A thousand images of one that was,
The same, and still the more, the more it breaks."
Now, Byron was, by his own showing, an ardent admirer of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. See Moore's Life of Byron, vol. i. page 144. Notices of the year 1807.
Turn to Burton, and you will find the following passage:—
"And, as Praxiteles did by his glass, when he saw a scurvy face in it, brake it to pieces, but for that one, he saw many more as bad in a moment."—Part 2. sect. 3. mem. 7.
I am uncharitable enough to believe that Childe Harold owes far more to Burton, than to "the unaccountable and incomprehensible power of association."
MELANION.