[Page 92]

ODE TO CONSCIENCE.

TO MRS. YEARSLEY
* This celebrated poetess, this sensible woman, denies the existence of conscience.
.

1 FOR ever hail thou great celestial pow'r,
2 To whom belongs the subject earth;
3 Thou dread companion of the lonely hour,
4 Who claim'st with man coeval birth!
5 To curb the passions as they rise,
6 To fix our hopes beyond the skies;
7 To thee, dread monarch of the mind,
8 Has Nature's God this solemn trust consign'd.
9 At night's still hour, when guiltless bosoms know,
10 The joys that blissful dreams bestow;
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11 O! hither call that solemn tribe
12 Of days, of years, now long o'erpast;
13 Whose voice not Eastern wealth can bribe,
14 Whilst shrinks the soul through fear aghast,
15 With accent deep as midnight knell
16 Each impious deed let Mem'ry tell;
17 And trembling guilt appall'd shall hear,
18 The twofold voice of Conscience and of Fear.
19 On the raven's boding wing,
20 From the dark domain of woe,
21 Where the streams of sorrow flow
22 Hither all thy terrors bring;
23 Of murther'd ghosts,
24 By vengeance led,
25 Let countless hosts
26 Surround the bed.
27 Where, terror struck, thy frantic victim lies,
28 And for each death he gave, a thousand dies.
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29 Let horror paint that vengeful hour,
30 When stern Eliza felt thy pow'r.
31 Beside whose dying couch was seen
32 The ghost of Scotia's murther'd queen;
33 And where distain'd with blood
34 The injur'd Essex stood,
35 Pointing to that distant shore
36 Where the tyrant reigns no more;
37 Whilst furies stern their gloomy torches wave,
38 And sink her, trembling, to a hopeless grave.

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Title (in Source Edition): ODE TO CONSCIENCE. TO MRS. YEARSLEY.
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Genres: ode

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Berkeley, George Monck, 1763-1793. Poems: by the late George-Monck Berkeley, Esq. ... With a preface by the editor, consisting of some anecdotes of Mr. Monck Berkeley and several of his friends. London: printed by J. Nichols; and sold by Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby; Mr. Edwards; Mr. Cooke, Oxford; Mr. Todd, York; Messrs. Simmons and Co.; Messrs. Flackton, Marrable, and Claris; and Mr. Bristow, Canterbury, 1797, pp. 92-94. viii,DCXXXII,212p.,plate: port.; 4⁰. (ESTC T142950; OTA K111746.000) (Page images digitized by the University of California Libraries.)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

Other works by George Monck Berkeley