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.

Guilty consciences always make people cowards.

Guilty consciences always make people cowards.

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.]

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!

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.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking.

Nothing makes one so vain as being told one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all.

Nothing makes one so vain as being told one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all.

Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength to
prevent, it seldom has justice enough to read more

Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength to
prevent, it seldom has justice enough to accuse.

The person that loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.

The person that loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.