:_
_I am no sneerer at thy phantasy;_
_Thou pitiest me, alas! I envy thee,_
_Thou bold Discoverer in an unknown sea_
_Of happy Isles and happier Tenants there;_
_I ask thee not to prove a Sadducee;_[Sec.1]
_Still dream of Paradise, thou know'st not where,_[Sec.2]
_Which if it be thy sins will never let thee share_.[Sec.3]
--[MS. D. erased.]_

[Sec.1] The Sadducees did not believe in the Resurrection.--[MS. D.]

[Sec.2]

_But look upon a scene that once was fair_.--[Erased.]
_Zion's holy hill which thou wouldst fancy fair_.--[Erased.]

[Sec.3]

_As those, which thou delight'st to rear in upper air_.--[Erased.]
_Yet lovs't too well to bid thine erring brother share_.--[D. erased.]

[120] {104} [Byron forwarded this stanza in a letter to Dallas, dated
October 14, 1811, and was careful to add, "I think it proper to state to
you, that this stanza alludes to an event which has taken place since my
arrival here, and not to the death of any _male_ friend" (_Letters_.
1898, ii. 57). The reference is not to Edleston, as Dallas might have
guessed, and as Wright (see _Poetical Works_, 1891, p. 17) believed.
Again, in a letter to Dallas, dated October 31, 1811 (_ibid_., ii. 65),
he sends "a few stanzas," presumably the lines "To Thyrza," which are
dated October 31, 1811, and says that "they refer to the death of one to
whose name you are a _stranger_, and, consequently, cannot be interested
(_sic_) ... They relate to the same person whom I have mentioned in Canto
2nd, and at the conclusion of the poem." It follows from this second
statement that we have Byron's authority for connecting stanza ix. with
stanzas xcv., xcvi., and, inferentially, his authority for connecting
stanzas ix., xcv., xcvi. with the group of "Thyrza" poems. And there our
knowledge ends. We must leave the mystery where Byron willed that it
should be left. "All that we know is, nothing can be known."]

[dw] {105}

_Whate'er beside_}
} _Futurity's behest_.[Sec.]
_Howe'er may be_ }
Or seeing thee no more to sink in sullen rest_.--[MS. D.]

[Sec.] [See letter to Dallas, October 14, 1811.]

[121] {106} [For note on the "Elgin Marbles," see _Introduction to the
Curse of Minerva: Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 453-456.]

[dx]
_The last, the worst dull Robber, who was he?_
_Blush Scotland such a slave thy son could be_--
_Eng