Conscience within still kept assize,
To punish and deter impieties:
That inbred judge such strict inspection bore,
So traversed all thy actions o'er,
The Eternal Judge could scarce do more:
Those little escapades of vice,
Which pass the cognizance of most,
In the crowd of following sins forgot and lost,
Could ne'er its sentence or arraignment miss:
Thou didst prevent the young desires of ill,
And them in their first motions kill:
The very thoughts, in others unconfined
And lawless as the wind,
Thou couldst to rule and order bind;
They durst not any stamp but that of virtue bear,
And free from stain, as thy most public actions, were.
Let wild debauchees hug their darling vice,
And court no other paradise,
Till want of power
Bids them discard the stale amour,
And when disabled strength shall force
A short divorce,
Miscall that weak forbearance abstinence,
Which wise morality, and better sense,
Styles but, at best, a sneaking impotence.
Thine a far nobler pitch did fly,
'Twas all free choice, nought of necessity.
Thou didst that puny soul disdain
Whose half-strain virtue only can restrain;
Nor wouldst that empty being own,
Which springs from negatives alone,
But truly thoughtst it always virtue's skeleton.
30
Who virtue only for its dowry love;
Unbribed thou didst her sterling self espouse,
Nor wouldst a better mistress choose.
