have totally changed after his departure from Genoa. It would be
difficult, indeed impossible, to convey an idea of the pleasure his
conversation afforded. Among his works that which may perhaps be more
particularly regarded as exhibiting the mirror of his conversation, and
the spirit which animated it, is 'Don Juan.' The following lines from
Shakspeare seem as if prophetically written for him:--

"'Biron they call him; but a merrier man,
Within the limits of becoming mirth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal:
His eye begets occasion for his wit;
For every object that the one doth catch,
The other turns to a mirth-moving jest;
While his fair tongue (conceit's expositor)
Delivers in such apt and gracious words,
That aged ears play truant at his tales,
And younger, hearing, are quite ravished;
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.'"

Millingen says:--

"His wonderful mnemonic faculties, the rich and varied store with which
he had furnished his mind, his lively, brilliant, and ever-busy
imagination, his deep acquaintance with the world, owing to his
sagacious penetration, and the advantageous position in which, through
his birth and other circumstances, he had been placed, conjoined to the
highly mercurial powers of his wit, rendered his conversation peculiarly
interesting; enhanced, too, as it was by the charm of his fascinating
manners. Far from being the surly, taciturn misanthrope generally
imagined, I always found him dwelling on the lightest and merriest
subjects; carefully shunning discussions and whatever might give rise to
unpleasing reflections. Almost every word with him was a jest; and he
possessed the talent of passing from subject to subject with a
lightness, an ease, and a grace, that could with difficulty be matched.
Communicative to a degree that astonished us, and might not unfrequently
be termed indiscretion, he related anecdotes of himself and his friends
which he might as well have kept secret."

Several persons, influenced by the stories circulated against Lord
Byron, asked Dr. Kennedy whether his manners and exterior did not give
the idea of a demon incarnate. "Quite the contrary," replied Kennedy,
"_his appearance and manners give the idea of a man with an excellent
heart, both benevolent and feeling, and he has an amiable, sympathetic
physiognomy_. The impression he made on me was that of a man of refined
politeness and great affability, united to much gayety, vivacit