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“‘No man would live his life over again,’ is an old and true saying which all can resolve for themselves.  At the same time, there are probably moments in most men’s lives which they would live over the rest of life to regain.  Else why do we live at all? because Hope recurs to Memory, both false—­but—­but—­but—­but—­and this but drags on till—­what?  I do not know; and who does?  ‘He that died o’ Wednesday.’”

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In laying before the reader these last extracts from the papers in my possession, it may be expected, perhaps, that I should say something,—­in addition to what has been already stated on this subject,—­respecting those Memoranda, or Memoirs, which, in the exercise of the discretionary power given to me by my noble friend, I placed, shortly after his death, at the disposal of his sister and executor, and which they, from a sense of what they thought due to his memory, consigned to the flames.  As the circumstances, however, connected with the surrender of that manuscript, besides requiring much more detail than my present limits allow, do not, in any respect, concern the character of Lord Byron, but affect solely my own, it is not here, at least, that I feel myself called upon to enter into an explanation of them.  The world will, of course, continue to think of that step as it pleases; but it is, after all, on a man’s own opinion of his actions that his happiness chiefly depends, and I can only say that, were I again placed in the same circumstances, I would—­even at ten times the pecuniary sacrifice which my conduct then cost me—­again act precisely in the same manner.

For the satisfaction of those whose regret at the loss of that manuscript arises from some better motive than the mere disappointment of a prurient curiosity, I shall here add, that on the mysterious cause of the separation, it afforded no light whatever;—­that, while some of its details could never have been published at all[1], and little, if any, of what it contained personal towards others could have appeared till long after the individuals concerned had left the scene, all that materially related to Lord Byron himself was (as I well knew when I made that sacrifice) to be found repeated in the various Journals and Memorandum-books, which, though not all to be made use of, were, as the reader has seen from the preceding pages, all preserved.

[Footnote 1:  This description applies only to the Second Part of the Memoranda; there having been but little unfit for publication in the First Part, which was, indeed, read, as is well known, by many of the noble author’s friends.]

As far as suppression, indeed, is blamable, I have had, in the course of this task, abundantly to answer for it; having, as the reader must have perceived, withheld a large portion of my materials, to which Lord Byron, no doubt, in his fearlessness of consequences, would have wished to give publicity, but which, it is now more than probable, will never meet the light.