sage from the same poem. The ideas are in strict accordance with those contained in the prose extracts, heretofore given, from his letters

and journals.

"Yet if, as holiest men have deemed,-there be
A land of souls beyond that sable shore,

To shame the doctrine of the Sadducee
And sophists, madly vain of dubious lore;
How sweet it were, in concert to adore
With those who made our mortal labors light-
To hear each voice we feared to hear no more-
Behold each mighty shade revealed to sight-
The Bactrian, Samian sage, and all who taught the right.
There thou-whose love and life, together fled,
Have left me here to love and live in vain-

Twined with my heart,-and can I deem thee dead,
When busy Memory flashes on my brain?-
Well-I will dream that we may meet again,
And woo the vision to my vacant breast."

The prose extracts that follow, regard more particularly the religious practice of Lord Byron; which, after all, is the best test and commentary concerning religious principles. "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord; and do not the things which I say ?" "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, but he that doeth the will of my Father, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." By their fruits ye shall know them." "Thou believest-the devils also believe."

Shelley, the friend and companion of Lord Byron, when residing at Ravenna, says, in a letter dated August 15, 1821, speaking of Byron,"He lives in considerable splendor, but within his income, which is about £4000 a year, £1000 of which he devotes to purposes of charity." Now, for a dissolute young nobleman, residing in a foreign country, with an expensive establishment of servants, &c. &c. to devote 4500 dollars, a quarter part of an income very moderate for one of his rank and disposition, to purposes of charity, is a more faithful compliance with the spirit of the Christian precept, than will generally be found even in the practice of many a dignified prelate with the same income, to say nothing of " your even Christian" of the laity.

An Italian family, with whom Lord Byron was on terms of particular intimacy, and some of whom were suspected of being concerned in certain revolutionary movements, were ordered to quit the country. Lord Byron had determined to accompany them. He thus writes from "" What Ravenna, on this occasion, under date of July 22, 1821; will not be sorry to hear is, that the poor of the place, hearing that I meant to go, got together a petition to the Cardinal, to request that he would request me to remain."

you

Madame Guiccioli, also, in a letter to Mrs. Moore, after describing his simple mode of life while at Ravenna, previous to his departure for Greece, thus proceeds;

actions

"This sort of simple life he led until the fatal day of his departure for Greece; and the few variations he made from it may be said to have arisen solely from the greater or smaller number of occasions which were offered him of doing good, and from the generous he was constantly performing. Many families, (in Ravenna principally,) owed to him the few prosperous days they ever enjoyed. His arrival in that town was spoken of as a piece of public good fortune,

and his departure as a public calamity; and this is the life which many attempted to asperse as that of a libertine."

That he was benevolent and charitable in an eminent degree, not only to the poor of his adopted country, but also to such of his own countrymen as stood in need of assistance, notwithstanding his settled aversion to England and Englishmen, is evident from numerous passages in Mr. Moore's book. Of his disinterested regard to justice, in his dealings and pecuniary affairs, his letters to his publisher, Mr. Murray, are sufficient proof. Of his ardent love of liberty-his noble and exalted views-his pure and lofty ambition-and his disregard of mercenary considerations,-in the latter portion of his career, at least, the devotion of his fortune and his life to the cause of Greece, will ever remain an imperishable monument.

Thus far, with regard to the religious sentiments of Lord Byron. And here I wish it to be understood, that I do not attempt to defend these, or any other of his opinions. My object is, to show what these opinions actually were; and that others, which have been unjustly imputed to him in order to fix an odium upon his character and reputation, are such as he never professed or entertained. I do not justify his faults, nor apologize for his vices. With these, a great portion of his life was but too much chequered. I desire only that he may have even-handed justice; that his great genius may be acknowledged; and that his virtues may be remembered, as well as his errors and vices. Lord Byron, indeed, was deeply sensible of his errors. He was conscious that he had been led widely astray by a mind misdirected, and by constitutional impulses ungoverned, and perhaps ungovernable. He sincerely deplored his situation, and made firm resolves to pursue a different course. In this, if he did not wholly succeed, he made great and important progress. His situation was peculiarly unfavorable. An exile in a foreign country, alone, unfriended; those who should have been his truest friends, and should have extended an assisting hand to raise him from the pit into which he was fallen,-having coldly deserted him, or become his most implacable and persecuting foes; the strong sense of this desertion and this persecution from his former friends and countrymen constantly weighing on his mind, and lacerating his feelings; under circumstances so adverse as these to the amelioration of the heart, and to the formation of the best principles and motives of action, how could it be expected that so rapid and complete a change should be effected, as might have been justly anticipated under more favorable and ordinary influences? Thus, in Childe Harold

"'Tis an old lesson; time approves it true,

And those who know it best, deplore it most ;-
When all is won, that all desire to woo,

The paltry prize is hardly worth the cost.

Youth wasted, minds degraded, honor lost,

These are thy fruits, successful Passion, these!"

"And thus awhile he learned to moralize ;-
For meditation fixed at times on him;
And conscious Reason whispered to despise
His early youth, misspent in maddest whim;
But as he gazed on truth, his aching eyes grew dim.”

Lord Byron, like most other lofty minds and proud spirits, felt himself an isolated being. In his joys and sorrows, his hopes and fears, he was too much alone; he could not unbosom himself to those around him, nor lean for solace and support, for encouragement and direction on any one, in whom his heart acknowledged an unshackled confidence. He was independent in his opinions; and, right or wrong, scorned to acknowledge the supremacy of others, or to accommodate his sentiments and expressions to theirs. This independent feeling placed him beyond the sympathy and the controlling influence of those, whose friendship and intimacy might have exercised a beneficial sway over his mind and conduct. Every noble mind, however, cannot but respect this lofty independence of thought; this refusal to truckle to the guidance of power and fashion, though at the sacrifice of his own advancement. This attribute of true genius in times characterised by fawning suppleness, is entitled to esteem even from its rarity. The following passages are strongly expressive of this spirit and its effects.

"Yet oft-times, in his maddest mirthful mood,

Strange pangs would flash along Childe Harold's brow,
As if the memory of some deadly feud

Or disappointed passion lurked below ;

But this none knew, or haply cared to know;

For his was not that open, artless soul,

That feels relief by bidding sorrow flow;

Nor sought he friend, to counsel or condole,

Whate'er his grief might be, which he could not control.”

"But soon he knew himself the most unfit

Of men to herd with man; with whom he held
Little in common; untaught to submit

His thoughts to others, though his soul was quelled
In youth by his own thoughts; still uncompelled,
He would not yield dominion of his mind
To spirits, against whom his own rebelled;
Proud, though in desolation; which could find
A life within itself to breathe without mankind."

"I have not loved the world, nor the world me ;
I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bowed
To its idolatries a patient knee,

Nor coined my cheek to smiles, nor cried aloud
In worship of an echo. In the crowd

They could not deem me one of such; I stood

Among them, but not of them in a shroud

Of thoughts which were not their thoughts; and still could,

Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued."

"Fame is the thirst of youth; but I am not

So young as to regard men's frown or smile
As loss or guerdon of a glorious lot ;—

I stood and stand alone,—remembered or forgot."

Great allowance is to be made, when a lofty, original mind forms its own independent opinions, and avows them; though some of them, from the imperfection of our nature, must necessarily be erroneous. The every day character, whose opinions are those of the nursery, or who, by studiously conforming to those which prevail among the multitude, glides smoothly onward without enmity or opposition, needs no such allowance. This seeks a cotemporary reward, such as it is, and

often obtains it. The other looks forward to posterity, or finds a glorious recompense in the secret gratulation of his own bosom.

Any further extracts from the poems of Lord Byron would extend this article beyond its proper length. I will therefore only refer the reader to a magnificent passage in Childe Harold, the 132d to the 137th stanzas of the fourth canto, where the noble poet's sense of his wrongs, and the spirit in which he will avenge them, are boldly dashed upon the canvas with the hand of a master.

Lord Byron was born in London, on the 22d of January, 1788; and he died at Missolonghi, in Western Greece, of fever, on the 19th of April, 1824, aged a little over thirty-six years. As a poet, his works will remain a permanent portion of British literature; while the multitudinous productions of his cotemporary rivals and revilers, with a very few exceptions, must soon be forgotten, or only be remembered as having emasculated and corrupted the literary taste of the age.

I cannot better conclude this imperfect notice of Lord Byron's opinions concerning religion, and of the unjust aspersions which have been cast upon them, and upon almost every action of his life, as well as upon every line of his poetry susceptible of misconstruction, than by quoting the closing paragraph of Mr. Moore's interesting biography of his noble friend.

"It would not (says Mr. Moore) be in the power, even of the most partial friend, to allege any thing more convincingly favorable of his character than is contained in the few simple facts with which I shall here conclude;-that, through life, with all his faults he never lost a friend; that those about him in his youth, whether as companions, teachers, or servants, remained attached to him to the last ;-that the woman, to whom he gave the love of his maturer years, idolizes his name; and that, with a single unhappy exception, scarce an instance is to be found, of any one, once brought, however briefly, into relations of amity with him, that did not feel towards him a kind regard in life, and retain a fondness for his memory." PERCY.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

BY ALEXANDER H. EVERETT.

The following Lecture and another of about the same length on the same subject were delivered last winter, by request of the Committee of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, before that body, to whom they are now very respectfully dedicated. The second lecture, embracing the period from the fall of Napoleon to the abdication of Charles X. will appear in the next number of the Magazine.]

THE public attention has been very much occupied during the last few months with the important events which have recently occurred in France and the neighboring European States; and it must be owned, that the interest we feel in these events is amply justified by their character. They are of the highest moment to the parties immediately affected by them, and who constitute at present the most enlightened and civilized portion of the human family. They have been brought about in a considerable degree by the agency of one of our own adopted citizens, in whose success and glory we all feel a just pride; and from the intimate relations existing between this country and Europe they cannot but exercise a strong indirect influence upon our own welfare. It is therefore quite proper for us to watch the progress of these movements with much attention; and to devote to the consideration of them such portions of our leisure, as we can with propriety withdraw from other and more urgent affairs and studies. And these events are so intimately connected with those which have preceded them in the same country during the last thirty or forty years, that it is obviously impossible to form a correct notion of the character and results of the second revolution without previously possessing some general idea of those of the first. As the course of my life for several years past has led me to bestow some attention upon the politics of Europe, I shall venture in this and a following lecture to attempt a rapid sketch of the principal events and characters of the French Revolution. I shall, of course, be able, within so short a compass, to present only a mere outline of this vast subject; which however may serve to convey some general information to those of you who are not acquainted with it, and may refresh in some particulars, the memory of those who are.

In taking this cursory survey of a long and interesting series of events, I shall not make myself the indiscriminate eulogist or censor of any person or party. Every thing was done in the name of liberty; but that sacred name, although often honored by glorious achievements and noble sacrifices, was often disgraced by foul crimes. I shall endeavor to render justice to the different parties, and shall deduce occasionally some practical conclusions from the various results that have attended their respective efforts, which may not be without their application in our own more fortunate country.

There is doubtless some illusion in the importance which we attach to all contemporary events, and there have probably been other periods in the history of the world which have appeared to be at the time and in fact really were not less interesting than that in which we live. But after making all proper allowance for any error on this account, it can hardly be denied, that the series of events which constitute or have grown out of the French Revolution is one of the most remarkable that have ever occurred. The Reformation,―the Crusades, the Fall of the Roman Empire, were all attended with long, tremendous and widely spreading political convulsions, which unsettled for a time the whole fabric of civilized society. But the French Revolution seems to concentrate within a shorter compass of time a still greater number of important events and illustrious characters. There is also this difference between this and the other revolutions to which I have alluded, that the latter occurred at comparatively barbarous periods; for which reason we feel somewhat less interest in the fortunes of the persons who took a part in them. The French Revolution has been effected in the full daylight of a highly civilized age and gives us a view of human nature, employing all its powers for good and evil on the grandest scale, at the highest point of perfection, which they seem to be capable of attaining. It may therefore, on the whole, be said with propriety to furnish to the moral and political observer a more magnificent, and, at the same time, a more appalling spectacle, than is offered by any other chapter in the history of man.

The apparent immediate cause of the French Revolution was hardly commensurate in importance with the grandeur of the effect. After the close of the