We may take for granted that these Conversations,—­more especially the first, from the number of persons present who would report the proceedings,—­excited considerable interest among the society of Argostoli.  It was said that Lord Byron had displayed such a profound knowledge of the Scriptures as astonished, and even puzzled, the polemic Doctor; while in all the eminent writers on theological subjects he had shown himself far better versed than his more pretending opponent.  All this Dr. Kennedy strongly denies; and the truth seems to be, that on neither side were there much stores of theological learning.  The confession of the lecturer himself, that he had not read the works of Stillingfleet or Barrow, shows that, in his researches after orthodoxy, he had not allowed himself any very extensive range; while the alleged familiarity of Lord Byron with the same authorities must be taken with a similar abatement of credence and wonder to that which his own account of his youthful studies, already given, requires;—­a rapid eye and retentive memory having enabled him, on this as on most other subjects, to catch, as it were, the salient points on the surface of knowledge, and the recollections he thus gathered being, perhaps, the livelier from his not having encumbered himself with more.  To any regular train of reasoning, even on this his most favourite topic, it was not possible to lead him.  He would start objections to the arguments of others, and detect their fallacies; but of any consecutive ratiocination on his own side he seemed, if not incapable, impatient.  In this, indeed, as in many other peculiarities belonging to him,—­his caprices, fits of weeping, sudden affections and dislikes,—­may be observed striking traces of a feminine cast of character;—­it being observable that the discursive faculty is rarely exercised by women; but that nevertheless, by the mere instinct of truth (as was the case with Lord Byron), they are often enabled at once to light upon the very conclusion to which man, through all the forms of reasoning, is, in the mean time, puzzling, and, perhaps, losing his way:—­

  “And strikes each point with native force of mind,
  While puzzled logic blunders far behind.”

Of the Scriptures, it is certain that Lord Byron was a frequent and almost daily reader,—­the small pocket Bible which, on his leaving England, had been given him by his sister, being always near him.  How much, in addition to his natural solicitude on the subject of religion, the taste of the poet influenced him in this line of study, may be seen in his frequently expressed admiration of “the ghost-scene,” as he called it, in Samuel, and his comparison of this supernatural appearance with the Mephistopheles of Goethe.  In the same manner, his imagination appears to have been much struck by the notion of his lecturer, that the circumstance mentioned in Job of the Almighty summoning Satan into his presence was to be interpreted, not, as he thought, allegorically and poetically, but literally.  More than once we find him expressing to Dr. Kennedy “how much this belief of the real appearance of Satan to hear and obey the commands of God added to his views of the grandeur and majesty of the Creator.”