Yet, to this readiness in reflecting all hues, whether of the shadows or lights of our variegated existence, Lord Byron owed his personal fascination.  His social intercourse was perfectly charming, because whoever was with him occupied for the moment all his thoughts and feelings.  Even with the casual acquaintance of the hour his heart was on his lips, ready to give away every secret of his life.

To my assertion that “at no time of his life was Lord Byron a confirmed unbeliever” it has been objected that his writings prove the direct contrary.  But this is to confuse the words “unbeliever” and “sceptic,” the former of which implies decision of opinion, and the latter only doubt.  Many passages in his “Journal” show doubt strongly inclined to belief.  “Of the immortality of the soul it appears to me there can be little doubt.”  “I have often been inclined to materialism in philosophy, but could never bear its introduction into Christianity, which appears to me essentially founded upon the soul.”  Here are doubt and unrest, but not unbelief.

And so I conclude my labours, undertaken at the wish of my friend, and leave his character to the judgement of the world.  Let it be remembered that through life, with all his faults, he never lost a friend; that those about him in his youth, whether as companions, teachers, or servants, remained attached to him to the last; that the woman to whom he gave the love of his maturer years idolises his name; and that, with a single unhappy exception, those who were brought into relations of amity with him have felt towards him a kind regard in life, and retain a fondness for his memory.

* * * * *

JAMES COTTER MORISON

Life and Times of St. Bernard

James Augustus Cotter Morison, English essayist and historian, was born in London on April 20, 1832, and was the son of the inventor and proprietor of “Morison’s Pills.”  His first years were spent in Paris, where he laid the foundation of his intimate knowledge of the French people.  After graduating at Oxford, he wrote for the “Saturday Review” and other papers, and in 1863 brought out his “Life and Times of Saint Bernard.”  His other chief work is entitled “The Service of Man:  an Essay towards the Religion of the Future,” published in 1886.  He had projected an historical study of France under Louis XIV., but never completed it.  He died on February 26, 1888.  Morison was a Positivist, and had many friends in that group, and his rich mind and genial temper endeared him to several of the leading literary men of his time, such as George Meredith, Mark Pattison and Matthew Arnold.

I.—­The Early Days of a Useful Life

Saint Bernard was born in 1091, and died in 1153.  His life thus almost coincides with the central portion of the Middle Ages.  He saw the First and Second Crusades, the rising liberties of the communes, and the beginnings of scholasticism under Abelard.  A large Church reformation and the noblest period of monasticism occurred in his day, and received deep marks of his genius.