the vehicle in which to embody his

own feelings, and to argue his own sentiments, let not his friends-his best friends-accuse those of unfairness, or of hypocrisy, who dare to judge of him by this standard. The evident tendency of his writings is to evil; to evil of the most lamentable kind; and it is with a view to counteract this in some measure, that the following work is reprinted on this side the Atlantic. The poetical career of Byron is here traced by the hand of a master, and

the character and qualities of his writings, are exhibited in a just and convincing light.

Painful as is the duty of dwelling upon dark shades in the character of the dead, it is a duty which man owes to man, to make an effort to save from being engulphed in the same vortex, those who have just embarked upon the sea of life, and who are in danger of following the tract of those who have thus perished.

"The man who walks astray through ignorance and darkness, and frailty

of intellect, may be forgiven seventy

times seven ;'

but he who walks

astray in the clear sunshine, and

against the

remonstrances of the

monitor within, richly deserves, and ought to suffer all the odium of his guilt and folly." The sufferings which are the fruit of his vices, will not rescue him from more condign punishment; nor will the occasional beauties which present themselves in his writings, deter us from reminding his admirers

"Nor florid prose, nor honied lines of rhyme,

Can blazon evil deeds, nor consecrate a crime."

THE

CHARACTER AND WRITINGS

OF

LORD BYRON.

THERE are few individuals who, during the age in which they lived, have excited stronger interest than Lord Byron. His character and writings are a subject well worthy of attention. On the former, some light is thrown, by the publications which have appeared since his death.

Among these, Mr. Dallas' Recollec tions, though the work of a weak and vain

B

man, has a certain degree of value. It

1

illustrates the history of Lord Byron's character. Mr. Dallas, who was an author by profession, has been known principally as the writer of some indifferent novels, and the translator of Bertrand de Moleville's Annals of the French Revolution. He was connected with the family of the Byrons; his sister having been married to an uncle of the poet. His acquaintance with Lord Byron, however, commenced after the latter had published his juvenile poems, entitled Hours of Idleness. Upon this occasion, Mr. Dallas addressed a letter to him, saying, that “he felt irresistibly impelled to pay him a tribute, on the effusions of a noble mind in strains so truly poetic." Having commenced in this manner, he continued to administer his admiration liberally, at a time when such admir