THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR 



61 



or manly reproof, might repress or correct those 

 disgraceful freaks which a man of unsettled mind 

 and capricious temper is liable to indulge in, when 

 surrounded only by those who are far beneath him, 

 or whose only passport to his company is their 

 perfect compliance with, and applause of, every- 

 thing that he says or does. I have more than once 

 seen a man of really good heart, in a moment when 

 he forgot himself, give pain to a long-tried, worthy 

 friend, to gratify a small knot of ephemeral acquaint- 

 ances by whom he happened to be surrounded. 

 Were you never caught yourself, scarcely compos, 

 by a grave old friend, leading the revels among a 

 graceless crew, whom, in your sober senses and in 

 daylight, you would be ashamed to be seen with ? 

 and, as he left the room, more in sorrow than in 

 anger, have you not joined in the laugh which the 

 professed wit of the party raised at his expense 2 



FISHER.. I am still sceptical. But even should 

 a person, not thoroughly insensible to every better 

 feeling, find himself in the last predicament, would 

 he not, on reflection, be ashamed of his conduct, 

 endeavour to make reparation to his friend, and 

 shun the company of the flatterers who corrupt 

 him? 



SIMPSON. In such manner I believe Byron would 

 act. 



FISHER. Byron's living with another man's wife, 

 the Countess Guicciola, is as well known as his 

 feat of swimming across the Hellespont. She had 



