442 BYRON’S

Of deeds and days, when they had fill’d the earOf nations, and had never bent or bow’dTo novel power; and, as she was the last,

She held their old faith and old feelings fast.

XL VII.

She gaz’d upon the world she scarcely knew,

As seeking not to know it: silent, lone,

As grows a flower, thus quietly she grew,

And kept her heart serene within its zone.

There was awe in the homage which she drew:

Her spirit seem’d as seated on a throne,

Apart from the surrounding world, and strongIn its own strength — most strange in one soyoung.

xlviii.

Now, it so happen'd, in the catalogueOf Adeline, Aurora was omitted;

Although her birth and wealth had given hervogue,

Beyond the charmers we have already cited;

Her beauty also seem’d to form a clogAgainst her being mention’d as well fitted,

By many virtues to be worth the troubleOf single gentlemen, who would be double.

XLIX.

And this omission, like that of the bustOf Brutus at the pageant of Tiberius ,

>lade Juan wonder, as no doubt he must.

This he express’d, half smiling and half serious;When Adeline replied, with some disgust,

And with an air, to say the least, imperious,

She marveU’d “ what he saw in such a baby,

As that prim, silent, cold, Aurora Raby!”

L.

Juan rejoin’d—“ She was a Catholic,

And therefore fittest, as of his persuasion;

Since he was sure his mother would fal sick,

And the Pope thunder excommunication,

If—” But here Adeline, who seem’d to piqcoHerself extremely on the inoculationOf others, with her own opinions, stated—

As usual—the same reason which she late did.

Lf.

And wherefore not? A reasonable reason,

If good, is none the worse for repetition;

If bad, the best way’s certainly to teaze on.

And amplify: you lose much by concision:Whereas, insisting, in or out of season.,

Convinces all men, even a politician;

Or—what is just the same—it wearies out:

So the end’s gain’d, what signifies the route ?

LII.

Why Adeline had this slight prejudice—

For prejudice it was—against a creatureAs pure as sanctity itself from vice,

With all the added charm of form and feature,For me appears a question far too nice,

Since Adeline was liberal by nature;

But nature’s nature, and has more capricesThau I have time, or will, to take to pieces.

Mil.

Perhaps she did not like the quiet way

With which Aurora on those baubles look’d,Which charm most people in their earlier day;

WORKS.

For there are few things by mankind less brook’d,And womankind too, if we so may say,

Than finding thus their genius stand rebuk’d,Like “ Anthony’s by Caesar,’’ by the fewWho look upon them as they ought to do.

LTV.

It was not envy—Adeline had none;

Her place was far beyond it, and her mind;

It was not scorn—which could not light on oneWhose greatest fault was leaving lew to find:

It was not jealousy I think: but shunFollowing the u ignis fatui ” of mankind:

It was not-but ’tis easier far, alas I

To say what it was not, than what it was.

LV.

Little Aurora deem’d she was the themeOf such discussion. She was there a guest,—

A beauteous ripple of the brilliant streamOf rank and youth, though purer than the rest,Which flow’d on, for a moment, in the beamTime sheds, a moment, o’er each sparklingcrest:

Had she known this, she would have calmlysmil’d,

She had so much, or little, of the child.

LVI.

The dashing and proud air of AdelineImpos'd not upon her: she saw her blazeMuch as she would have seen a glow-worm shine.

Then turn’d unto the stars for loftier rays.

Juan was something which she could not divine,Being no sybil in the new world’s ways;

Yet she was nothing dazzled by the meteor,Because she did not pin her faith on feature.

LVIT.

His fame too,—for he had that kind of fameWhich sometimes plays the deuce with woman*kind,—

A heterogeneous mass of glorious blame,

Half virtues and whole vices being combined:Faults which attract because they aro not tame;

Follies trick’d out so brightly that they blind;—These seals upon her wax made uo impression,Such was her coldness or her self-possession.

lviii.

Juan knew nought of such a character—

High, yet resembling not his lost Haidee;

Yet each was radiant in her proper sphere:

The island girl, bred up by the lone sea,

More warm, as lovely, and not less sincere,

Was Nature’s all: Aurora could not be,

Nor would be, thus:—the difference in themWas such as lies between a flower and gem.

LIX.

Having wound up with this sublime comparison,Methinks we may proceed upon our narrative;And, as my friend Scott says, “ I sound my warison

Scott, the superlative of my comparative—

Scott, who can paint your Christian knight orSaracen ,

Serf , lord, man, with such skill as none wouldshare it, if

There had not been one Shakspere and Voltaire ,

) Of one or both of whom he seems the heir.