In the mean time the materials for the first number of The Liberal had been transmitted to London, where the manuscript of The Vision of Judgment was already, and something of its quality known.  All his Lordship’s friends were disturbed at the idea of the publication.  They did not like the connection he had formed with Mr Shelley—they liked still less the copartnery with Mr Hunt.  With the justice or injustice of these dislikes I have nothing to do.  It is an historical fact that they existed, and became motives with those who deemed themselves the custodiers of his Lordship’s fame, to seek a dissolution of the association.

The first number of The Liberal, containing The Vision of Judgment, was received soon after the copartnery had established themselves at Genoa, accompanied with hopes and fears.  Much good could not be anticipated from a work which outraged the loyal and decorous sentiments of the nation towards the memory of George III.  To the second number Lord Byron contributed the Heaven and Earth, a sacred drama, which has been much misrepresented in consequence of its fraternity with Don Juan and The Vision of Judgment; for it contains no expression to which religion can object, nor breathes a thought at variance with the Genesis.  The history of literature affords no instance of a condemnation less justifiable, on the plea of profanity, than that of this Mystery.  That it abounds in literary blemishes, both of plan and language, and that there are harsh jangles and discords in the verse, is not disputed; but still it abounds in a grave patriarchal spirit, and is echo to the oracles of Adam and Melchisedek.  It may not be worthy of Lord Byron’s genius, but it does him no dishonour, and contains passages which accord with the solemn diapasons of ancient devotion.  The disgust which The Vision of Judgment had produced, rendered it easy to persuade the world that there was impiety in the Heaven and Earth, although, in point of fact, it may be described as hallowed with the Scriptural theology of Milton.  The objections to its literary defects were magnified into sins against worship and religion.