sest kind, inasmuch as it was intended that the popularity of the
work should rest upon satire; or, in other words, on the ability to
be displayed by it in the art of detraction. Being disappointed in
his hopes of profit, he shuffled out of the concern as meanly as any
higgler could have done who had found himself in a profitless
business with a disreputable partner. There is no disguising this
unvarnished truth; and though his friends did well in getting the
connection ended as quickly as possible, they could not eradicate the
original sin of the transaction, nor extinguish the consequences
which it of necessity entailed. Let me not, however, be
misunderstood: my objection to the conduct of Byron does not lie
against the wish to turn his extraordinary talents to profitable
account, but to the mode in which he proposed to, and did, employ
them. Whether Mr Hunt was or was not a fit copartner for one of his
Lordship's rank and celebrity, I do not undertake to judge; but any
individual was good enough for that vile prostitution of his genius,
to which, in an unguarded hour, he submitted for money. Indeed, it
would be doing injustice to compare the motives of Mr Hunt in the
business with those by which Lord Byron was infatuated. He put
nothing to hazard; happen what might, he could not be otherwise than
a gainer; for if profit failed, it could not be denied that the
"foremost" poet of all the age had discerned in him either the
promise or the existence of merit, which he was desirous of
associating with his own. This advantage Mr Hunt did gain by the
connection; and it is his own fault that he cannot be recollected as
the associate of Byron, but only as having attempted to deface his
monument.

CHAPTER XXXIX

Mr Shelley--Sketch of his Life--His Death--The Burning of his Body,
and the Return of the Mourners

It has been my study in writing these sketches to introduce as few
names as the nature of the work would admit of; but Lord Byron
connected himself with persons who had claims to public consideration
on account of their talents; and, without affectation, it is not easy
to avoid taking notice of his intimacy with some of them, especially,
if in the course of it any circumstance came to pass which was in
itself remarkable, or likely to have produced an impression on his
Lordship's mind. His friendship with Mr Shelley, mentioned in the
preceding chapter, was an instance of this kind.

That unfortunate