MEMOIR.

No one feels more admiration than we do for the splendid talents and unrivalled fame of the noble subject of the following memoir, and yet it would be perhaps impossible to select a subject on which we should feel compelled to write with sorrow and regret 'more calculated to excite those sentiments than that upon which we are about to enter. It is a melancholy reflection, that transcendent genius offers no apology for abandoned morals, and that he who has talents of the first order only becomes the more dangerous and detestable, if he applies them to the injury or undoing of his race. Such was Lord Byron and while all must acknowledge his transcendent powers as a writer, all must equally detest and lament his want of moral principles as a man.

George Gordon Byron was born January 22, 1788, and lost his father when he was about three years of age; his mother was left in circumstances of considerable embarrassment, and with the future poet retired to the city of Aberdeen, where the tuition of

son became her fondest care, and in the mountain air of which he gained that strength which his feeble constitution rendered so desirable. Here he remained till he was seven years of age, and here he acquired those habits of hardihood and endurance for which he was in his early days so remarkable, and first felt the glowings of that poetic fire which afterwards made his name (as a poet) illustrious throughout the civilized world. At seven years of age he was placed in the Grammar School of Aberdeen, where he remained, with occasional interruptions, until his accession to the title. There can be little doubt that Byron was a spoiled child. He was afflicted with a lameness in one of his feet, and was also, as we before noticed, of a feeble constitution. These defects doubtless procured for him many indulgences from his mother, and prevented him from receiving that early discipline that all require, and the want of which produced those direful effects which have spread such a murky gloom over the subject of our memoir.

Even in his boyish days young Byron was remarkable. We have noticed that from various causes he was occasionally absent from school, and on such occasions of course they who had attended regularly had outstripped him in the scholastic race, but on his re

turn he would make the most prodigious efforts to overtake his companions, and having done so, he contented himself with travelling at their pace along the road of learning, and never evinced any anxiety to obtain scholastic distinction.

At the Grammar School of Aberdeen he remained until the death of William Lord Byron, at Newstead Abbey, May 17, 1798, without surviving issue, called him to assume the titles and honor of his ancient house. Soon after that event he removed to Harrow, and was placed under the care of the Rev. Dr. Drury, where he remained some time, and always spoke of his tutor with the utmost esteem and respect. Here he was not distinguished for his proficiency in learning, but for his personal courage he was remarkable, and was one of the most accomplished boxers in that celebrated seat of learning.

In 1801 the young Lord Byron went with his mother to Cheltenham, and there it was that he first gave indications of that poetic genius which has placed him in the first rank amongst the literary ornaments of his country.

Having attained his sixteenth year, he quitted Harrow, and went to Cambrige, where he entered as a student at Trinity College. There is reason to believe,

that even at this early period, he was a decided infidel; at all events he evinced the most undisguised contempt for collegiate honors, and kept a bear, which he delighted to inform his friends he was training up for a degree. His conduct brought upon him the severe censure of his tutors, and he retorted upon them by sarcasm and ridicule. He did not remain above two

years at the university.

We have noticed that Byron was a spoiled child, and his career plainly evinced the miserable results of this fatal want of juvenile restraint. He was suddenly raised to a most exalted station, and having no fixed principles to guide him, he at once plunged into a career of dissipation and extravagance which it is fearful to contemplate. When nineteen years of age his first literary production made its appearance, under the title of "Hours of Idleness, by George Gordon Lord Byron, a minor." The work was severely and most unjustly animadverted upon by the writers in the Edinburgh Review, and the enraged author replied to the attack in another work, entitled "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," in which he lashed the selfconstituted critics with merited severity. Never did a more severe satire appear in any language; the pen of the writer appears as if dipped in gall.

Lord Byron was so disgusted with the walks of literature, that he declared it as his intention never more to resume the pen. He resolved to travel, but did not visit so many foreign climes as he at first intended. He commenced his travels in 1809, in company with John Cam Hobhouse, and visited Lisbon, the South of Spain, and thence directed his course to the Mediterranean, visiting Gibraltar, Seville, and Cadiz. He at length arrived safely at Malta; from whence he proceeded to Ravenna: from both which places he announced his safety to his friends in England. He visited several other places, and finally arrived at Constantinople, the capital of European Turkey; and it was at this time that he performed his celebrated exploit of swimming across the Hellespont, May 3, 1810. Lord Byron was absent about three years; after which he returned to England, and by the advice of his friends, and of Mr. Galt in particular, he was induced to the publication of the earlier portion of "Childe Horold's Pilgrimage." The ardor with which this work was received by all classes, and the fame it acquired, notwithstanding the exceptional passages, placed a wreath of unfading verdure around the brow of the noble author; and the whole impression was sold in three days. To deny the high poetical merit of