"has no perception
of the sublimity of Alpine scenery; he calls a mountain a great
impostor."

In the mean time the materials for the first number of The Liberal
had been transmitted to London, where the manuscript of The Vision of
Judgment was already, and something of its quality known. All his
Lordship's friends were disturbed at the idea of the publication.
They did not like the connection he had formed with Mr Shelley--they
liked still less the copartnery with Mr Hunt. With the justice or
injustice of these dislikes I have nothing to do. It is an
historical fact that they existed, and became motives with those who
deemed themselves the custodiers of his Lordship's fame, to seek a
dissolution of the association.

The first number of The Liberal, containing The Vision of Judgment,
was received soon after the copartnery had established themselves at
Genoa, accompanied with hopes and fears. Much good could not be
anticipated from a work which outraged the loyal and decorous
sentiments of the nation towards the memory of George III. To the
second number Lord Byron contributed the Heaven and Earth, a sacred
drama, which has been much misrepresented in consequence of its
fraternity with Don Juan and The Vision of Judgment; for it contains
no expression to which religion can object, nor breathes a thought at
variance with the Genesis. The history of literature affords no
instance of a condemnation less justifiable, on the plea of
profanity, than that of this Mystery. That it abounds in literary
blemishes, both of plan and language, and that there are harsh
jangles and discords in the verse, is not disputed; but still it
abounds in a grave patriarchal spirit, and is echo to the oracles of
Adam and Melchisedek. It may not be worthy of Lord Byron's genius,
but it does him no dishonour, and contains passages which accord with
the solemn diapasons of ancient devotion. The disgust which The
Vision of Judgment had produced, rendered it easy to persuade the
world that there was impiety in the Heaven and Earth, although, in
point of fact, it may be described as hallowed with the Scriptural
theology of Milton. The objections to its literary defects were
magnified into sins against worship and religion.

The Liberal stopped with the fourth number, I believe. It
disappointed not merely literary men in general, but even the most
special admirers of the talents of the contributors. The main defect
of the work was a lac