Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.

Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.

O faithful conscience, delicately pure, how doth a little failing
wound thee sore!
[It., O dignitosa coscienza e read more

O faithful conscience, delicately pure, how doth a little failing
wound thee sore!
[It., O dignitosa coscienza e netta,
Come t' e picciol fallo amaro morso.]

But at sixteen the conscience rarely gnaws
So much, as when we call our old debts in
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But at sixteen the conscience rarely gnaws
So much, as when we call our old debts in
At sixty years, and draw the accounts of evil,
And find a deuced balance with the devil.

Whom conscience, ne'er asleep,
Wounds with incessant strokes, not loud, but deep.

Whom conscience, ne'er asleep,
Wounds with incessant strokes, not loud, but deep.

The Past lives o'er again,
In its effects, and to the guilty spirit
The ever-frowning Present is read more

The Past lives o'er again,
In its effects, and to the guilty spirit
The ever-frowning Present is its image.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

Oh! think what anxious moments pass between
The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods,
Oh! read more

Oh! think what anxious moments pass between
The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods,
Oh! 'tis a dreadful interval of time,
Filled up with horror all, and big with death!

Guilty consciences always make people cowards.

Guilty consciences always make people cowards.

Now conscience wakes despair
That slumber'd, wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what is, and read more

Now conscience wakes despair
That slumber'd, wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what is, and what must be
Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue!