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EFFUSION TO HIS DAUGHTER.

and, moreover, to be made miserable by the issue of their cold-hearted judgment: surely this, which is enough to embitter the feelings of the most insensible person, was well calculated to produce an effect upon so accurate an observer of human nature as his Lordship.

In addition to the affecting appeal to her Ladyship's feelings, conveyed both in this "Farewell," and in the preceding "Fare thee well," his Lordship addressed a pathetic effusion to his "Daugh ter," on the morning of her birth :

"Hail! to this teeming stage of strife;
Hail, lovely miniature of life!

Pilgrim of many cares untold!

Lamb of the world's extended fold!

Fountain of hopes, and doubts, and fears!

Sweet promise of extatic years!

How could I faintly bend the knee,

And turn idolater to thee!"

He proceeds to trace out the snares, dangers, and temptations, attending the progress from infancy to maturity, particularly of the female sex, and concludes with a prayer that she may escape, or overcome them :

"Yet be thy lot, my babe, more blest!
May joy still animate thy breast!
Still, 'midst thy least propitious days,
Shedding its rich, inspiring rays,

A father's heart shall daily bear
Thy name upon its secret pray'r,
And as he seeks its last repose,

Thine image ease life's parting throes."

HIS FAME REQUIRED HIS DEPARTURE.

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It is to be regretted that all this failed of the desired effect, and that no way was left open for reconciliation, but that which would have too much humbled his Lordship's high spirit, which had already sufficiently lowered itself. So situated, Reason itself must approve of his Lordship's resolution not to stay in England, and “ digito monstrari et dicier-Hic est,"-the proud, haughty, high-crested, Byron-degraded, humbled, penitent, and yet not pardoned! It was well, perhaps, for his honour, character, and peace of mind, that he did so, as a reconciliation effected on overbearing demands on one side, and weak concessions on the other, could never be expected to be very sincere or lasting; it was better, indubitably, for his fame, as instead of leading an inactive life at home, it impelled him into that scene of glory in Greece, which, of itself alone, is sufficient to shed a never-dying ray of lustre over his name. man is no more, and all his little, short-lived troubles have been entombed with his earthly remains; but his memory survives, and BritainGreece - the world will make his better part, his fame, immortal!

"Non omnis moriar: multaque pars mei
Vitabit Libitinam."

The

HORACE, Ode 30.

Of all the strange fictions with which the Heathen mythology abounds, the one which always strikes us as the most uncommon, and the most

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ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE.

puzzling to think how it came into the heads of the ancients, is that of Orpheus's descent into the shades below, in search of his deceased wife, Eurydice ;-nine out of ten husbands of the present day would take the leap in the dark, to get rid of theirs. Either the husbands or the wives must be very much altered since those old-fashioned days. The story would bear a learned commentary, and would not be an unpleasant one, if judiciously handled. We would recommend it to the Poetlaureate as the subject of another "Vision." He might take for a motto, the following two lines of Aurungzebe :

"If I but hear wife nam'd, I'm sick that day;
The sound is mortal, and frights life away."

( 291 )

CHAPTER X.

Lord Byron crosses over to France.-Proceeds to Brussels, and Waterloo.-Thence up the Rhine to Basle, Soleure, Morat, and Clarens.-Takes up his residence at the latter place." The prisoner of Chillon."-Report of Lord Byron's Misanthropy.-Letter giving an account of his residence, and manners.-Indefatigable application to his studies.-Extract from his Sketch Book.-" Manfred," a Drama.-Leaves Geneva for the Milanese.-At Ferrara he eulogizes the poet Tasso. His Monody on R. B. Sheridan, Esq.

LORD Byron crossed over to France (in 1816), and as his former tour is described in the first and second cantos of "Childe Harold," he now proceeds, in a third canto, to give a new series of observations on his travels, with the advantage of having matured both his plan and his judgment by experience. Harold is somewhat older than when he first appeared in public; his vigour is increased, together with his confidence in his own powers; and, what is still better, his misanthropy is proportionably decreased, and his mind is become more sensitive. But still we cannot fail to recognize the author in the hero; they travel together; they reflect, they moralize together; it is impossible for the idea to separate them for a moment; and, perhaps, that very idea adds consi

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BRUSSELS

WATERLOO.

derably to the interest of the piece. The third canto opens with his darling theme:

"Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child!
Ada? sole daughter of my house and heart?
When last I saw thy young blue eyes they smil'd,
And then we parted-not as now we part,
But with a hope.—

Awaking with a start,

The waters heave around me; - and on high
The winds lift up their voices: I depart,
Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by

When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine

eye.”—

He crosses rapidly to Brussels, and arrives at the field of Waterloo; he describes the revels of the British officers and the Belgian fair, where all went merry" as a marriage-bell," until the alarm is given-"The foe! they come! they come!"— He next paints the confusion that ensues, and the horrors of a battle; he commemorates the valour of those who fell in that ensanguin'd field, and sympathizes with the many mourners who must rue that fatal day. The poetry is suited to the subject; now the author rushes headlong, like the war-horse, into the ranks; again, he is gentle, pathetic, and tender; sometimes, indeed, he is rather too abstruse and metaphysical, as if he meant more than he wished to meet the eye. Thus, in the apostrophe to Napoleon Buonaparte, he seems afraid to praise, yet unwilling to condemn. He

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