stead of accusing him of
blasphemy, it had been better at this day for _you_, and for many a
savage soul also, by Euxine shore, and in Zulu and Afghan lands.

59. It was neither, however, for the theology, nor the use, of these
lines that I quoted them; but to note this main point of Byron's own
character. He was the first great Englishman who felt the cruelty of
war, and, in its cruelty, the shame. Its guilt had been known to George
Fox--its folly shown practically by Penn. But the _compassion_ of the
pious world had still for the most part been shown only in keeping its
stock of Barabbases unhanged if possible: and, till Byron came, neither
Kunersdorf, Eylau, nor Waterloo, had taught the pity and the pride of
men that

"The drying up a single tear has more
Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore."[78]

Such pacific verse would not indeed have been acceptable to the
Edinburgh volunteers on Portobello sands. But Byron can write a battle
song too, when it is _his_ cue to fight. If you look at the introduction
to the "Isles of Greece," namely the 85th and 86th stanzas of the 3rd
canto of "Don Juan,"--you will find--what will you _not_ find, if only
you understand them! "He" in the first line, remember, means the typical
modern poet.

"Thus usually, when he was asked to sing,
He gave the different nations something national.
'Twas all the same to him--'God save the King'
Or 'Ca ira' according to the fashion all;
His muse made increment of anything
From the high lyric down to the low rational:
If Pindar sang horse-races, what should hinder
Himself from being as pliable as Pindar?

In France, for instance, he would write a chanson;
In England a six-canto quarto tale;
In Spain, he'd make a ballad or romance on
The last war--much the same in Portugal;
In Germany, the Pegasus he'd prance on
Would be old Goethe's--(see what says de Stael)
In Italy, he'd ape the 'Trecentisti';
In Greece, he'd sing some sort of hymn like this t'ye."

60. Note first here, as we did in Scott, the concentrating and
foretelling power. The "God Save the Queen" in England, fallen hollow
now, as the "Ca ira" in France--not a man in France knowing where either
France or "that" (whatever "that" may be) is going to; nor the Queen of
England daring, for her life, to ask the tiniest Englishman to do a
single thing he doesn't like;--nor any salvation, either of Queen or
Realm, being any more possi