" he took to writing romances; a very un

66

profitable and fatal exchange, as it turned

❝ out.

"I told you I was not oppressed in spi"rits last night without a reason. Who can

66

help being superstitious? Scott believes "in second-sight. Rousseau tried whether "he was to be d--d or not, by aiming at a "tree with a stone; I forget whether he hit

66

or missed. Goethe trusted to the chance

"of a knife's striking the water, to deter"mine whether he was to prosper in some

66

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undertaking. The Italians think the drop

ping of oil very unlucky. Pietro (Count

Gamba) dropped some the night before "his exile, and that of his family, from "Ravenna. Have you ever had your for66 tune told? Mrs. Williams told mine. "She predicted that twenty-seven and thirty

seven were to be dangerous ages in my "life *. One has come true."

"Yes," added I, "and did she not pro

phesy that you were to die a monk and a "miser? I have been told so."

"I don't think these two last very likely; "but it was part of her prediction. But "there are lucky and unlucky days, as well

as years and numbers too. Lord

"was dining at a party, where "observed that they were thirteen. 'Why 66 don't you make us twelve?' was the reply; " and an impudent one it was-but he could

66

say those things. You would not visit on

*He was married in his twenty-seventh, and died in his thirty-seventh year.

"a Friday, would you? You know you 66 are to introduce me to Mrs.

It

must not be to-morrow, for it is a Friday."

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"A fine day," said I, as I entered; a day worth living for."

"An old hag of a world!" replied he, shaking me by the hand. "You should "have been here earlier. T- has been "here with a most portentous and obste"trical countenance, and it seems he has "been bringing forth an ode—a birth-day "ode-not on Ada, but on a lady. An "odious production it must have been! He "threatened to inflict, as Shelley calls it; "but I fought off. As I told him, Stellas

are out of date now: it is a bad compli

ment to remind women of their age.

"Talking of days, this is the most "wretched day of my existence; and I say " and do all sorts of foolish things * to drive "away the memory of it, and make me 66 forget.

"I will give you a specimen of some epigrams I am in the habit of sending Hob66 house, to whom I wrote on my first wed"ding-day, and continue to write still:

"So that it wean me from the weary dream Of selfish grief, or gladness!-so it fling Forgetfulness around me!"

Childe Harold, Canto III. Stanza 4.

"And if I laugh at any mortal thing,

'Tis that I may not weep;—and if I weep,

'Tis that our nature cannot always bring

Itself to apathy"-&c.

Don Juan, Canto IV. Stanza 4.

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This day of ours has surely done

Its worst for me and you!

"Tis now five years since we were one,
And four since we were two.'

"And another on his sending me the congratulations of the season, which ended in 66 some foolish way like this:

'You may wish me returns of the season:
Let us, prithee, have none of the day!'"

I think I can give no stronger proof of the sociability of Lord Byron's disposition, than the festivity that presided over his dinners.

Wednesday being one of his fixed days: "You will dine with me," said he, "though "it is the 2d of January."