that he was not sincere in his implied censures, and that he was sorry he
had written them; but notwithstanding this regret, and all his good
resolutions to avoid similar sins, he might on renewed provocation recur
to the same vengeance, though he allowed it was petty and unworthy of him.
Lord Byron speaks of his sister, Mrs. Leigh, constantly, and always with
strong expressions of affection; he says she is the most faultless person
he ever knew, and that she was his only source of consolation in his
troubles on the separation.

Byron is a great talker, his flippancy ceases in a _tête-à-tête_, and he
becomes sententious, abandoning himself to the subject and seeming to
think aloud, though his language has the appearance of stiffness, and is
quite opposed to the trifling chit-chat that he enters into when in
general society. I attribute this to his having lived so much alone, as
also to the desire he now professes of applying himself to prose writing.
He affects a sort of Johnsonian tone, likes very much to be listened to,
and seems to observe the effect he produces on his hearer. In mixed
society his ambition is to appear the man of fashion, he adopts a light
tone of badinage and persiflage that does not sit gracefully on him, but
is always anxious to turn the subject to his own personal affairs, or
feelings, which are either lamented with an air of melancholy, or dwelt on
with playful ridicule, according to the humour he happens to be in.

Byron has remarkable penetration in discovering the characters of those
around him, and he piques himself extremely on it: he also thinks he has
fathomed the recesses of his own mind; but he is mistaken: with much that
is _little_ (which he suspects) in his character, there is much that is
great, that he does not give himself credit for: his first impulses are
always good, but his temper, which is impatient, prevents his acting on
the cool dictates of reason; and it appears to me, that in judging himself,