The life of Shelley lies world’s apart from that of Byron. His treatment of Harriet apart, his private life was not vicious, but on the contrary in many respects exemplary. As far as the ideas, which he sang, were capable of application to life, he applied them in his own conduct. “He preached the equality of man and he proved that he was willing to practice it. He was generous and benevolent to fault.”
Nothing can surpass Shelley’s poetic description of himself in Adonais, as a ‘frail form,’ ‘a phantom among men,’ ‘companion-less’ as ‘the last cloud of an expiring storm,——
A pard-like Spirit beautiful and swift,—A love in desolation masked,— a Power
Girt round with weakness; it can scarce uplift
The weight of the superincumbent hour,
It is a dying lamp, a falling shower;
A breaking billow;