Page:Journal of Conversations with Lord Byron.pdf/47



deep and general interest with which every detail connected with Lord Byron has been received by the public, induced the writer to publish her Conversations with him. She was for a long time undecided as to adopting this measure, fearful that, by the invidious, it might be considered as a breach of confidence; but as Boswell's and  Mrs. Piozzi's disclosures, relative to Dr. Johnson, were never viewed in this light, and as Lord Byron never gave, or implied, the slightest injunction to secrecy, she hopes that she may equally escape such an imputation.

The many pages suppressed, filled with poems, epigrams, and sallies of Lord Byron, in which piquancy and wit are more evident than good-nature, bear testimony, that a wish to avoid wounding the feelings of the living, or to cast a darker shade over the reputation of the dead, has influenced the writer much more than the desire to make an amusing book; and she trusts that, in portraying Lord Byron, if she has proved herself an unskilful, she incurs not the censure of being considered an unfaithful, limner.