But, at a riper
age, these consequences are, in general, more cautiously weighed. The
infidel, if at all considerate of the happiness of others, will
naturally pause before he chases from their hearts a hope of which his
own feels the want so desolately. If regardful only of himself, he
will no less naturally shrink from the promulgation of opinions which,
in no age, have men uttered with impunity. In either case there is a
tolerably good security for his silence;--for, should benevolence not
restrain him from making converts of others, prudence may, at least,
prevent him from making a martyr of himself.
Unfortunately, Lord Byron was an exception to the usual course of such
lapses. With him, the canker showed itself "in the morn and dew of
youth," when the effect of such "blastments" is, for every reason,
most fatal,--and, in addition to the real misfortune of being an
unbeliever at any age, he exhibited the rare and melancholy spectacle
of an unbelieving schoolboy. The same prematurity of developement
which brought his passions and genius so early into action, enabled
him also to anticipate this worst, dreariest result of reason; and at
the very time of life when a spirit and temperament like his most
required control, those checks, which religious pre-possessions best
supply, were almost wholly wanting.
We have seen, in those two Addresses to the Deity which I have
selected from among his unpublished poems, and still more strongly in
a passage of the Catalogue of his studies, at what a boyish age the
authority of all systems and sects was avowedly shaken off by his
enquiring spirit.
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