“the Son of God, our Saviour meek, Sung victor, and from heavenly feast refresh’t, Brought on His way with joy; He unobserv’d, Home to His mother’s house private return’d.” (_P. R._ iv. 636–9.) Warton wished to expunge this passage, considering it an unworthy conclusion. It is to be hoped that there are many readers of Milton who are able to see what is the value of these four lines, particularly of the last. It is hardly necessary to say more in order to show how peculiarly Milton is endowed with that quality which is possessed by all great poets—the power to keep in contact with the soul of man. THE MORALITY OF BYRON’S POETRY. “THE CORSAIR.” [This is an abstract of an essay four times as long written many years ago. Although so much has been struck out, the substance is unaltered, and the conclusion is valid for the author now as then.] BYRON above almost all other poets, at least in our day, has been set down as immoral. In reality he is moral, using the word in its proper sense, and he is so, not only in detached passages, but in the general drift of most of his poetry. We will take as an example “The Corsair.” Conrad is not a debauched buccaneer. He was not— “by Nature sent To lead the guilty—guilt’s worst instrument.” He had been betrayed by misplaced confidence. “Doom’d by his very virtues for a dupe, He cursed those virtues as the cause of ill, And not the traitors who betray’d him still; Nor deem’d that gifts bestow’d on better men Had left him joy, and means to give again, Fear’d—shunn’d—belied—ere youth had lost her force, He hated man too much to feel remorse, And thought the voice of wrath a sacred call, To pay the injuries of some on all.” Conrad was not, and could not be, mean and selfish. A selfish Conrad would be an absurdity. His motives are not gross— “he shuns the grosser joys of sense, His mind seems nourished by that abstinence.” He is protected by a charm against undistinguishing lust— “Though fairest captives daily met his eye, He shunn’d, nor sought, but coldly pass’d them by;” and even Gulnare, his deliverer, fails to seduce him. Mr. Ruskin observes that Byron makes much of courage. It is Conrad, the leader, who undertakes the dangerous errand of surprising Seyd; it is he who determines to save the harem. His courage is not the mere excitement of battle. When he is captured— “A conqueror’s more than captive’s air is seen,” and he is not insensible to all fear. “Each has some fear, and he who least betrays, The only hypocrite deserving praise. * * * * * One thought alone he could not—dared not meet— ‘Oh, how these tidings will Medora greet?’”