tory gained over them excite his
admiration.

"Pray make my respects to Mrs. Hoppner, and assure her of my unalterable
reverence for the singular goodness of her disposition, which is not
without its reward even in this world. For those who are no great
believers in human virtues would discover enough in her to give them a
better opinion of their fellow-creatures, and--what is still more
difficult--of themselves, as being of the same species, however inferior
in approaching its nobler models."

At Coppet he was more touched by the conjugal affection of the young
Duchesse de Broglie for her husband, than he was attracted by the
genius even of her mother, Madame de Stael. "Nothing," says he in his
memoranda, "was more agreeable than to see the manifestation of domestic
tenderness in this young woman." When he received at Pisa the posthumous
message sent by a beautiful, angelic young creature, who had caught a
glimpse of him but once, and who, nevertheless, in the solemn hours of
her agony, thought of him, and prayed to God for him, it made a deep
impression on his mind.

"In the evening," says Madame G----, "he spoke to me at great length of
this piety and touching virtue."

Mr. Stendhall, who knew him during his stay at Milan in 1816, says:--"I
passed almost all my evenings with Lord B. Whenever this singular man
was excited and spoke with enthusiasm, his sentiments were noble, great,
and generous; in short, worthy of his genius."

And then when Mr. Stendhall speaks of walking alone with him in the
large green-room at La Scala, he adds:--

"Lord Byron made his appearance for half an hour every evening, holding
the most delightful conversation it was ever my good-fortune to hear. A
volume of new ideas and generous sentiments came pouring out in such
novel form, that one fancied one's self enjoying them for the first
time. The rest of the evening the great man lapsed into the English
noble."

Even biographers most hostile to Lord Byron render justice to his
sensibility and respect for real virtue, for all that is true and
estimable. And if we seek proofs of the same in his poems and
correspondence, we shall find it at every page, not excepting "Don
Juan,"--the satire that most exposed him to the anger and calumny of
_cant_. This is why I shall confine myself to borrowing quotations from
this poem. For instance, in speaking of military glory, he says:--

"The drying up a single tear has more
Of honest fame, t