Thriving guilt is haunted. As if to mock

Its rise, is hurled from the Tarpeian rock,

Shivers in dungeons, is scourged, branded, all

To stamp sin’s end, and emphasize pride’s fall.

If Justice often lags, alas, to find

Fit chastisement for crime, and may seem blind,

Conscience is keener-sighted; and its goad

And whip spare not; no mercy for the load.

How cheered would be the sinner could he think

Dying cleared accounts; he had but to sink