On Immortality


Newstead Abbey

(Byron’s Home)


— Of the Immortality of the Soul
it appears to me
that there can be little doubt

— if we attend for a moment
to the action of
the Mind

I used to doubt it
— but reflection has taught me better

It acts also so independent of body
— in dreams for instance —
incoherently and madly I grant you
but it is still
Mind
& much more
Mind
— than when we are awake

Now that this
should not act
separately
— as well as
jointly
— who can pronounce?

How far our future life will be individual
— or rather —
how far it will at all resemble our present existence
is another question

But that the
Mind
is eternal
seems as possible
as that the body
is not so

A material resurrection
seems strange
and even absurd
except for purposes
of punishment

— and all punishment
which is to
revenge
rather than to
correct
— must be
morally wrong


ON VIOLENCE

Byron in
Military Uniform

ON IMMORTALITY

Newstead Abbey

ON PASSION

The Tempest
by Giorgione