MAY RILEY SMITH.
* * * * *
CONSCIENCE AND REMORSE.
"Good-bye," I said to my Conscience--
"Good-bye for aye and aye;"
And I put her hands off harshly,
And turned my face away:
And Conscience, smitten sorely,
Returned not from that day.
But a time came when my spirit
Grew weary of its pace:
And I cried, "Come back, my Conscience,
I long to see thy face;"
But Conscience cried, "I cannot,--
Remorse sits in my place."
PAUL LAWRENCE DUNBAR.
* * * * *
FOUND WANTING.
Belshazzar had a letter,--
He never had but one;
Belshazzar's correspondent
Concluded and begun
In that immortal copy
The conscience of us all
Can read without its glasses
On revelation's wall.
EMILY DICKINSON.
* * * * *
DALLYING WITH TEMPTATION.
FROM THE FIRST PART OF "WALLENSTEIN," ACT III. SC. 4.
Wallenstein _(in soliloquy_). Is it possible?
Is't so? I _can_ no longer what I _would_!
No longer draw back at my liking! I
Must _do_ the deed, because I _thought_ of it,
And fed this heart here with a dream! Because
I did not scowl temptation from my presence,
Dallied with thought of possible fulfilment,
Commenced no movement, left all time uncertain,
And only kept the road, the access open!
By the great God of Heaven! It was not
My serious meaning, it was ne'er resolve.
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