s were so dazzling,
contradictory, complicated, and varied, beyond all example, that it may
be truly said there was not one man, but several men, in him:--

"So various, indeed, and contradictory, were his attributes, both moral
and intellectual, that he may be pronounced to have been, not one, but
many; nor would it be any great exaggeration of the truth to say that,
out of the mere partition of the properties of his single mind, a
plurality of characters, all different and all vigorous, might have been
furnished. It was this multiform aspect exhibited by him that led the
world, during his short, wondrous career, to compare him with that
medley host of personages, almost all differing from each other, which
he playfully enumerates in one of his journals."

These observations of Moore's are only true from a certain point of
view--the richness of Lord Byron's nature. But even if this exuberance
of faculties, united in one individual, had not been already in itself a
character, and had not constituted a well-marked distinct personality,
almost unique in kind, Moore would have been at variance with the most
profound moralists, who agree that human nature never has the simplicity
of a geometrical figure, and that, in reality, characters always are
mixed, complicated, composed of opposite elements of incompatible
inclinations and passions. For Moore appears to think that men are
almost always swayed by one chief passion, round which, as round a
pivot, life unrolls itself, just as we see in theatrical pieces. But
even if this system were correct, intimate, as he was with Lord Byron,
and so full of perspicacity, could he not have found, towering above the
rich profusion of qualities in his friend, one dominant passion? Yes, he
ought to have discovered it; but there was a _struggle_ in Moore between
the love of justice and his friendship for Lord Byron on one side, _and
the desire, alas! of keeping fair with a host of prejudices_ arrayed
against Lord Byron on the other; and on the favor of these persons Moore
felt that his own position, or rather his pleasure in society, depended.
The master-passion that occupied so great a place in Lord Byron's mind
was his _love of truth, with all the qualities flowing from it_.

It may, perhaps, be said that all beautiful souls love truth more or
less. Yes; but seldom does this quality acquire such complete
development as in Lord Byron. For with him it was a _real passion_,
since it gave t