounds o'er the ethereal blue,
Splitting some planet with its playful tail,
As boats are sometimes by a wanton whale.

III.

The Guardian Seraphs had retired on high,
Finding their charges past all care below; il
Terrestrial business filled nought in the sky
Save the Recording Angel's black bureau;
i. Or break a runaway .-[MS., alternative reading.]
ii. Finding their patients past all care and cure.—[MS. erased.]

1. [Ravenna] May 7th, 1821.]

Who found, indeed, the facts to multiply

With such rapidity of vice and woe,

That he had stripped off both his wings in quills,
And yet was in arrear of human ills.

IV.

His business so augmented of late years,
That he was forced, against his will, no doubt,
(Just like those cherubs, earthly ministers,)
For some resource to turn himself about,
And claim the help of his celestial peers,"

ii.

To aid him ere he should be quite worn out By the increased demand for his remarks: Six Angels and twelve Saints were named his clerks.

V.

This was a handsome board-at least for Heaven;
And yet they had even then enough to do,

So many Conquerors' cars were daily driven,
So many kingdoms fitted up anew;
Each day, too, slew its thousands six or seven,
Till at the crowning carnage, Waterloo,

They threw their pens down in divine disgust-
The page was so besmeared with blood and dust..

VI.

This by the way; 'tis not mine to record

What Angels shrink from: even the very Devil
On this occasion his own work abhorred,
So surfeited with the infernal revel:
Though he himself had sharpened every sword,.
It almost quenched his innate thirst of evil.

i. To turn him here and there for some resource

And found no better counsel from his peers,

And claimed the help of his celestial peers.-[MS. erased.] ii. By the immense extent of his remarks.—MS. erased.]

iii. The page was so splashed o'er

--[MS. erased.]

iv. Though he himself had helped the Conqueror's sword.—[MS. erased.]

(Here Satan's sole good work deserves insertion"Tis, that he has both Generals in reversion.) 1

VII.

.1

Let's skip a few short years of hollow peace,
Which peopled earth no better, Hell as wont,
And Heaven none-they form the tyrant's lease,
With nothing but new names subscribed upon 't;
"Twill one day finish: meantime they increase,"
"With seven heads and ten horns," and all in front,
Like Saint John's foretold beast; but ours are born
Less formidable in the head than horn.iii.

VIII.

ii.

In the first year of Freedom's second dawn 2
Died George the Third; although no tyrant, one
Who shielded tyrants, till each sense withdrawn iv.
Left him nor mental nor external sun :

3

A better farmer ne'er brushed dew from lawn,"
A worse king never left a realm undone !

i. 'Tis that he has that Conqueror in reversion.—[MS. erased.] ii. They will be crushed yet · --[MS. erased.]

iii. Not so gigantic in the head as horn.—[MS. erased.]

iv. Who fought for tyranny until withdrawn.—[MS. erased.] v. A better country squire

--[MS. erased.]

1. [Napoleon died May 5, 1821, two days before Byron began his Vision of Judgment, but, of course, the news did not reach Europe till long afterwards.]

2. [George III. died the 29th of January, 1820. "The year 1820 was an era signalized . . . by the many efforts of the revolutionary spirit which at that time broke forth, like ill-suppressed fire, throughout the greater part of the South of Europe. In Italy Naples had already raised the constitutional standard. Throughout Romagna,

secret societies, under the name of Carbonari, had been organized." Life, p. 467.]

3. [Thus as I stood, the bell, which awhile from its warning had

rested,

Sent forth its note again, TOLL! TOLL! through the silence of
evening.

Thou art released! I cried: thy soul is delivered from bondage!
Thou who hast lain so long in mental and visual darkness,
Thou art in yonder Heaven! thy place is in light and glory."
A Vision of Judgement, by R. Southey, i.]

He died-but left his subjects still behind,
One half as mad-and t'other no less blind." 1

IX.

He died! his death made no great stir on earth:
His burial made some pomp; there was profusion
Of velvet-gilding-brass-and no great dearth

Of aught but tears-save those shed by collusion:
For these things may be bought at their true worth;
Of elegy there was the due infusion-
Bought also; and the torches, cloaks and banners,
Heralds, and relics of old Gothic manners,"

X.

Formed a sepulchral melodrame. Of all

The fools who flocked to swell or see the show,

Who cared about the corpse? The funeral

Made the attraction, and the black the woe,

There throbbed not there a thought which pierced the pall;

And when the gorgeous coffin was laid low,

It seemed the mockery of hell to fold

The rottenness of eighty years in gold.3

i. He died and left his kingdom still behind

Not much less mad—and certainly as blind.—[MS. erased.]

1. [At the time of the king's death Byron expressed himself somewhat differently. "I see," he says (Letter to Murray, February 21, 1820), the good old King is gone to his place; one can't help being sorry, though blindness, and age, and insanity are supposed to be drawbacks on human felicity."]

2. ["The display was most magnificent; the powerful light which threw all below into strong relief, reached but high enough to touch the pendent helmets and banners into faint colouring, and the roof was a vision of tarnished gleams and tissues among the Gothic tracery. The vault was still open, and the Royal coffin lay below, with the crowns of England and Hanover on cushions of purple and the broken wand crossing it. At the altar four Royal banners covered with golden emblems were strewed upon the ground, as if their office was completed; the altar was piled with consecrated gold plate, and the whole aspect of the Chapel was the deepest and most magnificent display of melancholy grandeur."-From a description of the funeral of George the Third (signed J. T.), in the European Magazine, February, 1820, vol. 77, p. 123.]

3. ["So by the unseen comforted, raised I my head in obedience,

And in a vault I found myself placed, arched over on all sides.