k of knowledge. Neither in style nor genius,
nor even in general ability, was it wanting; but where it showed
learning it was not of a kind in which the age took much interest.
Moreover, the manner and cast of thinking of all the writers in it
were familiar to the public, and they were too few in number to
variegate their pages with sufficient novelty. But the main cause of
the failure was the antipathy formed and fostered against it before
it appeared. It was cried down, and it must be acknowledged that it
did not much deserve a better fate.

With The Liberal I shall close my observations on the works of Lord
Byron. They are too voluminous to be examined even in the brief and
sketchy manner in which I have considered those which are deemed the
principal. Besides, they are not, like them, all characteristic of
the author, though possessing great similarity in style and thought
to one another. Nor would such general criticism accord with the
plan of this work. Lord Byron was not always thinking of himself;
like other authors, he sometimes wrote from imaginary circumstances;
and often fancied both situations and feelings which had no reference
to his own, nor to his experience. But were the matter deserving of
the research, I am persuaded, that with Mr Moore's work, and the
poet's original journals, notes, and letters, innumerable additions
might be made to the list of passages which the incidents of his own
life dictated.

The abandonment of The Liberal closed his Lordship's connection with
Mr Hunt; their friendship, if such ever really existed, was ended
long before. It is to be regretted that Byron has not given some
account of it himself; for the manner in which he is represented to
have acted towards his unfortunate partner, renders another version
of the tale desirable. At the same time--and I am not one of those
who are disposed to magnify the faults and infirmities of Byron--I
fear there is no excess of truth in Hunt's opinion of him. I judge
by an account which Lord Byron gave himself to a mutual friend, who
did not, however, see the treatment in exactly the same light as that
in which it appeared to me. But, while I cannot regard his
Lordship's conduct as otherwise than unworthy, still the pains which
Mr Hunt has taken to elaborate his character and dispositions into
every modification of weakness, almost justifies us in thinking that
he was treated according to his deserts. Byron had at least the