_Lines on the Bible_ (Vol. iv., p. 473. Vol. v., p. 66.).--It has been
already shown that these lines are _not_ Byron's, but are to be found in
the 12th chapter of Sir W. Scott's _Monastery_. I write now for the
purpose of noting, that in a similar collection, almost exclusively of
the Evangelical school, called _Sacred Poetry_, and published by
Oliphant of (I think) Edinburgh, Byron's lines from _The Giaour_,
beginning--
"Yes! Love indeed is light from heaven;
A spark of that immortal fire,
With angels shared, by _Allah_ given,
To lift from Earth each low desire," &c.--
are printed with the "Allah" of the third line simply changed into
"Jesus!" And so a passage, applicable solely to the earthly Eros, is
made to do duty as descriptive of another love of which the noble poet
had, I fear, remarkably little notion. The editors have had the grace
not to append Byron's name as the author. How far is this mode of
"improving" a passage honest?