ready consent
of all, awarded to Matthews;--a concurrence of homage which, considering
the persons from whom it came, gives such a high notion of the powers of
his mind at that period, as renders the thought of what he might have
been, if spared, a matter of interesting, though vain and mournful,
speculation. To mere mental pre-eminence, unaccompanied by the kindlier
qualities of the heart, such a tribute, however deserved, might not,
perhaps, have been so uncontestedly paid. But young Matthews
appears,--in spite of some little asperities of temper and manner, which
he was already beginning to soften down when snatched away,--to have
been one of those rare individuals who, while they command deference,
can, at the same time, win regard, and who, as it were, relieve the
intense feeling of admiration which they excite by blending it with
love.

To his religious opinions, and their unfortunate coincidence with those
of Lord Byron, I have before adverted. Like his noble friend, ardent in
the pursuit of Truth, he, like him too, unluckily lost his way in
seeking her,--"the light that led astray" being by both friends mistaken
for hers. That in his scepticism he proceeded any farther than Lord
Byron, or ever suffered his doubting, but still ingenuous, mind to
persuade itself into the "incredible creed" of atheism, is, I find
(notwithstanding an assertion in a letter of the noble poet to this
effect), disproved by the testimony of those among his relations and
friends, who are the most ready to admit and, of course, lament his
other heresies;--nor should I have felt that I had any right to allude
thus to the religious opinions of one who had never, by promulgating his
heterodoxy, brought himself within the jurisdiction of the public, had
not the wrong impression, as it appears, given of those opinions, on the
authority of Lord Byron, rendered it an act of justice to both friends
to remove the imputation.

In the letters to Mrs. Byron, written previously to the departure of her
son on his travels, there occurs, it will be recollected, some mention
of a Will, which it was his intention to leave behind him in the hands
of his trustees. Whatever may have been the contents of this former
instrument, we find that, in about a fortnight after his mother's death,
he thought it right to have a new form of will drawn up; and the
following letter, enclosing his instructions for that purpose, was
addressed to the late Mr. Bolton, a solic