who here taught his half-Christian
philosophy, Lord Byron took his seat at the celestial banquet spread by
the great master, and entered into full possession of his genius. For,
although he ignored its great power and extent, it is impossible that he
should not have had in hours like these, some vision of the future, some
presentiment of coming glory, which, piercing through the veils that
yet shrouded his genius, gave moments of ineffable delight. When he
bathed in some solitary spot, he tells us in his memoranda that one of
his greatest delights was to sit on a rock overlooking the waves, and to
remain there whole hours lost in admiration of sky and sea, "absorbed,"
says Moore, "in that sort of vague reverie, which, however formless and
indistinct at the moment, settled afterward on his pages into those
clear, bright pictures which will endure forever."

One day, while he was swimming under the rocks of Cape Colonna, a vessel
from the coast of Attica drew near. On board, going from London to
Athens, were two celebrated personages--Lady Hester Stanhope and Mr.
Bruce. The first object that greeted their eyes, on nearing Sanium, was
Lord Byron, playing all alone with his favorite element. Some days
after, his friend Lord Sligo wished him to make their acquaintance, and
he saw a great deal of them at Athens. In his memoranda the following
words are applied to them:--"It was the commencement (their meeting at
Cape Colonna) of the most delightful acquaintance I have made in
Greece." And he wished to assure Mr. Bruce, in case these lines should
ever fall under his notice, of the pleasure he experienced in recalling
the time they had passed together at Athens. Now I do not see any
symptom of melancholy in all this, nor in all preceding, and yet Bruce
thought there was. Did he, then, also consider the joy Lord Byron felt
in solitude, and his indifference for the false conventional enthusiasm
his countrymen affected to display at sight of the ruins of Greece, as
so many other tokens of melancholy? In reality Lord Byron was averse to
all kinds of affectation, made no exception in favor of the artistic
pretensions which constitute the hypocrisy of taste, and only gave the
sincere, ardent homage of his soul to those things of antiquity that
recall great names or great actions, and to sublime scenes in nature.
Notwithstanding his fine intelligence, it is not impossible that Mr.
Bruce also may have shared the errors of superficial m