Page:Journal of Conversations with Lord Byron.pdf/77

 ing the characters of those around him, and he piques himself extremely on it; he also thinks he has fathomed the recesses of his own mind; but he is mistaken; with much that is little (which he suspects) in his character, there is much that is great, that he does not give himself credit for; his first impulses are always good, but his temper, which is impatient, prevents his acting on the cool dictates of reason; and it appears to me, that in judging himself, Byron mistakes temper for character, and takes the ebullitions of the first for the indications of the nature of the second. He declares that, in addition to his other failings, avarice is now established.

This new vice, like all the others he attributes to himself, he talks of as one would name those of an acquaintance, in a sort of deprecating, yet half-mocking tone; as much as to say, you see I know all my faults better than you do, though I don’t choose to correct them; indeed, it has often occurred to me; that he brings forward his defects, as if in anticipation of some one else exposing them, which he would not like; as, though he affects the contrary, he is jealous of being found fault with, and shows it in a thousand ways.

He affects to dislike hearing his works praised