66 were the production of a woman; but whether it was a Mr., Mrs., or Miss, the remark was equally uncalled for. "To be sure, the life I led at Venice was not the most "Not so bad as that either," said he, somewhat seriously. 66 Venice," resumed he, “ is a melancholy place to reside "in:-to see a city die daily as she does, is a sad contemplation. I sought to distract my mind from a sense of "her desolation, and my own solitude, by plunging into 66 a vortex that was any thing but pleasure. When one gets into a mill-stream, it is difficult to swim against it, "and keep out of the wheels. The consequences of being "carried down by it would furnish an excellent lesson for ἐσ youth. You are too old to profit by it. But, who ever profited by the experience of others, or his own? When 66 you read my Memoirs, you will learn the evils, moral and 66 physical, of true dissipation. I assure you my life is very entertaining, and very instructive." I said, "I suppose, when you left England, you were a Childe Harold, and at Venice a Don Giovanni, and Fletcher your Leporello." He laughed at the remark. I asked him, in what way his life would prove a good lesson? and he gave me several anecdotes of himself, which I have thrown into a sort of narrative. "Almost all the friends of my youth are dead; either "shot in duels, ruined, or in the galleys:" (mentioning "the names of several.) 66 Among those I lost in the early part of my career, was “Lord Falkland,-poor fellow! our fathers' fathers were "friends. He lost his life for a joke, and one too he "did not make himself. The present race is more steady "than the last. They have less constitution and not so 66 much money—that accounts for the change in their "morals. "I am now tamed; but before I married, shewed some "of the blood of my ancestors. It is ridiculous to say "that we do not inherit our passions, as well as the gout, or any other disorder. 66 66 " 66 "I was not so young when my father died, but that I perfectly remember him; and had very early a horror " of matrimony, from the sight of domestic broils: this feeling came over me very strongly at my wedding. Something whispered me that I was sealing my own "death-warrant. I am a great believer in presentiments. Socrates' dæmon was no fiction. Monk Lewis had his "monitor, and Napoleon many warnings. At the last moment I would have retreated, if I could have done So. I called to mind a friend of mine, who had mar"ried a young, beautiful, and rich girl, and yet was miserable. He had strongly urged me against putting my neck in the same yoke: and to shew you how firmly "I was resolved to attend to his advice, I betted Hay 66 66 66 66 66 fifty guineas to one, that I should always remain single. "Six years afterwards I sent him the money. The day "before I proposed to Lady Byron, I had no idea of doing so." 66 After this digression he continued :— "I I lost my father when I was only six years of age. My mother, when she was in a rage with me, (and I gave her cause enough,) used to say, 'Ah, you little dog, you are a Byron all over; you are as bad as 66 66 66 your father!' It was very different from Mrs. Malaprop's saying, Ah! good dear Mr. Malaprop, I never loved him till he was dead.' But, in fact, my "father was, in his youth, any thing but a 'Cælebs "in search of a wife.' He would have made a bad "hero for Hannah More. He ran out three fortunes, "and married or ran away with three women, and once "wanted a guinea, that he wrote for; I have the note. "He seemed born for his own ruin, and that of the other sex. He began by seducing Lady Carmarthen, "and spent for her 4000l. a-year; and not content with 66 66 one adventure of this kind, afterwards eloped with Miss Gordon. His marriage was not destined to be a very "fortunate one either, and I don't wonder at her differing "from Sheridan's widow in the play. They certainly 66 . 66 66 could not have claimed the flitch. "The phrenologists tell me that other lines besides that of thought, (the middle of three horizontal lines on his forehead, on which he prided himself,) are strongly developed in the hinder part of my cra"nium; particularly that called philoprogenitiveness*. I * He appears to have mistaken the meaning of this word in the vocabulary of the Craniologists, as in Don Juan. 66 66 suppose, too, the pugnacious bump might be found somewhere, because my uncle had it. "You have heard the unfortunate story of his duel "with his relation and neighbour. After that melan 66 66 66 66 choly event, he shut himself up at Newstead, and was in the habit of feeding crickets, which were "his only companions. He had made them so tame as to crawl over him, and used to whip them with a whisp of straw, if too familiar. When he died, tradition says that they left the house in a body. "I suppose I derive my superstition from this branch " of the family; but though I attend to none of these new-fangled theories, I am inclined to think that there "is more in a chart of the skull than the Edinburgh "Reviewers suppose*. However that may be, I was a wayward youth, and gave my mother a world of trouble, as I fear Ada will her's, for I am told she is a "little termagant. I had an ancestor too that expired 66 66 laughing, (I suppose that my good spirits came from him,) and two whose affection was such for each other, that they died almost at the same moment. * He had probably been reading the article on Gall and Spurzheim. |