hether intellectual or
sensual, seems to have been the idol that he worshipped. _His own_
antient family, _his own_ talents, _his own_ attainments, _his own_
whims, _his own_ passions, _his own_ excesses, seem all to have
furnished food for his vanity, because they were _his own_.

I acknowledge that, in all the circumstances of his _bringing up_, he
was singularly unfortunate. His early destitution, the character and
habits of his mother, the neglect of his noble relations, the venal
praises of his parasites and dependents, all acted upon his character
with pernicious influence.

"Untaught in youth his heart to tame,
His springs of life were poison'd."

He was sensitively alive to all the beauties and the sublimities of
external nature, and had a most penetrating insight into the complicated
feelings, and the various workings of the human heart, with all its
passions and affections; consequently, he abounds in passages of great
beauty, and of singular strength and power. The gratification derived
from the perusal of such passages, however, to a man at least who really
believes himself to be an immortal and a responsible being, is but a
poor compensation for the moral effects of many of his poems, his
_later_ poems more especially[155:1]. They too often appear to breathe a
spirit of engrossing selfishness; a spirit of captious and gloomy
scepticism,--scepticism extending, not only to revelation, but to the
primary truths of what is called natural religion, and even the most
acknowledged bonds of moral obligation. The tendency of his writings is
to make you dissatisfied with almost every thing, and every body in this
world, and at the same time to unfit you for the world to come; indeed,
to make you doubt, whether the idea of a world to come is not altogether
a mere delusion.

Lord Byron particularly excels in describing female loveliness, and the
effect which such loveliness produces upon the ardent temperament of
youth. In fact, the feeling within themselves so much that responds to
these descriptions, is one great cause of the popularity of Lord Byron
among young people. The sensations to which I allude, however, are of
themselves but too importunate. It is most unwise to excite them,--to
give them additional energy,--by the perusal of the high-wrought and
glowing descriptions of this poet of the passions.

I had heard much of Don Juan, and felt some curiosity to read it; but I
was aware of the manner