Page:Journal of Conversations with Lord Byron.pdf/91

 of the craft, have contributed. I was the first; Moore wrote something, which was, like all that he writes, very sparkling and terse; but he got dissatisfied with the faint praise it met with from the husband before Miladi saw the verses, and destroyed the effusion; I know not if he ever has supplied their place. Can you fancy Moore paying attention to the opinion of Milor on poesy? Had it been on racing or horse-flesh, he might have been right; but Pegasus is, perhaps, the only horse of whose paces Lord - could not be a judge."

Talking of fashionable life in London, Lord Byron said that there was nothing so vapid and ennuyeux. "The English," said he, "were intended by nature to be good, sober-minded people, and those who live in the country are really admirable. I saw a good deal of English country life, and it is the only favorable impression that remains of our mode of living; but of London, and exclusive society, I retain a fearful recollection. Dissipation has need of wit, talent, and gaiety to prevent reflection, and make the eternal round of frivolous amusements pass; and of these," continued Byron, "there was a terrible lack in the society in which I mixed. The minds of the English are formed of sterner stuff. You may make an English woman (indeed Nature