less liable to objections of every kind. It has always appeared to me that the moral defect in Italy does not proceed from a conventual training,—because, to my certain knowledge, girls come out of their convents innocent, even to ignorance, of moral evil;—but to the society into which they are plunged directly on coming out of it. It is like educating an infant on a mountain top, and then taking him to the sea, and throwing him into it, and desiring him to swim."
Other letters to Mr. Hoppner, to Shelley, and to Moore are equally practical and explicit. Byron writes that he has regular reports of Allegra's health; that she has mastered her alphabet; that he is having her reared a Catholic, "so that she may have her hands full;" that he meditates increasing her dowry, "if I live, and she is correct in her conduct;" that he thinks a Swiss gentleman might make her a better husband than an Italian. Pamela the virtuous was not more set upon her own "marriage lines" than was Lord Byron upon his daughter's. Respectability was the golden boon he coveted for the poor little pledge of an
