And will endeavour, in succeeding space, Those household puppets on our hearths to place. Perhaps some barbarous laws have been preferred; I spake against the Test, but was not heard. These to rescind, and peerage to restore, } My gracious sovereign would my vote implore; } I owe him much, but owe my conscience more.--} Conscience is then your plea, replied the dame, Which, well-informed, will ever be the same. But yours is much of the camelion hue, To change the dye with every distant view. When first the Lion sat with awful sway, Your conscience taught your duty to obey:[225] He might have had your statutes and your Test; No conscience but of subjects was professed. He found your temper, and no farther tried, But on that broken reed, your church, relied. In vain the sects essayed their utmost art, } With offered treasure to espouse their part; } Their treasures were a bribe too mean to move his heart.} But when, by long experience, you had proved, How far he could forgive, how well he loved; (A goodness that excelled his godlike race, And only short of heaven's unbounded grace; A flood of mercy that o'erflowed our isle, Calm in the rise, and fruitful as the Nile,) Forgetting whence your Egypt was supplied, You thought your sovereign bound to send the tide; Nor upward looked on that immortal spring, But vainly deemed, he durst not be a king. Then Conscience, unrestrained by fear, began To stretch her limits, and extend the span; Did his indulgence as her gift dispose, And made a wise alliance with her foes.[226] Can Conscience own the associating name, } And raise no blushes to conceal her shame? } For sure she has been thought a bashful dame.} But if the cause by battle should be tried,} You grant she must espouse the regal side; } O Proteus conscience, never to be tied! } What Phœbus from the Tripod shall disclose, Which are, in last resort, your friends or foes? Homer, who learned the language of the sky, The seeming Gordian knot would soon untie; Immortal powers the term of Conscience know,[227] But Interest is her name with men below.-- Conscience or Interest be't, or both in one, (The Panther answered in a surly tone;) The first commands me to maintain the crown, The last forbids to throw my barriers down. Our penal laws no sons of yours admit, Our Test excludes your tribe from benefit. These are my banks your ocean to withstand, Which, proudly rising, overlooks the land, And, once let in, with unresisted sway, Would sweep the pastors and their flocks away. Think not my judgment leads me to comply With laws unjust, but hard necessity: Imperious need, which cannot be withstood, Makes ill authentic, for a greater good. Possess your soul with patience, and attend;