26 J. Ü. E. Donner. 



nity is of no avait ; if tlmj cannot he saved without, why are not alt ortho- 

 dox? It is a little härd to send a man preachincj to Jiidaea, and leave the rest 

 of the World — niggers and tvhat not — dark as their coniplexions, tvithout 

 a ray of light for so many years to lead them on high; and îvho tvill helieve 

 that God will damn men for not hnowing what they were never taught?^) I 

 hope I am sincère; I ivas so at least on a hed of sichiess in a far distant 

 country, tvhen I had neither friend, nor comforter, nor hope, to sustain me. 

 I loohed to death as a relief from pain, imthout a wish for an after-life, 

 hut a confidence that the God who pimishes in this existence had left that last 

 asylwn for the iveary. — — — But 1 tvill say no more on this endless 

 themé; let me live, ivell if possible, and die withoid pain. TJie rest is with God, 

 who assuredly, had He come or sent, would have made Himself manifest to 

 nations, and intelligible to all. — Zehn Tage später, den 13. September 1811, 

 schreibt er gleichfalls an Hodgson: The basis of your religion is injustice; 

 the Son of God, the pure, the immaculate, the innocent, is sacrificed 

 for the guilty. This proves His heroism; hut no more does away man's 

 giiilt than a schoolhoy^s volimteering to be flogged for another would ex- 

 cidpate the dunce from négligence, or préserve him from the rod. You 

 dégrade the Creator, in the first place, hy malung Him a hegetter of 

 children; and in the next you, convert Him into a tyrant över an immaculate 

 and injured Being, who is sent into existence to siiffer death for the henefit 

 of some millions of scoundrels, who, after all, seem as likely to he damned as 



ever. — I do not believe in any revealed religion, because no religion 



is revealed;^) and if it pleases the church to damn me for not allowing a non- 

 entity^), I throtv myself on the mercy of the ^Great First Cause, least 

 under stood\ who must do ivhat is most proper; though I conceive He never 



') Mau kaun sich des Eindruckes nicht erwehren, dass Byron beim Schreiben dieses und des fol- 

 genden Briefes trotz aller Ungleichheit zum Theil ganz bestimmte Stelleu aus Eousseau vorgeschwebt 

 haben. In Emile, Amsterdam 1773, III 99 lesen wir: Qu'ont fait les femmes de cette partie du monde 

 pour qu'aucun Missionnaire ne puisse leur prêcher la Foi? Iront-elles toutes en enfer pour avoir été 

 recluses? Vgl. a. a. 0. III 81. 



') Vgl. Rousseau, a. a. 0. III 78: Les plus grandes idées de la Divinité nous viennent par la raison 

 seule. Voyez le spectacle de la Nature, écoutez la voix intérieure. Dieu n'a-t-il pas tout dit à uo.s 

 yeux, à notre conscience, à notre jugement? Qu'est-ce que les hommes nous diront de plus? Leurs ré- 

 vélations ne font que dégrader Dieu, en lui donnant les passions humaines. Loin d'êclaircir les notions 

 du grand Être, je vois que les dogmes particuliers les embrouillent; . . . 



^) Byron hat sich in den von mir ausgelassenen Zeilen im Anschluss an Hume gegen das Wun- 

 der erklärt. 



