Part 25 (1/2)

The whole tone of this letter shows not only that Lady Byron never lost her deep interest in her husband, but that it was by this experience that all her religious ideas were modified There is another of these letters in which she thus speaks of her husband's writings and character:--

'The author of the article on ”Goethe” appears to me to have the mind which could dispel the illusion about another poet, without depreciating his claiht to distinguish between the holy and the unholy in that spirit? to prove, by the very degradation of the one, how high the other was A character is never done justice to by extenuating its faults: so I do not agree to nisi bonue'

These letters show that Lady Byron's idea was that, even were the whole mournful truth about Lord Byron fully told, there was still a foundation left for pity and mercy She seems to have remembered, that if his sins were peculiar, so also were his teather up, and set in order in her reat ruin Probably no English writer that ever has h Lady Byron was not a poet par excellence, yet she belonged to an order of souls fully equal to Lord Byron Hers was more the analytical mind of the philosopher than the creative mind of the poet; and it was, for that reason, the onehiland had a enius, in its loftier acceptation, than Lady Byron; and none more completely sympathised as pure and exalted in her husband's writings

There is this peculiarity in Lord Byron, that the pure and the i,--as one may see at Geneva the muddy streaether unher and tenderer ladiator, in 'Childe Harold'? What is our of the old Hebrew Scriptures than his thunderstorm in the Alps? What can hest kind than the exquisite descriptions of Aurora Raby,--pure and high in thought and language, occurring, as they do, in a work full of the most utter vileness?

Lady Byron's hopes for her husband fastened the in that shattered temple of his mind which lay blackened and thunder-riven; and she looked forward to a sphere beyond this earth, where infinite ain to syret this as an undue latitude of charity, let it at least be re from a Christian virtue, and which she extended to every hu, however lost, however low In her view, the mercy which took him was mercy that could restore all

In my recollections of the intervieith Lady Byron, when this whole history was presented, I can re that I contemplated the story, as one looks on some awful, inexplicable ruin

The last letter which I addressed to Lady Byron upon this subject will show that such was the impression of the whole interview It was in reply to the one written on the death of my son:--

'Jan 30, 1858

'MY DEAR FRIEND,--I did long to hear from you at a time when fe to speak, because I knew that you had known everything that sorrow can teach,--you, whose whole life has been a crucifixion, a long ordeal

'But I believe that the Lamb, who stands for ever ”in the midst of the throne, as it had been slain,” has everywhere His followers,--those who seem sent into the world, as He was, to suffer for the redemption of others; and, like Hi others

'I often think that God called you to this beautiful and terrible ministry when He suffered you to link your destiny with one so strangely gifted and so fearfully tempted Perhaps the reward that is to meet you when you enter within the veil where you must so soon pass will be to see that spirit, once chained and defiled, set free and purified; and to know that to you it has been given, by your life of love and faith, to accoly on the subject on which you conversed with me once,--the future state of retribution It is evident to me that the spirit of Christianity has produced in the human spirit a tenderness of love which wholly revolts from the old doctrine on this subject; and I observe, that, the more Christ-like anyone becomes, the more difficult it seems for them to accept it as hitherto presented And yet, on the contrary, it was Christ who said, ”Fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell;” and the e is that of Christ himself

'Certain ideas, once prevalent, certainly must be thrown off An endless infliction for past sins was once the doctrine: thatgenerally reject The doctrine now generally taught is, that an eternal persistence in evil necessitates everlasting suffering, since evil induces s; and this, I fear, is inferable froies of Nature, and confirmed by the whole iiven to this subject? and is there any fair way of disposing of the current of assertion, and the still deeper under-current of i one which loosens all faith in revelation, and throws us on pure naturalis I always feel sure: probation does not end with this present life; and the nureater than the world's history leads us to suppose

'I think the Bible iony, in which God and Christ and all the good are engaged in redee from sin; and we are not to suppose that the little portion that is done for souls as they pass between the two doors of birth and death is all

'The Bible is certainly silent there The primitive Church believed in the mercies of an intermediate state; and it was only the abuse of it by Romanism that drove the Church into its present position, which, I think, is wholly indefensible, and wholly irreconcilable with the spirit of Christ For if it were the case, that probation in all cases begins and ends here, God's example would surely be one that could not be followed, and He would sees in efforts to save

'Nothing is plainer than that it would be wrong to give up anyhad been done for its recovery; and that is so clearly not the case here, that I can see that, with thoughtful ious faith in God: for there is a difference between facts that we do not understand, and facts which we do understand, and perceive to be wholly irreconcilable with a certain character professed by God

'If God says He is love, and certain ways of explaining Scriptureand patient than man, then we e of Scripture lie in Peter certainly unequivocally asserts that Christ preached to the spirits in prison while His body lay in the grave, I am clear upon this point

'But it is also clear, that if there be those who persist in refusing God's love, who choose to dash theainst the inflexible laws of the universe, such souls must for ever suffer