les on the poetry of his time; and his remarks
written at the death of Lord Byron, though brief, are not less full of
good judgment. Originality, spontaneity, and the ability and inclination
to write rapidly were traits Scott admired most in Byron, and in the
vigor and beauty of the poems he found the fine flower of all these
qualities. "We cannot but repeat our conviction," he says, "that poetry,
being, in its higher classes, an art which has for its elements
sublimity and unaffected beauty, is more liable than any other to suffer
from the labour of polishing.... It must be remembered that we speak of
the higher tones of composition; there are others of a subordinate
character where extreme art and labour are not bestowed in vain. But we
cannot consider over-anxious correction as likely to be employed with
advantage upon poems like those of Lord Byron, which have for their
object to rouse the imagination and awaken the passions."[291]

Byron's temperament was far from being of a sort that Scott could
admire, though he was very susceptible to his personal charm: "Byron's
countenance is a thing to dream of," he once said;[292] but he felt that
popular estimation did Byron injustice. His articles on this poet
contain some of his most characteristic moral reflections. Something of
Byron's gloominess Scott attributes to the sensitive poetic organization
which he felt that Byron had in an extreme degree; but more to the
perverted habit of looking within rather than around upon the realities
of life, in which Providence intended men to find their happiness. The
philosophy is not novel or brilliant; it is only very sincere and very
just; and it supplies to Scott's criticism of Byron that element of
moral reflection which we feel was necessary to the occasion.[293]

But though Scott never failed to express disapproval of Byron's attitude
toward life, he kept his criticism on this point essentially distinct
from his judgment on the poetry. In a way it was impossible to separate
the two subjects, and the public demanded some discussion of the man
when his poetry was reviewed. But Scott's verdict on the importance of
the poems as such was unaffected by his disapproval of the author's
point of view. He praised _Don Juan_ no less heartily than _Childe
Harold_.

His criticism of _Don Juan_ is, however, to be gathered only from short
and incidental remarks, as he never reviewed the poem. A satire written
by R.P. Gillies is commemora