etaphysical Love

The situation of Lord Byron in Switzerland was comfortless. He found
that "the montain palaces of Nature" afforded no asylum to a haunted
heart; he was ill at ease with himself, even dissatisfied that the
world had not done him enough of wrong to justify his misanthropy.

Some expectation that his lady would repent of her part in the
separation probably induced him to linger in the vicinity of Geneva,
the thoroughfare of the travelling English, whom he affected to shun.
If it were so, he was disappointed, and, his hopes being frustrated,
he broke up the establishment he had formed there and crossed the
Alps. After visiting some of the celebrated scenes and places in the
north of Italy he passed on to Venice, where he domiciled himself for
a time.

During his residence at Venice Lord Byron avoided as much as possible
any intercourse with his countrymen. This was perhaps in some degree
necessary, and it was natural in the state of his mind. He had
become an object of great public interest by his talents; the stories
connected with his domestic troubles had also increased his
notoriety, and in such circumstances he could not but shrink from the
inquisition of mere curiosity. But there was an insolence in the
tone with which he declares his "utter abhorrence of any contact with
the travelling English," that can neither be commended for its
spirit, nor palliated by any treatment he had suffered. Like
Coriolanus he may have banished his country, but he had not, like the
Roman, received provocation: on the contrary, he had been the
aggressor in the feuds with his literary adversaries; and there was a
serious accusation against his morals, or at least his manners, in
the circumstances under which Lady Byron withdrew from his house. It
was, however, his misfortune throughout life to form a wrong estimate
of himself in everything save in his poetical powers.

A life in Venice is more monotonous than in any other great city; but
a man of genius carries with him everywhere a charm, which secures to
him both variety and enjoyment. Lord Byron had scarcely taken up his
abode in Venice, when he began the fourth canto of Childe Harold,
which he published early in the following year, and dedicated to his
indefatigable friend Mr Hobhouse by an epistle dated on the
anniversary of his marriage, "the most unfortunate day," as he says,
"of his past existence."

In this canto he has indulged his excursive moral