247

Concluding Page of Lord Byron's "Observations

upon an Article in Blackwood's Magazine"

INDEX

249

DON JUAN.

CANTO THE ELEVENTH.

VOL. XVII.

B

3

DON JUAN.

CANTO THE ELEVENTH.

I.

WHEN Bishop Berkeley said "there was no matter," (1)
And proved it—'t was no matter what he said:
They say his system 'tis in vain to batter,

Too subtle for the airiest human head;
And yet who can believe it? I would shatter
Gladly all matters down to stone or lead,
Or adamant, to find the world a spirit,
And wear my head, denying that I wear it.

(1) [The celebrated and ingenious Bishop of Cloyne, in his " Principles of Human Knowledge," denies, without any ceremony, the existence of every kind of matter whatever; nor does he think this conclusion one that need, in any degree, stagger the incredulous. "Some truths there are," says he," so near and obvious to the mind, that a man need only open his eyes to see them. Such I take this important one to be, that all the choir of heaven, and furniture of earth,—in a word, all those bodies which compose the mighty frame of the world,— have not any subsistence without a mind." This deduction, however singular, was readily made from the theory of our perceptions laid down by Descartes and Mr. Locke, and at that time generally received in the world. According to that theory, we perceive nothing but ideas which are present in the mind, and which have no dependence whatever upon external things; so that we have no evidence of the existence of any thing external to our minds. Berkeley appears to have been altogether in earnest, in maintaining his scepticism concerning the existence of matter; and the more so, as he conceived this system to be highly favourable to the doctrines of religion, since it removed matter from the world, which had already been the strong hold of the atheists.SIR DAVID Brewster.]

II.

What a sublime discovery 'twas to make the

Universe universal egotism,

That all's ideal-all ourselves: I'll stake the

World (be it what you will) that that's no schism. Oh Doubt!—if thou be'st Doubt, for which some take thee,

But which I doubt extremely-thou sole prism Of the Truth's rays, spoil not my draught of spirit! Heaven's brandy, though our brain can hardly bear it.

III.

For ever and anon comes Indigestion,

(Not the most" dainty Ariel") (1) and perplexes
Our soarings with another sort of question:
And that which after all my spirit vexes,
Is, that I find no spot where man can rest eye on,
Without confusion of the sorts and sexes,

Of beings, stars, and this unriddled wonder,
The world, which at the worst's a glorious blunder -

IV.

If it be chance; or if it be according

To the old text, still better:-lest it should Turn out so, we'll say nothing 'gainst the wording, As several people think such hazards rude. They're right; our days are too brief for affording Space to dispute what no one ever could

Decide, and every body one day will

Know

very clearly—or at least lie still.

(1) ["Prosp. Why, that's my dainty Ariel: I shall miss thee; But yet thou shalt have freedom."— Tempest.]