Byron’s Social Doctrine 41
witness this statement taken from an article in The Gentle-
mans Magazine for June, 1824:
Lord Byron had succeeded . . . in stirring up among the
people of the part of Greece in which he resided, an almost
inconceivable enthusiasm. His exertions were incessant in
their cause, and the gratitude of the people was proportioned
to them. His influence was not lessened by being employed
often to procure humane, even kind treatment towards the
Turkish captives.30
This statement, from a letter from Mavrocardato to the sec-
retary of the Greek Committee in England, indicates the at-
titude of the Greek patriots: “I shall attempt to perform my
duty towards this great man: the eternal gratitude of my
country will perhaps be tire only true tribute to his memory.”31
No better proof of tire truth of these statements can be
found than in the following quotation, taken from an article
which appeared in Times Literary Supplement for May 13,
1949:
It was Byron . . . who morally re-armed the defeated and
disunited little nation. . . . [T]he Greeks owe English poets
and poetry a great debt. And they are deeply conscious of
the fact. To the Greek peasant of to-day every Englishman
is in some sort a great-grandchild of the famous Byron, and
he reaps in terms of friendship and hospitality the love and
reverence that the poet himself did not live to enjoy.32
“Close thy Byron; open fhy Goethe” said Carlyle with
characteristic vehemence. Now I should not like to reverse
that statement, but in an age which is characterized by a
struggle for the freedom of the individual, more than by any
other one thing, I should like to suggest that we open our
Byron and read what he has to say. It is true that he was a
product of his age and that he stands with Shelley, the young
Coleridge and Wordsworth, Leigh Hunt, Tom Moore, and