sonal irritabilities of praise
or censure; to let my genius take its natural direction. All these
reviews, with their praise or their criticism, have bored me to death,
and taken off my attention from greater objects."

Byron wished, he said, to place himself in the position of a dead man,
knowing nothing and feeling nothing of what is done and said about
him.[135] At the same time he gave the greatest proof of the reality of
the sentiments expressed in this letter by continuing to stay at
Ravenna, where people were ignorant of his language, his genius, and his
reputation, and where consequently he could only be remarked and
appreciated for his external gifts and his deeds of benevolence. When he
went from Ravenna to Pisa, Murray, who had not been discouraged by the
six conditions, and who was really attached to Lord Byron more as a
friend even than as a publisher, became alarmed at the angry feeling
stirred up by "Cain," the "Vision of Judgment," "Don Juan," etc., and
feared seeing him lose his popularity. So he wrote begging him to
compose something in his first style, which had excited such general
enthusiasm. But Lord Byron answered:--

"As to 'a poem in the old way,' I shall attempt of that kind nothing
further. I follow the bias of my own mind, without considering whether
women or men are or are not to be pleased."

His whole conduct in Greece was one long act of abnegation, of
disinterested and sublime self-devotion. Let people read Parry, Gamba,
even Stanhope.[136] He sacrificed for Greece all his revenue, his time,
pleasures, comforts, even life itself, if necessary, and at the age of
thirty-five; and then, after success, he refused every honor, satisfied
with having deserved them.

"My intentions with regard to Greece," said he to Parry, at Missolonghi,
"may be explained in a few words. I will remain here until Greece either
throws off the Turkish yoke, or again sinks beneath it. All my revenue
shall be spent in her service. All that can be done with my resources,
and personally, I will do with my whole heart. But as soon as Greece is
delivered from her external enemies, I will leave without taking any
part in the interior organization of the government. I will go to the
United States of America, and there, if requisite and they like it, be
the agent for Greece, and endeavor to get that free and enlightened
government to recognize the Greek federation as an independent State.
England would follow her examp