his life, to warrant the
parallel.[84] Mr. Dallas, who seems to have been but little prepared
for such a reception of his compliments, escapes out of the difficulty
by transferring to the young lord's "candour" the praise he had so
thanklessly bestowed on his morals in general; adding, that from the
design Lord Byron had expressed in his preface of resigning the
service of the Muses for a different vocation, he had "conceived him
bent on pursuits which lead to the character of a legislator and
statesman;--had imagined him at one of the universities, training
himself to habits of reasoning and eloquence, and storing up a large
fund of history and law." It is in reply to this letter that the
exposition of the noble poet's opinions, to which I have above
alluded, is contained.

LETTER 21.

TO MR. 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; 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 classics, I know
about as much as most schoolboys 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' 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 headache
without clearing the part affected;--of philosophy, astronomy, and
metaphysics, more than I can comprehend;[85] and of common sense so
little, that I mean to leave a Byronian prize at each of our 'Almae
Matres'