"Childe Harold," of course, acted most on the imagination
of women of powerful intellect and ardent nature, and thus his own peril
grew afresh, involuntarily evoked by himself. For, if the prestige of
position and circumstance adding lustre to genius, could act strongly
even upon men, what must have been their combined influence when added
to his personal beauty, upon women?--

" ... These personal influences acted with increased force, from the
assistance derived from others, which, to female imaginations
especially, would have presented a sufficiency of attraction, even
without the great qualities joined with them. His youth, the noble
beauty of his countenance, and its constant play of light and
shadow--the gentleness of his voice and manner to women, and his
occasional haughtiness to men,--the alleged singularities of his mode of
life, which kept curiosity constantly alive; all these minor traits
concurred toward the quick spread of his fame; nor can it be denied
that, among many purer sources of interest in his poem, the allusions
which he makes to instances of '_successful_ passion' in his career,
were not without their influence on the fancies of that sex whose
weakness it is to be most easily won by those who come recommended by
the greatest number of triumphs over others.... Altogether, taking into
consideration the various points I have here enumerated, _it may be
asserted, that there never before existed, and, it is most probable,
there never will exist again, a combination of such vast mental powers
and such genius, with so many other of those advantages and attractions
by which the world is in general dazzled and captivated_."

This rare combination of advantages were so many means of seduction on
his side, involuntarily exercised, and the sole ones he would have
condescended to employ; meanwhile all advances were spared him on the
other. There were fine ladies whom nothing daunted, if only they could
find favor in his sight; who forgot for him their rank, their duties,
their families, braving the whole world, donning strange costumes to get
at him, carrying jealousy to the verge of madness, to attempted suicide,
or to the conception, at least, of crime. One distinguished herself by
excessive daring; another, who had not been happy in married life, but
who had tried to make up for want of affection by securing her husband's
friendship and esteem, was now willing to sacrifice all to her wild
passion for the