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PROFANE ALLUSION.

That imagination must have been put miserably to its shifts, for a comparison on such a subject, when it could find none more apt to the purpose, than the miraculous guide of the chosen people through the wilderness. Setting aside the profanity of the allusion, though it was an act of indecorum (to say the least of it) which ought to have caused an instant rejection of the piece, the figure chosen is the least analogous that could possibly have been adopted ;-for Israel's pillar was an object of trust, confidence, and preservation to those who followed it: whereas the fiery column, which "shook its red shadow" so furiously over the British metropolis, spread terror in every direction.

But it is inconceivable how any mind, animated by a proper respect for serious things, or paying the smallest deference to the religion of his country, could ever have thought of bringing together things and circumstances so totally dissimilar in themselves, and so improper on all accounts to be made illustrative of each other.

The rest of this hasty production is entitled to no remark; being made up of common-place allusions

SALE OF NEWSTEAD.

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-the customary appeal to liberality-and promises of continued exertions to deserve the public patronage.

It was in this year that Lord Byron endeavoured to dispose of the seat of Newstead Abbey, with the manorial lands immediately appertaining to it; and accordingly the whole property was sold for one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. The purchaser, however, not being able to make good the payments within the stipulated time, the noble owner entered again some time after upon the possession of his ancient inansion; in addition to which he had, soon afterwards, the valuable acquisition of a coal-mine, worth fifty thousand pounds, discovered upon his estate in Rochdale.

CHAPTER VIII.

Publication of "The Giaour."-Plan of the Poem. -Its beauties and defects.-Use made of the story of Sisera.-Account of the "Bride of Abydos."-Its dangerous tendency.

THE success of Childe Harold, instead of stimulating the author to hasten the completion of his plan, encouraged him to publish within a few months another poem, of a very different construction, and in some respects of a far superior character. This was the Turkish tale of "The Giaour," which Lord Byron inscribed to the author of The Pleasures of Memory, as a slight, but sincere, token of admiration of his genius, respect for his character, and gratitude for his friendship."

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The story is simple, and very indistinctly told, but developes itself, at the conclusion, in a manner which

the reader must have easily anticipated. Hassan, a powerful Emir, discovers an intrigue between his favourite mistress Leila and a young Venetian, to whom no other name is given in the poem, than the common appellation of "the Giaour," or Infidel, by which Christians are called, out of contempt, among the zealous Mussulmans. The lover escapes with difficulty; but the poor female slave is carried off in a sack, and thrown into the sea. In the mean time, the fugitive gains the mountains, joins a band of robbers, and at length becomes their chief. At the head of this company, or tribe of Arnaouts, he has an opportunity of wreaking his revenge upon Hassan, who recognizes him in the fray, but falls beneath the arm of the detested Giaour. The victor then quits his predatory course of life, and throws himself into a monastery; not, however, in the spirit of devotion and penitence, but in a gloomy fit of despondence; still preserving under the cowl all the ferocity of his former character. In this state he dies, after revealing the particulars of his story, and rejeeting alike all the counsels and consolations of the monk to whom he makes his confession. Such is the outline of this fable, as the

author calls his poem; but he has made ample amends for the irregularity of the narrative, and the deficiency of incident, by copiousness of reflection, and richness of description.

The performance opens with an indignant apostrophe to Greece, whose ancient and present state is forcibly contrasted :

"Clime of the unforgotten brave,

Whose land, from plain to mountain cave,
Was Freedom's home, or Glory's grave!

Shrine of the mighty can it be,

That this is all remains of thee?"

The poet then goes on to paint more minutely and severely the character of the modern Greeks, who are represented as "callous, save to crime."

Of the low state to which the people are reduced, and the insecurity of even the humblest of them, a more striking instance could hardly be given than the picture of the fisherman working his wary course, after a long day of labour, to the shore, yet suspicious