Sir,--Your letter was not received till this morning, I presume from being addressed to me in Notts., where I have not resided since last June; and as the date is the 6th, you will excuse the delay of my answer.
If the little volume you mention has given pleasure to the author of _Percival_ and _Aubrey_, I am sufficiently repaid by his praise.
Though our periodical censors have been uncommonly lenient, I confess a tribute from a man of acknowledged genius is still more flattering.
But I am afraid I should forfeit all claim to candour, if I did not decline such praise as I do not deserve; and this is, I am sorry to say, the case in the present instance.
My compositions speak for themselves, and must stand or fall by their own worth or demerit: _thus far_ I feel highly gratified by your favourable opinion. But my pretensions to virtue are unluckily so few, that though I should be happy to merit, I cannot accept, your applause in that respect. One pa.s.sage in your letter struck me forcibly: you mention the two Lords Lyttleton [2] in the manner they respectively deserve, and will be surprised to hear the person who is now addressing you has been frequently compared to the _latter_. I know I am injuring myself in your esteem by this avowal, but the circ.u.mstance was so remarkable from your observation, that I cannot help relating the fact. The events of my short life have been of so singular a nature, that, though the pride commonly called honour has, and I trust ever will, prevent me from disgracing my name by a mean or cowardly action, I have been already held up as the votary of licentiousness, and the disciple of infidelity. How far justice may have dictated this accusation, I cannot pretend to say; but, like the _gentleman_ to whom my religious friends, in the warmth of their charity, have already devoted me, I am made worse than I really am. However, to quit myself (the worst theme I could pitch upon), and return to my poems, I cannot sufficiently express my thanks, and I hope I shall some day have an opportunity of rendering them in person. A second edition is now in the press, with some additions and considerable omissions; you will allow me to present you with a copy. The "Critical", [3] "Monthly", [4] and "Anti-Jacobin [5] Reviews" have been very indulgent; but the "Eclectic" [6] has p.r.o.nounced a furious Philippic, not against the _book_ but the _author_, where you will find all I have mentioned a.s.serted by a reverend divine who wrote the critique.
Your name and connection with our family have been long known to me, and I hope your person will be not less so: you will find me an excellent compound of a "Brainless" and a "Stanhope." [7] I am afraid you will hardly be able to read this, for my hand is almost as bad as my character; but you will find me, as legibly as possible,
Your obliged and obedient servant,
BYRON.
[Footnote 1: Robert Charles Dallas (1754-1842), born in Jamaica and educated in Scotland, read law at the Inner Temple. About 1775 he returned to Jamaica to look after his property and take up a lucrative appointment. Three years later he returned to England, married, and took his wife back with him to the West Indies. His wife"s health compelled him to return to Europe, and he lived for some time in France. At the outbreak of the Revolution he emigrated to America; but finally settled down to literary work in England. His first publication (1797) was _Miscellaneous Writings consisting of Poems; Lucretia, a Tragedy; and Moral Essays, with a Vocabulary of the Pa.s.sions_. He translated a number of French books bearing on the French Revolution, by Bertrand de Moleville, Mallet du Pan, Hue, and Joseph Weber; also a work on Volcanoes by the Abbe Ordinaire, and an historical novel by Madame de Genlis, _The Siege of Roch.e.l.le_. He wrote a number of novels, among them _Percival, or Nature Vindicated_ (1801); _Aubrey: a Novel_ (1804); _The Morlands; Tales ill.u.s.trative of the Simple and Surprising_ (1805); _The Knights; Tales ill.u.s.trative of the Marvellous_ (1808). Later (1819 and 1823) he published two volumes of poems. He says (preface to _Percival_, p. ix.) that his object is "to improve the heart, as well as to please the fancy, and to be the auxiliary of the Divine and the Moralist." He is one of the writers, others being "Gleaner" Pratt and Lord Carlisle, "whose writings" (_Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Percival Stockdale_, 1809, vol. i. Preface, p. xvi.) "dart through the general fog of our literary dulness." Stockdale further says of him that he was "a man of a most affectionate and virtuous mind. He has had the moral honour, in several novels, to exert his talents, which were worthy of their glorious cause, in the service of good conduct and religion."
Dallas"s sister, Henrietta Charlotte, married George Anson Byron, the son of Admiral the Hon. John Byron, and was therefore Byron"s aunt by marriage. On the score of this connection, Dallas introduced himself to Byron by complimenting him, in a letter dated January 6, 1808, on his _Hours of Idleness_. A well-meaning, self-satisfied, dull, industrious man, he gave Byron excellent moral advice, to which the latter responded as the _fanfaron de ses vices_, evidently with great amus.e.m.e.nt to himself. _English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers_ was brought out under Dallas"s auspices, as well as _Childe Harold_ and _The Corsair_, the profits of which Byron made over to him. Dallas distrusted his own literary judgment in the matter of Byron"s verse, and consulted Walter Wright, the author of Horae Ioniae, about the prospects of "Childe Harold".
"I have told him," said Wright, "that I have no doubt this will succeed. Lord Byron had offered him before some translations from Horace, which I told him would never sell, and he did not take them"
("Diary of H. Crabb Robinson", vol. i. pp. 29, 30).
The connection between Dallas and Byron practically ended in 1814. The publication of Dallas"s "Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron from the Year 1808 to the end of 1814" was stopped by a decree obtained by Byron"s executors, in the Court of Chancery, August 23, 1824. But the book was published by the writer"s son, the Rev. A. R. C. Dallas.]
[Footnote 2: Byron refers to the following pa.s.sage in Dallas"s letter of January 6, 1808:
"A spirit that brings to my mind another n.o.ble author, who was not only a fine poet, orator, and historian, but one of the closest reasoners we have on the truth of that religion, of which forgiveness is a prominent principle: the great and the good Lord Lyttelton, whose fame will never die. His son, to whom he had transmitted genius but not virtue, sparkled for a moment, and went out like a falling star, and with him the t.i.tle became extinct. He was the victim of inordinate pa.s.sions, and he will be heard of in this world only by those who read the English Peerage"
("Correspondence of Lord Byron", p. 20, the suppressed edition).
Dallas was, of course, aware that Byron"s predecessor in the t.i.tle, William, fifth Lord Byron, was known as the "wicked Lord Byron." George, first Lord Lyttelton (1709-1773), to whom Pope refers ("Imitations of Horace", bk. i. Ep. i. 1. 30) as
"Still true to virtue, and as warm as true,"
was a voluminous writer in prose and verse, but owed his political importance to his family connection with Chatham, Temple, and George Grenville. Horace Walpole calls him a "wise moppet" ("Letters", vol. ii.
p. 28, ed. Cunningham), and repeatedly sneers at his dulness. His son Thomas, second Lord Lyttelton (1744-1779), the "wicked Lord Lyttelton,"
appears in W. Combe"s "Diaboliad" as the
"Peer of words, Well known,--and honour"d in the House of Lords,-- Whose Eloquence all Parallel defies!"
who claims the throne of h.e.l.l as the worst of living men. His "Poems by a Young n.o.bleman lately deceased" (published in 1780, after his death) may have helped Dallas in his allusion. He was the hero and the victim of the famous ghost story which Dr. Johnson was "willing to believe."]
[Footnote 3: "The Critical Review" (3rd series, vol. xii. pp. 47-53) specially praises lines "On Leaving Newstead Abbey" and "Childish Recollections."]
[Footnote 4: In "Monthly Literary Recreations" (July, 1807, pp. 67-71), "Childish Recollections" and "The Tear" are particularly commended.
"As friends to the cause of literature, we have thought proper not to disguise our opinion of his powers, that we might alter his determination, and lead him once more to the Castalian fount."]
[Footnote 5: "The Anti-Jacobin Review" (December, 1807, pp. 407, 408) says that the poems
"exhibit strong proofs of genius, accompanied by a lively but chastened imagination, a cla.s.sical taste, and a benevolent heart."]
[Footnote 6: _The Eclectic Review_ (vol. iii. part ii. pp. 989-993) begins its review thus:
"The notice we take of this publication regards the author rather than the book; the book is a collection of juvenile pieces, some of very moderate merit, and others of very questionable morality; but the author is a _n.o.bleman_!"]
[Footnote 7: Characters in the novel called _Percival_.]
88.--To Robert Charles Dallas.
Dorant"s, January 21, 1808.
Sir,--Whenever leisure and inclination permit me the pleasure of a visit, I shall feel truly gratified in a personal acquaintance with one whose mind has been long known to me in his writings.
You are so far correct in your conjecture, that I am a member of the University of Cambridge, where I shall take my degree of A.M. this term; but were reasoning, eloquence, or virtue, the objects of my search, Granta is not their metropolis, nor is the place of her situation an "El Dorado," far less an Utopia. The intellects of her children are as stagnant as her Cam, and their pursuits limited to the church--not of Christ, but of the nearest benefice.
As to my reading, I believe I may aver, without hyperbole, it has been tolerably extensive in the historical department; so that few nations exist, or have existed, with whose records I am not in some degree acquainted, from Herodotus down to Gibbon. Of the cla.s.sics, I know about as much as most school-boys after a discipline of thirteen years; of the law of the land as much as enables me to keep "within the statute"--to use the poacher"s vocabulary. I did study the "Spirit of Laws" [1] and the Law of Nations; but when I saw the latter violated every month, I gave up my attempts at so useless an accomplishment:--of geography, I have seen more land on maps than I should wish to traverse on foot;--of mathematics, enough to give me the headach without clearing the part affected;--of philosophy, astronomy, and metaphysics, more than I can comprehend; and of common sense so little, that I mean to leave a Byronian prize at each of our "Almae Matres" for the first discovery,--though I rather fear that of the longitude will precede it.
I once thought myself a philosopher, and talked nonsense with great decorum: I defied pain, and preached up equanimity. For some time this did very well, for no one was in _pain_ for me but my friends, and none lost their patience but my hearers. At last, a fall from my horse convinced me bodily suffering was an evil; and the worst of an argument overset my maxims and my temper at the same moment: so I quitted Zeno for Aristippus, and conceive that pleasure const.i.tutes the [Greek (transliterated): to kalon].
In morality, I prefer Confucius to the Ten Commandments, and Socrates to St. Paul (though the two latter agree in their opinion of marriage). In religion, I favour the Catholic emanc.i.p.ation, but do not acknowledge the Pope; and I have refused to take the sacrament, because I do not think eating bread or drinking wine from the hand of an earthly vicar will make me an inheritor of heaven. I hold virtue, in general, or the virtues severally, to be only in the disposition, each a _feeling_, not a principle. I believe truth the prime attribute of the Deity, and death an eternal sleep, at least of the body. You have here a brief compendium of the sentiments of the _wicked_ George, Lord Byron; and, till I get a new suit, you will perceive I am badly cloathed.
I remain yours, etc.,
BYRON.
[Footnote 1: In Byron"s "List of historical writers whose works I have perused in different languages" ("Life", pp. 46, 47), occurs the name of Montesquieu. It is to his "Esprit des Lois" that Byron refers.]