Too often has splendid genius been suffered to live almost unobserved; and have only been valued as their lives have been lost. Could the divine Milton, or the great Shakspeare, while living, have shared that profound veneration which their after generations have bestowed on their high talents, happier would they have lived, and died more extensively beloved. True, a Byron has but lately paid a universal debt. His concentrated powers--his breathings for the happiness and liberty of mankind--his splendid intellectual flowers, culled from a mind stored with the choicest exotics, and cultivated with the most refined taste are all still fresh in recollection. As the value of precious stones and metals have become estimated by their scarcity, so will the fame of Byron live. A mind like Lord Byron's, "----born, not only to surprise, but cheer With warmth and lustre all within its sphere," was one of Nature's brightest gems, whose splendour (even when uncompared) dazzled and attracted all who passed within its sight. "So let him stand, through ages yet unborn." As comparison is a medium through which we are enabled to obtain most accurate judgment, let us use it in the present instance, and compare Lord Byron with the greatest poets that have preceded him, by which means the world of letters will see what they have _really_ lost in Lord Byron. To commence with the great Shakspeare himself, to whom universal admiration continues to be paid. Had Shakspeare been cut off at the same early period as Byron, _The Tempest, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus_, and several others of an equal character, would never have been written. The high reputation of Dryden would also have been limited--his fame, perhaps, unknown. The _Absalom_ and _Achitophel_ is the earliest of his best productions, which was written about his fiftieth year; his principal production, at the age of Byron, was his _Annus Mirabilis_; for nearly the whole of his dramatic works were written at the latter part of his life. Pope is the like situated; that which displayed most the power of his mind--which claims for him the greatest praise--his _Essay on Man_, &c. appeared after his fortieth year. _Windsor Forest_ was published in his twenty-second or twenty-third year, both were the labour of some _years_; and the immortal Milton, who published some few things before his thirtieth year, sent not his great work, _Paradise Lost_, to the world until he verged on sixty.