Bruno, the
physician, and Gamba, are busy, reading some of the Italian tracts;
and I hope it will have a good effect on them. The former is rather
too decided against it at present; and too much engaged with a spirit
of enthusiasm for his own profession, to attend to other subjects;
but we must have patience, and we shall see what has been the result.
I do not fail to read, from time to time, my Bible, though not,
perhaps, so much as I should."

"Have you begun to pray that you may understand it?"

"Not yet. I have not arrived at that pitch of faith yet; but it may
come by-and-by. You are in too great a hurry."

His Lordship then went to a side-table, on which a great number of
books were ranged; and, taking hold of an octavo, gave it to the
doctor. It was Illustrations of the Moral Government of God, by E.
Smith, M.D., London. "The author," said he, "proves that the
punishment of hell is not eternal; it will have a termination."

"The author," replied the doctor, "is, I suppose, one of the
Socinians; who, in a short time, will try to get rid of every
doctrine in the Bible. How did your Lordship get hold of this book?"

"They sent it out to me from England, to make a convert of me, I
suppose. The arguments are strong, drawn from the Bible itself; and
by showing that a time will come when every intelligent creature
shall be supremely happy, and eternally so, it expunges that shocking
doctrine, that sin and misery will for ever exist under the
government of God, Whose highest attribute is love and goodness. To
my present apprehension, it would be a most desirable thing, could it
be proved that, alternately, all created beings were to be happy.
This would appear to be most consistent with the nature of God.--I
cannot yield to your doctrine of the eternal duration of punishment.-
-This author's opinion is more humane; and, I think, he supports it
very strongly from Scripture."

The fourth conversation was still more desultory, being carried on at
table amid company; in the course of it Lord Byron, however, declared
"that he was so much of a believer as to be of opinion that there is
no contradiction in the Scriptures which cannot be reconciled by an
attentive consideration and comparison of passages."

It is needless to remark that Lord Byron, in the course of these
conversations, was incapable of preserving a consistent seriousness.
The volatility of his humour was constantly leading him into
playfulness,