and nature: the other chiefly thinks
how he shall display his own power, or vent his spleen, or astonish the
reader either by starting new subjects and trains of speculation, or by
expressing old ones in a more striking and emphatic manner than they have
been expressed before. He cares little what it is he says, so that he can
say it differently from others. This may account for the charges of
plagiarism which have been repeatedly brought against the Noble Poet--if
he can borrow an image or sentiment from another, and heighten it by an
epithet or an allusion of greater force and beauty than is to be found in
the original passage, he thinks he shows his superiority of execution in
this in a more marked manner than if the first suggestion had been his
own. It is not the value of the observation itself he is solicitous about;
but he wishes to shine by contrast--even nature only serves as a foil to
set off his style. He therefore takes the thoughts of others (whether
contemporaries or not) out of their mouths, and is content to make them
his own, to set his stamp upon them, by imparting to them a more
meretricious gloss, a higher relief, a greater loftiness of tone, and a
characteristic inveteracy of purpose. Even in those collateral ornaments
of modern style, slovenliness, abruptness, and eccentricity (as well as in
terseness and significance), Lord Byron, when he pleases, defies
competition and surpasses all his contemporaries. Whatever he does, he
must do in a more decided and daring manner than any one else--he lounges
with extravagance, and yawns so as to alarm the reader! Self-will,
passion, the love of singularity, a disdain of himself and of others (with
a conscious sense that this is among the ways and means of procuring
admiration) are the proper categories of his mind: he is a lordly writer,
is above his own reputation, and condescends to the Muses with a scornful
grace!

Lord Byron, who in his politics is a _liberal_, in his genius is haughty
and aristocratic: Walter Scott, who is an aristocrat in principle, is
popular in his writings, and is (as it were) equally _servile_ to nature
and to opinion. The genius of Sir Walter is essentially imitative, or
"denotes a foregone conclusion:" that of Lord Byron is self-dependent; or
at least requires no aid, is governed by no law, but the impulses of its
own will. We confess, however much we may admire independence of feeling
and erectness of spirit in general or practic