he gelatinous
character of the effusions of the Lakers in the compositions of
Homer? The London Gazette does not tell us things more like facts
than the narratives of Homer, and it often states facts that are much
more like fictions than his most poetical inventions. So much is
this the case with the works of all the higher poets, that as they
recede from that worldly standard which is found in the Epics of
Homer, they sink in the scale of poets. In what does the inferiority
of Virgil, for example, consist, but in his having hatched fancies in
his contemplations which the calm mind rejects as absurdities. Then
Tasso, with his enchanted forests and his other improbabilities; are
they more than childish tales? tales, too, not in fancy to be
compared with those of that venerable dry-nurse, Mother Bunch.
Compare the poets that babble of green fields with those who deal in
the actions and passions of men, such as Shakspeare, and it must be
confessed that it is not those who have looked at external nature who
are the true poets, but those who have seen and considered most about
the business and bosom of man. It may be an advantage that a poet
should have the benefit of landscapes and storms, as children are the
better for country air and cow's milk; but the true scene of their
manly work and business is in the populous city. Inasmuch as Byron
was a lover of solitude, he was deficient as an observer of men.

The barrenest portion, as to materials for biography, in the life of
this interesting man, is the period he spent at the University of
Cambridge. Like that of most young men, it is probable the major
part of his time was passed between the metropolis and the
university. Still it was in that period he composed the different
poems which make up the little volume of The Hours of Idleness; a
work which will ever be regarded, more by its consequences than its
importance, as of great influence on the character and career of the
poet.

It has been supposed, I see not how justly, that there was
affectation in the title. It is probable that Byron intended no more
by it than to imply that its contents were sketches of leisure. This
is the less doubtful, as he was at that period particularly sensitive
concerning the opinion that might be entertained of his works.
Before he made the collection, many of the pieces had been
circulated, and he had gathered opinions as to their merits with a
degree of solicitude that can only