“The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul.”
“Every man’s conscience is a thousand swords
To fight against that bloody homicide.”
“I’ll haunt thee, like a wicked conscience still,
That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy thought.”
“Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all.”
In some degree allied to the power of conscience is the retribution for sin ordained by the Divine Wisdom. We have not an Emblem to present in illustration, but the lines from King Lear (act v. sc. 3. l. 171, vol. viii. p. 416),—
“The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us,”—
are so co-incident with a sentiment in the Confessions (bk. i. c. 12, § 19) of the great Augustine that they deserve at least to be set in juxta-position. The Bishop is addressing the Supreme in prayer, and naming the sins and follies of his youth, says,—