Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to R. C. Dallas, 21 January 1808
“Dorant’s, January 21st, 1808.
“SIR,
“Whenever leisure and inclination permit me the pleasure of a
visit, I shall feel truly gratified in a personal acquaintance with one whose mind has
been long known to me in his writings.
“You are so far correct in your conjecture, that I am a
member of the University of Cambridge, where I shall take my degree of A. M. this term;
but were reasoning, eloquence, or virtue, the objects of my search, Granta is not their
metropolis, nor is the place of her situation an ‘El Dorado,’ far less an
Utopia. The intellects of her children are as stagnant as her Cam, and their pursuits
limited to the church—not of Christ, but of the nearest benefice.
“As to my reading, I believe I may aver, without hyperbole,
it has been tolerably extensive in the historical; so that few nations exist, or have
existed, with whose records I am not in some degree acquainted, from Herodotus down to Gibbon. Of the classics, I know about as much as most schoolboys after a
discipline of thirteen years; of the law of the land as much as enables me to keep
‘within the statute’—to use the poacher’s vocabulary. I did study the
‘Spirit of Laws’ and
the Law of Nations; but when I saw the latter violated every month, I gave up my
attempts at so useless an accomplishment;—of geography, I have seen more land on maps
than I should wish to traverse on foot;—of mathematics, enough to give me the headache
without clearing the part affected;—of philosophy, astronomy, and metaphysics, more than
I can comprehend*; and of common sense so little, that I mean to leave a Byronian prize
at each of our ‘Almæ Matres’ for the first discovery,—though I rather fear
that of the Longitude will precede it.
“I once thought myself a philosopher, and talked nonsense
with
* He appears to have had in his memory Voltaire’s lively account of Zadig’s learning:— “Il savait de
La métaphysique ce qu’on en a su dans tous les âges,—c’est à
dire, fort peu de chose,” &c. |
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| A. D. 1807. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 135 |
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great decorum: I defied pain, and preached up equanimity.
For some time this did very well, for no one was in pain for me but my friends, and none
lost their patience but my hearers. At last, a fall from my horse convinced me bodily
suffering was an evil; and the worst of an argument overset my maxims and my temper at
the same moment, so I quitted Zeno for Aristippus, and conceive that pleasure constitutes the
το καλον. In morality, I prefer
Confucius to the Ten Commandments, and Socrates to St. Paul, though the two
latter agree in their opinion of marriage. In religion, I favour the Catholic
emancipation, but do not acknowledge the Pope; and I have refused to take the Sacrament,
because I do not think eating bread or drinking wine from the hand of an earthly vicar
will make me an inheritor of heaven. I hold virtue in general, or the virtues severally,
to be only in the disposition, each a feeling, not a principle*. I believe truth the
prime attribute of the Deity; and death an eternal sleep, at least of the body. You have
here a brief compendium of the sentiments of the wicked George Lord
Byron; and, till I get a new suit, you will perceive I am badly clothed. I
remain,’ &c.
Aristippus (435 BC c.-356 BC)
A disciple of Socrates whose works have been lost; he was noted for his epicurean
voluptuousness.
Robert Charles Dallas (1754-1824)
English poet, novelist, and translator who corresponded with Byron. His sister Charlotte
Henrietta Dallas (d. 1793) married Captain George Anson Byron (1758-1793); their son George
Anson Byron (1789-1868) inherited Byron's title in 1824.
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
Author of
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(1776-1788).
Herodotus (484 BC c.-425 BC c.)
Greek historian, author of
Histories of the Persian Wars, called
by Cicero “the founder of history.”
St Paul (5 c.-67 c.)
Apostle to the Gentiles.
Socrates (469 BC-399 BC)
Athenian philosopher whose teachings were recorded by Plato and Xenophon.
Voltaire (1694-1778)
French historian and man of letters; author of, among many other works,
The Age of Louis XIV (1751) and
Candide (1759).
Zeno of Elea (490 BC c.-430 BC c.)
Greek philosopher famous for his paradoxes; he was described by Aristotle as the founder
of dialectic.
