ed, "What we want is, to be convinced that the Bible is true;
because if we can believe that, it will follow as a matter of course,
that we must believe all the doctrines it contains."

The reply to this was to the effect, that the observation was partly
just; but though the strongest evidence were produced of the
Scriptures being the revealed will of God, they (his Lordship and
others present) would still remain unbelievers, unless they knew and
comprehended the doctrines contained in the Scriptures. This was not
conclusive, and Lord Byron replied, that they wished him to prove
that the Scriptures were the Word of God, which the doctor, with more
than apostolic simplicity, said that such was his object, but he
should like to know what they deemed the clearest course to follow
with that object in view. After some farther conversation--"No other
plan was proposed by them," says the doctor; and he adds, "they had
violated their engagement to hear me for twelve hours, for which I
had stipulated." This may, perhaps, satisfy the reader as to the
quality of the doctor's understanding; but as the subject, in its
bearing, touches Lord Byron's character, I shall proceed a little
farther into the marrow of the matter.

The inculcation being finished for that evening, Lord Byron said,
that when he was young his mother brought him up strictly; and that
he had access to a great many theological works, and remembered that
he was particularly pleased with Barrow's writings, and that he also
went regularly to church. He declared that he was not an infidel,
who denied the Scriptures and wished to remain in unbelief; on the
contrary, he was desirous to believe, as he experienced no happiness
in having his religious opinions so unsteady and unfixed. But he
could not, he added, understand the Scriptures. "Those people who
conscientiously believe, I always have respected, and was always
disposed to trust in them more than in others." A desultory
conversation then ensued, respecting the language and translations of
the Scriptures; in the course of which his Lordship remarked, that
Scott, in his Commentary on the Bible, did not say that it was the
devil who tempted Eve, nor does the Bible say a word about the devil.
It is only said that the serpent spoke, and that it was the subtlest
of all the beasts of the field.--Will it be said that truth and
reason were served by Dr Kennedy's {319} answer? "As beasts have not
the faculty of spe