[Footnote 54: Between Wieland, the author of this Romance, and Lord Byron, may be observed some of those generic points of resemblance which it is so interesting to trace in the characters of men of genius. The German poet, it is said, never perused any work that made a strong impression upon him, without being stimulated to commence one, himself, on the same topic and plan; and in Lord Byron the imitative principle was almost equally active,--there being few of his poems that might not, in the same manner, be traced to the strong impulse given to his imagination by the perusal of some work that had just before interested him. In the history, too, of their lives and feelings, there was a strange and painful coincidence,--the revolution that took place in all Wieland's opinions, from the Platonism and romance of his youthful days, to the material and Epicurean doctrines that pervaded all his maturer works, being chiefly, it is supposed, brought about by the shock his heart had received from a disappointment of its affections in early life. Speaking of the illusion of this first passion, in one of his letters, he says,--"It is one for which no joys, no honours, no gifts of fortune, not even wisdom itself can afford an equivalent, and which, when it has once vanished, returns no more."] [Footnote 55: "'Tis but a portrait of his son and wife, And self; but such a woman! love in life!" BEPPO, Stanza xii. This seems, by the way, to be an incorrect description of the picture, as, according to Vasari and others, Giorgione never was married, and died young.] [Footnote 56: "Egli viene per vedere le meraviglie di questa Citta, e sono certa che nessuno meglio di lui saprebbe gustarle. Mi sara grato che vi facciate sua guida come potrete, e voi poi me ne avrete obbligo. Egli e amico de Lord Byron--sa la sua storia assai piu precisamente di quelli che a voi la raccontarono. Egli dunque vi raccontera se lo interrogherete _la forma, le dimensioni_, e tuttocio che vi piacera del _Castello ove tiene imprigionata una giovane innocente sposa_, &c. &c. Mio caro Pietro, quando ti sei bene sfogato a ridere, allora rispondi due righe alla tua sorella, che t' ama e t' amera sempre colla maggiore tenerezza."] * * * * * LETTER 341. TO MR. HOPPNER. "October 22. 1819.