e very conclusion to which man,
through all the forms of reasoning, is, in the mean time, puzzling,
and, perhaps, losing his way:--

"And strikes each point with native force of mind,
While puzzled logic blunders far behind."

Of the Scriptures, it is certain that Lord Byron was a frequent and
almost daily reader,--the small pocket Bible which, on his leaving
England, had been given him by his sister, being always near him. How
much, in addition to his natural solicitude on the subject of
religion, the taste of the poet influenced him in this line of study,
may be seen in his frequently expressed admiration of "the
ghost-scene," as he called it, in Samuel, and his comparison of this
supernatural appearance with the Mephistopheles of Goethe. In the
same manner, his imagination appears to have been much struck by the
notion of his lecturer, that the circumstance mentioned in Job of the
Almighty summoning Satan into his presence was to be interpreted,
not, as he thought, allegorically and poetically, but literally. More
than once we find him expressing to Dr. Kennedy "how much this belief
of the real appearance of Satan to hear and obey the commands of God
added to his views of the grandeur and majesty of the Creator."

On the whole, the interest of these Conversations, as far as regards
Lord Byron, arises not so much from any new or certain lights they
supply us with on the subject of his religious opinions, as from the
evidence they afford of his amiable facility of intercourse, the
total absence of bigotry or prejudice from even his most favourite
notions, and--what may be accounted, perhaps, the next step in
conversion to belief itself--his disposition to believe. As far,
indeed, as a frank submission to the charge of being wrong may be
supposed to imply an advance on the road to being right, few persons,
it must be acknowledged, under a process of proselytism, ever showed
more of this desired symptom of change than Lord Byron. "I own," says
a witness to one of these conversations[1], "I felt astonished to
hear Lord Byron submit to lectures on his life, his vanity, and the
uselessness of his talents, which made me stare."

[Footnote 1: Mr. Finlay.]

As most persons will be tempted to refer to the work itself, there
are but one or two other opinions of his Lordship recorded in it
which I shall think necessary to notice here. A frequent question of
his to Dr. Kennedy was,--"What, then, you think me in a very ba