Note 119 — Front matter (continued 2)
Reading edition
"I have bought a pocket Milton, which I carry perpetually about me, in order to study the sentiments, the dauntless magnanimity, the intrepid unyielding independence, the desperate daring, and noble defiance of hardship in that great personage—Satan."—Letter of Burns, quoted in Lockhart, chap. vi.
Bitter epigrams like this on Byron become a characteristic of Carlyle's style in his later writings.