And good would not be good, though universe In all its phases found no use! And Price Parades his “reason,” with its simple good; Who’d rather give the question up, than err, And so declares it cannot be defined. Then Wollaston declares that good is truth, Which no one doubts, far as it goes; it goes Toward good, as far as truth, its attribute; Beyond, it cannot reach. And Montesquieu And Clarke, relation’s order preach; a rule That makes the growing grain, or falling shower, A moral agent, capable of good. Then Wolf and Malebranche perfection see, And therefore good, in God; but their sight fails, And God may mirror good, but man’s weak eyes Ne’er see it. Adam Smith, with “sentiment” Proceeds to dress a thought, and call it, good; And makes the abstract of a Universe Arise from puling human sympathy. The largest concourse follow Hutcheson, Although the greater part ne’er heard of him. The world at large believes in moral sense; They call it conscience! Oh the precious word! Though stretched and warped, they almost deify, And term it man’s tribunal in his breast, Where he may judge his actions, right or wrong. What nonsense! Conscience is but consciousness Of soul, and idea of its good. We form This idea from regard of fellow-men, Association, and from thought. We find Sometimes the good of soul conflicts with flesh, And when we know the soul above the flesh, We yield to that the preference. Hence arise The foolish notions of self disregard. The savage does not know he has a soul, And therefore has no conscience. He can steal Without remorse. But when he learns of soul, He finds it has a good, and by this test Tries moral actions, are they good for soul? And this is conscience. Yet is conscience changed By circumstance. The Hindoo mother tears The helpless infant from her trickling breast, To feed the crocodile, and save her soul; She’s happier in its conscience-murdered wail Than in its gleeful prattle on her knee. And daily we see one commit a deed Without a pang, another dare not do. If conscience may be warped but one degree By plain Sorites, it may be reversed, And only prove an interested thought.