and
warlocks.

Besides these curious superstitious peculiarities, they have among
them persons who pretend to know the character of approaching events
by hearing sounds which resemble those that shall accompany the
actual occurrence. Having, however, given Lord Byron's account of
the adventure of his servant Dervish, at Cape Colonna, it is
unnecessary to be more particular with the subject here. Indeed, but
for the great impression which everything about the Albanians made on
the mind of the poet, the insertion of these memoranda would be
irrelevant. They will, however, serve to elucidate several
allusions, not otherwise very clear, in those poems of which the
scenes are laid in Greece; and tend, in some measure, to confirm the
correctness of the opinion, that his genius is much more indebted to
facts and actual adventures, than to the force of his imagination.
Many things regarded in his most original productions, as fancies and
invention, may be traced to transactions in which he was himself a
spectator or an actor. The impress of experience is vivid upon them
all.

CHAPTER XX

Local Pleasures--Byron's Grecian Poems--His Departure from Athens--
Description of Evening in "The Corsair"--The Opening of "The Giaour"-
-State of Patriotic Feeling then in Greece--Smyrna--Change in Lord
Byron's Manners

The genii that preside over famous places have less influence on the
imagination than on the memory. The pleasures enjoyed on the spot
spring from the reminiscences of reading; and the subsequent
enjoyment derived from having visited celebrated scenes, comes again
from the remembrance of objects seen there, and the associations
connected with them.

A residence at Athens, day after day, is but little more interesting
than in a common country town: but afterwards, in reading either of
the ancient or of the modern inhabitants, it is surprising to find
how much local knowledge the memory had unconsciously acquired on the
spot, arising from the variety of objects to which the attention had
been directed.

The best of all Byron's works, the most racy and original, are
undoubtedly those which relate to Greece; but it is only travellers
who have visited the scenes that can appreciate them properly. In
them his peculiar style and faculty are most eminent; in all his
other productions, imitation, even mere translation may be often
traced, and though, without question, everything he touched became
transmuted i