[283] [Of himself as distinct from Harold he will say no more. On the tale or spell of his own tragedy is set the seal of silence; but of Harold, the idealized Byron, he once more takes up the parable. In stanzas viii.-xv. he puts the reader in possession of some natural changes, and unfolds the development of thought and feeling which had befallen the Pilgrim since last they had journeyed together. The youthful Harold had sounded the depth of joy and woe. Man delighted him not--no, nor woman neither. For a time, however, he had cured himself of this trick of sadness. He had drunk new life from the fountain of natural beauty and antique lore, and had returned to take his part in the world, inly armed against dangers and temptations. And in the world he had found beauty, and fame had found him. What wonder that he had done as others use, and then discovered that he could not fare as others fared? Henceforth there remained no comfort but in nature, no refuge but in exile!] [go] {221} _He of the breast that strove no more to feel,_ _Scarred with the wounds_----.--[MS.] [gp] {222} _Secure in curbing coldness_----.--[MS.] [gq] _Shines through the wonder-works--of God and Nature's hand_.--[MS.] [gr] _Who can behold the flower at noon, nor seek_ _To pluck it? who can stedfastly behold_.--[MS.] [gs] _Nor feel how Wisdom ceases to be cold_.--[MS. erased.] [284] [The Temple of Fame is on the summit of a mountain; "Clouds overcome it;" but to the uplifted eye the mists dispel, and behold the goddess pointing to her star--the star of glory!] [gt] {223} _Yet with a steadier step than in his earlier time_.--[MS. erased.] [285] [Compare _Manfred_, act ii. sc. 2, lines 50-58-- "From my youth upwards My spirit walked not with the souls of men, Nor looked upon the earth with human eyes; * * * * * My joys, my griefs, my passions, and my powers Made me a stranger; though I wore the form, I had no sympathy with breathing flesh." Compare, too, with stanzas xiii., xiv., _ibid_., lines 58-72.] [gu] _Fool he not to know_.--[MS. erased.] [gv] _Where there were mountains there for him were friends_. _Where there was Ocean--there he was at home_.--[MS.] [gw] {224} _Like the Chaldean he could gaze on stars_.--[MS.] ----_adored the stars_.--[MS. erased.] [gx] _That keeps us from that Heaven on which we love to think_.--[MS.] [gy] _But in Man's dwelling--Harold was a thing_ _Restless and worn, and cold and wearisome_.--[MS.] [286] {225} [In this stanza the mask is thrown aside, and "the real Lord Byron" appears _in propriâ personâ_.] [287] [The mound with the Belgian lion was erected by William I. of Holland, in 1823.] [gz] {226} _None; but the moral truth tells simpler so_.--[MS.]