minate nicely between shades of guilt. It is an irrational
practise, even when adopted by military tribunals. When adopted by the
tribunal of public opinion, it is infinitely more irrational. It is
good that a certain portion of disgrace should constantly attend on
certain bad actions. But it is not good that the offenders merely have
to stand the risks of a lottery of infamy that ninety-nine out of
every hundred should escape; and that the hundredth, perhaps the most
innocent of the hundred, should pay for all....

We can not even now retrace those events without feeling something of
what was felt by the nation when it was first known that the grave had
closed over so much sorrow and so much glory--something of what was
felt by those who saw the hearse, with its long train of coaches, turn
slowly northward, leaving behind it that cemetery, which had been
consecrated by the dust of so many great poets, but of which the doors
were closed against all that remained of Byron. We well remember that,
on that day, rigid moralists could not refrain from weeping for one so
young, so illustrious, so unhappy, gifted with such rare gifts and
tried by such strong temptations. It is unnecessary to make any
reflections. The history carries its moral with it. Our age has indeed
been fruitful of warnings to the eminent, and of consolation to the
obscure. Two men have died within our recollection, who at a time of
life at which few people have completed their education, had raised
themselves, each in his own department, to the height of glory. One of
them died at Longwood,[64] the other at Missolonghi.[65]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 56: From the essay on Milton, contributed to the _Edinburgh
Review_ of August, 1825, when the author was only twenty-five years
old.]

[Footnote 57: From Chapter I of the "History of England."]

[Footnote 58: From the essay on Hastings, contributed to the
_Edinburgh Review_ in 1841.]

[Footnote 59: From the essay on Mitford's "History of Greece."]

[Footnote 60: A reference to the "Elgin marbles," which were taken to
London from Athens by Lord Elgin, a Scotchman, in 1801-1803. These
works comprize what had survived at the sculptural decorations of the
Parthenon, and were executed under Phidias about 440 B.C. They are now
in the British Museum.]

[Footnote 61: From the essay on Moore's "Life of Byron," contributed
to the _Edinburgh Review_ in 1831.]

[Footnote 62: The "Hours of Idleness," published in 1