ke away half the sting of
fatigue, and soften the aspect of danger and of difficulties.

During his absence from England Byron always insisted that all matters
relating to the settlement of his affairs should pass through the hands
of Hobhouse, his "alter ego" when near or when absent. His highest
testimony of regard and friendship for Hobhouse, however, is to be found
in the dedication of the fourth canto of "Childe Harold," which was
written in Italy in 1815, and which is as follows:--

CANTO THE FOURTH.

_To John Hobhouse, Esq., A.M., F.R.S., etc._

Venice, January 2, 1818.

MY DEAR HOBHOUSE,--After an interval of eight years between the
composition of the first and last cantos of Childe Harold, the
conclusion of the poem is about to be submitted to the public. In
parting with so old a friend, it is not extraordinary that I should
recur to one still older and better,--to one who has beheld the
birth and death of the other, and to whom I am far more indebted
for the social advantages of an enlightened friendship,
than--though not ungrateful--I can, or could be, to Childe Harold,
for any public favor reflected through the poem on the poet,--to
one whom I have known long and accompanied far, whom I have found
wakeful over my sickness and kind in my sorrow, glad in my
prosperity and firm in my adversity, true in counsel and trusty in
peril,--to a friend often tried and never found wanting;--to
yourself.

In so doing, I recur from fiction to truth; and in dedicating to
you, in its complete or at least concluded state, a poetical work
which is the longest, the most thoughtful and comprehensive of my
compositions, I wish to do honor to myself by the record of many
years' intimacy with a man of learning, of talent, of steadiness,
and of honor. It is not for minds like ours to give or to receive
flattery; yet the praises of sincerity have ever been permitted to
the voice of friendship; and it is not for you, nor even for
others, but to relieve a heart which has not elsewhere, or lately,
been so much accustomed to the encounter of good-will as to
withstand the shock firmly, that I thus attempt to commemorate your
good qualities, or rather the advantages which I have derived from
their exertion. Even the recurrence of the date of this letter, the
anniversary of the mos