dock for murder, Milton for blasphemy, Scott for forgery, and Goethe for
questionable financial deals with the devil. Byron's sins were as scarlet
and the number not a few, but the moths that came just to flit about the
flame were all of mature age. Byron set no snares for the innocent, and in
all of the man's misdoings, he himself it was who suffered most.

The Countess Guiccioli, it seems, was the only woman who comprehended his
nature sufficiently to lead him in the direction of peace and poise. With
her, for the first time, he began to systematize his life on a basis of
sanity. They lived together for five years, and from the time he met her
until his death no other love came to separate them.

Throughout his life Byron was a man in revolt; and it was only a variation
of the old passion for freedom that led him to Greece and to his grave.
The personal bravery of the man was proven more than once in his life,
and on the approach of death he was undismayed. When he passed away, April
Nineteenth, Eighteen Hundred Twenty-four, Stanhope wrote, "England has
lost her brightest genius--Greece her best friend."

His body was returned to England, denied burial in Westminster, and now
rests in the old church at Hucknall, near Newstead.




JOSEPH ADDISON

Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me.
This in a moment brings me to an end;