st brilliant, the most famous, the most detested, the
most worshiped, and the most criticized and condemned man in Europe.

It was in this period that he produced the works that by their innate
vigor and power placed him in the front rank of English poets. A
complete list of them cannot be given in this brief notice. The third
and fourth cantos of 'Childe Harold' attained a height that the first
two cantos had not prepared the world to expect. 'Cain' was perhaps the
culmination of his power. The lyrics and occasional poems of this time
add to his fame because they exhibit his infinite variety. Critics point
out the carelessness of his verse,--and there is an air of haste in much
of it; they deny his originality and give the sources of his
inspiration,--but he had Shakespeare's faculty of transforming all
things to his own will; and they deny him the contribution of thought to
the ideas of the world. This criticism must stand against the fact of
his almost unequaled power to move the world and make it feel and think.
The Continental critics did not accuse him of want of substance. What
did he not do for Spain, for Italy, for Greece! No interpretation of
their splendid past, of their hope for the future, no musings over the
names of other civilizations, no sympathy with national pride, has ever
so satisfied the traveling and reading world in these lands, as Byron's.
The public is not so good a judge of what poetry should be, as the
trained critics; but it is a judge of power, of what is stirring and
entertaining: and so it comes to pass that Byron's work is read when
much poetry, more finished but wanting certain vital qualities, is
neglected. I believe it is a fact that Byron is more quoted than any
English poet except Pope since Shakespeare, and that he is better known
to the world at large than any except the Master. But whether this is so
or not, he is more read now at the close of this century than he was in
its third quarter.

'The Dream' and 'Darkness' are poems that will never lose their value so
long as men love and are capable of feeling terror. 'Manfred,'
'Mazeppa,' 'Heaven and Earth,' 'The Prisoner of Chillon,' and the satire
of the 'Vision of Judgment' maintain their prominence; and it seems
certain that many of the lyrics, like 'The Isles of Greece' and the
'Maid of Athens,' will never pall upon any generation of readers, and
the lyrics will probably outlast the others in general favor. Byron
wrote many dra