proportion. The real state of the case can only be known at the last day; but taking in view the vast variety of means constantly in action for the teaching and diffusion of Christianity, it was reasonable to suppose, that a very great proportion of those to whom it is addressed, especially in the middling and lower ranks of life, with which his lordship was least conversant, received it; and the number we know will increase, for there are mighty engines at work, which, by the blessing of God, will beat down every obstacle, and renovate the face of the world. The progress of Christianity," I added, "is now so rapid, or at least of so sensible a nature, that it necessarily attracts the attention of all men, more or less; nor is it a matter of surprise that its enemies, from vanity and a desire to display their talents, should endeavour to check its progress by their writings. The young, the vain, and the ignorant, adopt and retail the paltry, and sophistical, and false reasonings of Deists, or Socinians, not so much from conviction as from a desire to shew that they are emancipated from the prejudices of the nursery; and there are many young men, who, in the delusion of youthful vanity, actually think that they are no common philosophers, if they adopt and repeat the objections of Hume and Voltaire.".

"But since we have spoken of witches," said Lord Byron, "what think you of the witch of Endor? I have always thought this the finest and most finished witch-scene that ever was written or conceived, and you will be of my opinion, if you consider all the circumstances and the actors in the case, together with the gravity, simplicity, and dignity of the language. It beats all the ghost-scenes I ever read. The finest conception on a similar subject is that of Goethe's Devil, Mephistopheles; and though of course you will give the priority to the former, as being inspired, yet the latter, if you know it, will appear to you at least it does to me-one of the finest and most sublime specimens of human conception."

I smiled at the singular associations which brought such subjects together in Lord B.'s mind. I said, I agreed with him as to the first, though I had not before considered it in a poetical point of view; but the grandeur of the circumstances readily struck me, when he pointed them out to me, but I was not able to judge of the latter, as it was some time since I had looked at Madame de

Staël's work on Germany, where an abstract is given, and copious extracts are made from the work. "The authoress praises it in very high terms; but," I said, "whether owing to want of taste or something else, I had never met with any conception of angels, whether good or bad, or devils, or witches, which conveyed an idea sufficiently high of the goodness of the one class, or of the wickedness of the other. Milton," I said,

appears to me completely to fail in his angels. His good angels are very good, but they are a little insipid, and the bad angels excite more sympathy and less terror than perhaps he intended. The only fine conception of its kind is the Diable boiteaux, at least it seems to me more original than any other sketch of a devil which I have

seen."

"to

"Do you very much admire Milton?" asked Lord B. "It would be heresy," I replied, say that I do not admire Milton, and in sober earnestness I admire his talents as a poet, but I have no pleasure in the greater part of his Paradise Lost. The weakness of fiction is strikingly manifest to him who knows the simple majesty of divine truth, and he who is much impressed with the latter can have no enjoyment in seeing it

rendered subservient to fiction." "I do not so greatly admire Milton myself," said Lord B.;

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nor do I admire Cowper, whom so many people praise." "Cowper happens to be my favourite among the poets," I said, "and he is so with a large class of people, and will continue to be so, in proportion as real Christianity spreads, for he has more of moral and divine truth in his poems than any other poet of his rank and poetical abilities. My habits and studies do not lead me to read much poetry, and I am probably a very incompetent judge; but, like many others, I have read Cowper twice or thrice, and may read him oftener, but though I have more than once resolved to read Milton, I have never fairly read him twice, but tired after reading different passages."

"I

"Do you admire Shakspeare?" enquired Lord B. " By no means to that extent which is generally done." " Neither do I," said his lordship. lately met with an invective in the Eclectic Review against our poets in general, and in particular against Shakspeare, in which the critic, with that sternness and intrepidity of mind which brings to remembrance the magnanimity of the Puritans, accuses all the poets of having done little good in their generation to the cause of virtue and religion; that their writings leave us nothing to admire, except the mere eloquence and force of poetry, as their sentiments are often vicious, licentious, and immoral; and with regard to Shakspeare the admiration of the English for him, whether real or affected, approached to idolatry."

"I was pleased," I added, " at the earnest and manly tone of the Reviewers, so different from the insipidity and common-place style of many of that fraternity in modern times, although the passage was extracted in another Review as a proof of modern fanaticism."

"Pope," said Lord B., " is undoubtedly one of the greatest of the English poets, and his merits are little understood by many." I replied that he was certainly one of the best versifiers in the language, but he was not a particular favourite of mine from his vanity, and from the attacks which he had made on many of his friends: neither had he clear views of religion.

"But," said Lord Byron, " if you read Spence's Anecdotes, you will find Pope's character placed in a clearer and more correct point of view than is often done, and that as a friend, as a son, and