[60] Moore, first vol.
[61] Moore, 315.
[62] See "Life in Italy."
[63] "He was more a mental being, if I may use this phrase," said Captain Parry, who knew him at Missolonghi, "than any one I ever saw; he lived on thoughts more than on food."
CHAPTER XI.
THE CONSTANCY OF LORD BYRON.
Among Lord Byron's moral virtues, may we count that of constancy? Men in general, not finding this virtue in their own lives, refuse to believe in its existence among those who, in exception to the common rule, do possess it. They must be forced to this act of justice as to many others. This is comprehensible; constancy is so rare!
"I less easily believe constancy in men than any thing else," says Montaigne, "and nothing more easily than inconstancy."
Besides the difficulties common to every one, Lord Byron had also to fight against those difficulties peculiar to his sensitive nature and his vast intelligence.