The Young Gentleman and Lady's Monitor, and English Teacher's Assistant / Being a collection of select pieces from our best modern writers, calculated to eradicate vulgar prejudices and rusticity of manners, improve the understanding, rectify the will, purify the passions, direct the minds of youth to the pursuit of proper objects, and to facilitate their reading, writing, and speaking the English language with elegance and propriety

by John Hamilton Moore

REMORSE AND DESPAIR.

Henceforth, let no man trust the first false step
Of guilt. It hangs upon a precipice,
Whose deep descent in last perdition ends.
How far am I plung'd down, beyond all thought
Which I this evening fram'd—
Consummate horror! guilt beyond, a name!—
Dare not, my soul, repent. In thee, repentance
Were second guilt; and 'twere blaspheming Heav'n
To hope for mercy. My pain can only cease
When gods want power to punish.—Ha!—the dawn—
Rise never more, O fun!—let night prevail:
Eternal darkness close the world's wide scene—
And hide me from myself.