The Biblical drama “Cain”――Byron and the Bible――The _Hebrew Melodies_――A poet and a hero――The Hon. Douglas Kinnaird――Isaac Nathan――John Braham――Lady Caroline Lamb――Sir Walter Scott ――Dr. John Gill――Dr. Henry Hunter――The Rev. John Scott――Mr. Joseph Eyre. AT that time the ideal aspirations of the Jewish nation found their most forceful expression in English poetry. George Gordon Byron (1788‒1824), the sixth Baron Byron, who was conversant with every phase of human life, and touched every string of the divine lyre from its faintest to its most powerful and heart-stirring tones, rivals Milton, in his own sphere, in his noble and powerful Biblical drama _Cain_. He was one of the greatest of English poets, and his genius, like that of Milton, was penetrated with the aspirations of the Bible.¹ Byron had seen much in his Eastern wanderings, and by his _Hebrew Melodies_ had constituted himself in some sort the laureate of Disraeli’s own race.² There is in his work an intensity of grief and yearning, a vigour of thought combined with enchanting beauty of imagination, a tenderness which make him comparable only to the sweet _Hebrew_ Muse of _Jehudah Halevi_. Zionist poetry owes more to Byron than to any other Gentile poet. His _Hebrew Melodies_, which are among the most beautiful of his productions, have been translated several times into _Hebrew_, and there are no lines more popular and more often quoted than: The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave, Mankind their country, Israel but the grave. which might well have been a Zionist motto. Byron was a poet and a hero; the keynote of his character is to be found in the word “revolt.” Whenever the cause of liberty was in danger, his entire being was roused to indignation; this was the passion of his soul, and for this he gave his life. This “Pilgrim of Eternity,”³ who died a martyr to his zeal in the cause of the freedom of Greece, might perhaps have been equally able to sacrifice his life for the freedom of Judæa, had the deliverance of Judæa offered scope for a similar struggle in his time. As it was he expressed the Jewish tragedy, not only in its poetical but also in its political aspect. ¹ “The Pilgrim Poet: Lord Byron of Newstead.” By Albert Brecknock ... Illustrated ... London ... 1911, _p._ 61. “Old Nanny” often spoke of the reverence and love Lord Byron had for his Bible, and states that in his quieter moments he could often be seen reading it. The verse Byron wrote on the fly-leaf of his Bible was taught to William Smith when quite a boy, by his mother. It runs as follows:――