fess, it is the measure most after my own heart; Scott alone,[195] of
the present generation, has hitherto completely triumphed over the fatal
facility of the octosyllabic verse; and this is not the least victory of
his fertile and mighty genius: in blank verse, Milton, Thomson, and our
dramatists, are the beacons that shine along the deep, but warn us from
the rough and barren rock on which they are kindled. The heroic couplet
is not the most popular measure certainly; but as I did not deviate
into the other from a wish to flatter what is called public opinion, I
shall quit it without further apology, and take my chance once more with
that versification, in which I have hitherto published nothing but
compositions whose former circulation is part of my present, and will be
of my future regret.

With regard to my story, and stories in general, I should have been glad
to have rendered my personages more perfect and amiable, if possible,
inasmuch as I have been sometimes criticised, and considered no less
responsible for their deeds and qualities than if all had been personal.
Be it so--if I have deviated into the gloomy vanity of "drawing from
self," the pictures are probably like, since they are unfavourable: and
if not, those who know me are undeceived, and those who do not, I have
little interest in undeceiving. I have no particular desire that any but
my acquaintance should think the author better than the beings of his
imagining; but I cannot help a little surprise, and perhaps amusement,
at some odd critical exceptions in the present instance, when I see
several bards (far more deserving, I allow) in very reputable plight,
and quite exempted from all participation in the faults of those heroes,
who, nevertheless, might be found with little more morality than _The
Giaour_, and perhaps--but no--I must admit Childe Harold to be a very
repulsive personage; and as to his identity, those who like it must give
him whatever "alias" they please.[196]

If, however, it were worth while to remove the impression, it might be
of some service to me, that the man who is alike the delight of his
readers and his friends, the poet of all circles, and the idol of his
own, permits me here and elsewhere to subscribe myself,

Most truly,
And affectionately,
His obedient servant,
BYRON.
_January_ 2, 1814.