Conscience

falseness for fear then fled to the friars and guile was almost affrighted to death but merchants met with him and made him stay with them and shut him up in their shops to show their wares and apparelled him as apprentice to serve the people then lyre ran quickly away and lurked in the lanes and was pulled hither and thither by many a one because of his many lies he was nowhere welcome but everywhere he was hooted at and bidden pack off until the pardoners had pity on him and pulled him indoors they washed him and wiped him and clothed him in old raiment and sent him with seals to churches on sunday and he gave pardons for pence everywhere by pounds at a time then the leeches began to lour and sent letters for lyre to dwell with them to inspect waters sellers of spices spoke with him to look at their wares for he understood their trade and knew many spices but minstrels and messengers once met him and kept him half a year and eleven days and then friars with fair speech brought him thence and clothed him as a friar that strangers might not know him but he hath leave to go out as oft as pleaseth him and when he will stay is welcome and he dwelleth often with them all fled away for fear and escaped into corners save meed the maid none others durst abide But to tell truly, she was trembling for fear, and she wept also and wrung her hands when she was taken.

End of section 5 section six of the vision of piers the ploughman by william langland translated by kate m warren this librivox recording is in the public domain passes three me is brought to the king's presence who bids that she be well lodged the justices and others visit her she is shriven The king proposes that she shall marry conscience.

Conscience refuses and exposes her.

She retaliates and conscience refutes her.

now with beadles and bailiffs mead the maid and none other of them all is brought before the king and the king called a clerk whose name i know not to take mead the maid and lodge her in comfort i will try her myself and truly question her what man on earth might be dearest to her and if she do after my counsel and follow my will i will forgive her this guilt so god help me then the clerk did as the king bade and took meed courteously by the waist and brought her to a chamber and there was mirth and minstrelsy to please they that dwell in westminster all honoured her and some of the justices by the leave of learning went gladly and graciously to the chamber where the lady dwelled that they might comfort her kindly and said mourn not meed nor be sorrowful for we will counsel the king and make way for thee that thou mayest be wedded at thy will and where it pleaseth thee notwithstanding all device or craft of conscience as i trow Then Mead thanked them all humbly for their great goodness, and gave to each of them goblets of pure gold, and cups of silver, and rings with rubies, and many other rich things, and she gave the least man of their train a coin of gold, and then these lords took their leave of Mead.

Recording by Expatriate in Bangor, Maine.

Chapter 5 of natural conscience and the moral sense.

there is yet another disposition or principle of great importance natural to mankind which if we consider the consistence and harmony of nature's laws may also be looked upon as in some sort arising from self-love or selfunion and that is a disposition in man to be uneasy in a consciousness of being inconsistent with himself and as it were against himself in his own actions this appears particularly in the inclination of the mind to be uneasy in the consciousness of doing that to others which he should be angry with them for doing to him if they were in his case and he in theirs or of forbearing to do that to them which he would be displeased with them for neglecting to do to him i have observed from time to time that in pure love to others that is love not arising from self-love there is a union of the heart with others a kind of enlargement of the mind whereby it so extends itself as to take others into a man's self and therefore it implies a disposition to feel to desire and to act as though others were one with ourselves so self-love implies an inclination to feel and act as one with ourselves which naturally renders a sensible inconsistence with ourselves and self-opposition in what we ourselves choose and do to be uneasy to the mind which will cause uneasiness of mind to be the consequence of a malevolent and unjust behaviour towards others and a kind of disapprobation of acts of this nature and an approbation of the contrary to do that to another which we should be angry with him for doing to us and to hate a person for doing that to us which we should incline to and insist on doing to him if we were exactly in the same case is to disagree with ourselves and contradict ourselves it would be for ourselves both to choose and adhere to and yet to refuse and utterly reject as it were the very same thing no wonder this is contrary to nature no wonder that such a self-opposition an inward war with a man's self naturally begets unquietness and raises disturbance in his mind a thus approving of actions because we therein act as in agreement with ourselves or as one with ourselves and a thus disapproving and being uneasy in the consciousness of disagreeing and being inconsistent with ourselves and what we do is quite a different thing from approving or disapproving actions because in them we agree and are united with being in general which is loving or hating actions from a sense of the primary beauty of true virtue and odiousness of sin

Hanging out at the pool is great.

Men by natural conscience may see the justice or natural agreement there is in yielding all to God as we receive all from God.

and the justice there is in being his that has made us and being willingly so which is the same as being dependent on his will and conformed to his will in the manner of our being as we are for our being itself and in the conformity of our will to his will on whose will we are universally and most perfectly dependent and also the justice there is in our supreme love to god from his goodness the natural agreement there is between our having supreme respect to him who exercises infinite goodness to us and from whom we receive all well-being besides that disagreement and discord appears worse to natural sense as was observed before in things nearly related and of great importance and therefore it must appear very ill as it respects the infinite being and in that infinitely great relation which there is between the creator and his creatures and tis easy to conceive how that sense which is in natural conscience should see the desert of punishment which there is in the contrary of true virtue the daily set opposition and enmity to being in general for this is only to see the natural agreement there is between opposing being in general and being opposed by being in general with a consciousness how that if we were infinitely great we should expect to be regarded according to our greatness and should proportionably resent contempt thus natural conscience if well informed will approve of true virtue and will disapprove and condemn the want of it and opposition to it and yet without seeing the true beauty of it yea if men's consciences were fully enlightened if they were delivered from being confined to a private sphere and brought to view and consider things in general and delivered from being stupefied by sensual objects and appetites as they will be at the day of judgment they would approve nothing but true virtue nothing but general benevolence and those affections and actions that are consistent with it and subordinate to it for they must say that consent to being in general and supreme respect to the being of beings is most just and that everything which is inconsistent with it and interferes with it or flows from the want of it is unjust and deserves the opposition of universal existence Thus has God established and ordered that this principle of natural conscience, which though it implies no such thing as actual benevolence to being in general, nor any delight in such a principle simply considered, and so implies no truly spiritual sense or virtuous taste, yet should approve and condemn the same things that are approved and condemned by a spiritual sense or virtuous taste.

that moral sense which is natural to mankind so far as it is disinterested and not founded in association of ideas is the same with this natural conscience that has been described the sense of moral good and evil and that disposition to approve virtue and disapprove vice which men have by natural conscience is that moral sense so much insisted on in the writings of many of late a misunderstanding of which seems to have been the thing that has misled those moralists who have insisted on a disinterested moral sense universal in the world of mankind as an evidence of a disposition to true virtue consisting in a benevolent temper naturally implanted in the minds of all men some of the arguments made use of by these writers do indeed prove that there is a moral sense or taste universal among men distinct from what arises from self-love though i humbly conceive there is some confusion in their discourses on the subject and not a proper distinction observed in the instances of men's approbation of virtue which they produce some of which are not to their purpose being instances of that approbation of virtue that was described which arises from self-love but other instances prove that there is a moral taste or sense of moral good and evil natural to all which don't properly arise from self-love yet i conceive there are no instances of this kind which may not be referred to natural conscience and particularly to that which i have observed to be primary in the approbation of natural conscience the daily set a sense of desert and approbation of that natural agreement there is in manner and measure in judgment but i think it is plain from what has been said that neither this nor anything else wherein consists the sense of moral good and evil which there is in natural conscience is of the nature of a truly virtuous taste or determination of mind to relish and delight in the essential beauty of true virtue arising from a virtuous benevolence of heart but it further appears from this if the approbation of conscience were the same with the approbation of the inclination of the heart or the natural disposition and determination of the mind to love and be pleased with virtue then approbation and condemnation of conscience would always be in proportion to the virtuous temper of the mind or rather the degree would be just the same in that person who had a high degree of a virtuous temper therefore the testimony of conscience in favour of virtue would be equally full but he that had but little would have as little a degree of the testimony of conscience for virtue and against vice but i think the case is evidently otherwise some men through the strength of vice in their hearts will go on in sin against clearer light and stronger convictions of conscience than others if consciences approving duty and disapproving sin were the same thing as the exercise of a virtuous principle of the heart in loving duty and hating sin then remorse or conscience will be the same thing as repentance and just in the same degree as the sinner feels remorse of conscience for sin in the same degree is his heart turned from the love of sin to the hatred of it inasmuch as they are the very same thing christians have the greatest reason to believe from the scriptures that in the future day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of god when sinners shall be called to answer before their judge and all their wickedness and all its aggravations brought forth and clearly manifested in the perfect light of that day and god will reprove them and set their sins in order before them their consciences will be greatly awakened and convinced their mouths will be stopped all stupidity of conscience will be at an end and conscience will have its full exercise and therefore their consciences will approve the dreadful sentence of the judge against them and seeing that they have deserved so greater punishment will join with the judge in condemning them and this according to the notion i am opposing would be the same thing as then being brought to the fullest repentance their hearts being perfectly changed to hate sin and love holiness and virtue or holiness of heart in them will be brought to the most full and perfect exercise but how much otherwise have we reason to suppose it will then be but daily said that the sin and wickedness of their heart will come to its highest dominion and completest exercise that they shall be wholly left of god and given up to their wickedness even as the devils are When God has done waiting on sinners and His Spirit done striving with them, He will not restrain their wickedness as He does now.

But sin shall then rage in their hearts as a fire no longer restrained or kept under.

To judge by his look he was a wise and grave old man, and he seemed to be acting as guide to the knight who carefully checked his prancing horse to keep pace with his slow footsteps.

The name of the black palmer was Conscience, and he went with Sir Gion as his companion and advisor, somewhat in the same fashion as Prudence had gone as servant with the Red Cross Knight.

When Archimago saw Sir Gion he immediately stopped him just as on a former occasion he had stopped the Red Cross Knight.

This time he had a fresh story to tell, which of course was perfectly false.

In my reckless haste, I almost did violence to the image of Queen Gloriana, which I now see inscribed on your shield.

The fault is mine." So the two knights made friends and talked very happily together, and Sir Gion explained how he had been cheated by Archimago and Duessa, who had both now fled away.

Then up came Gion's guide, Conscience, and as soon as his eye fell on the Red Cross Knight, he knew him, for he had seen him at the court of Queen Gloriana.

"Joy be with you and everlasting fame for the great deeds you have done," he cried.