fness, and is
quite opposed to the trifling chit-chat that he enters into when in
general society. I attribute this to his having lived so much alone, as
also to the desire he now professes of applying himself to prose writing.
He affects a sort of Johnsonian tone, likes very much to be listened to,
and seems to observe the effect he produces on his hearer. In mixed
society his ambition is to appear the man of fashion, he adopts a light
tone of badinage and persiflage that does not sit gracefully on him, but
is always anxious to turn the subject to his own personal affairs, or
feelings, which are either lamented with an air of melancholy, or dwelt on
with playful ridicule, according to the humour he happens to be in.

Byron has remarkable penetration in discovering the characters of those
around him, and he piques himself extremely on it: he also thinks he has
fathomed the recesses of his own mind; but he is mistaken: with much that
is _little_ (which he suspects) in his character, there is much that is
great, that he does not give himself credit for: his first impulses are
always good, but his temper, which is impatient, prevents his acting on
the cool dictates of reason; and it appears to me, that in judging himself,
Byron mistakes temper for character, and takes the ebullitions of the
first, for the indications of the nature of the second. He declares, that
in addition to his other failings, avarice is now established. This new
vice, like all the others, he attributes to himself, he talks of as one
would name those of an acquaintance, in a sort of deprecating, yet half
mocking tone; as much as to say, you see I know all my faults better than
you do, though I don't choose to correct them: indeed, it has often
occurred to me, that he brings forward his defects, as if in anticipation
of some one else exposing them, which he would not like; as though he
affects the contrary, he is jealous of being found fault with, and shows
it in a thousand ways.

He affects to dislike hearing his works praised or referred to; I say
affects, because I am sure it is not real or natural; as he who loves
praise, as Byron evidently does, in other things, cannot dislike it for
that in which he must be conscious it is deserved. He refers to his feats
in horsemanship, shooting at a mark, and swimming, in a way that proves he
likes to be complimented on them; and nothing appears to give him more
satisfaction than being considered a man of fashi