LORD  BYRON  and  his  TIMES
Byron
Documents Biography Criticism
Conversations on Religion, with Lord Byron
James Kennedy to W. de la C., Esq., March 1824
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Preface
Prelude
First Conversation
Kennedy on Scripture
Second Conversation
Third Conversation
Fourth Conversation
Fifth Conversation
Memoir of Byron
Byron’s Character
Appendix
Notes
Memorandum
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March, 1824.

“I had promised to say much about Lord Byron, which, however, I must avoid for the present. You will the less regret this, if you are still in Malta when S., the bearer of this, arrives, as he was present at one or two interviews which I had with Lord B. . . Of Byron I augur favourably. I have received two letters from him since his departure, and two or three from Gamba, written at his lordship’s request. Lord B.’s is a curious character; I do not think it is generally clearly understood. I will not affirm that I have succeeded in unravelling it, but I certainly view it in a different light from that through which many persons contemplate it. I think much more highly of him in some respects, and less
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of him in others, than most people seem to do; but, in judging of a man who speaks, writes, and acts as he does—for effect, it must be allowed that there is plenty of room for the phantasies of the imagination, when we attempt to scrutinize his motives. It would be well for him if he were surrounded by people of good principle and conduct,—for though he may naturally despise them all, yet the greatest mind is more or less affected by the society it keeps, even when it is the regulator and master-spirit of the whole. Good society produces a thousand good impressions at those moments when the mind is tranquil, and when the passions and the prejudices are not in immediate sway; and as this is the case with respect to all sorts of knowledge, so it is more directly the case with respect to religious knowledge. It is a blessing of heaven, therefore, for any one to be placed in a Christian, well principled, and moral society:—it is the reverse to be placed in contrary circumstances.”