XXVI.

_CONSCIENCE._

_Seco ogni coif a è doglia._

All crime is its own torment, bearing woe To mind or body or decrease of fame; If not at once, still step by step our name Or blood or friends or fortune it brings low. But if our will do not resent the blow, We have not sinned. That penance hath no blame Which Magdalen found sweet: purging our shame, Self-punishment is virtue, all men know. The consciousness of goodness pure and whole Makes a man fully blest; but misery Springs from false conscience, blinded in its pride. This Simon Peter meant when he replied To Simon Magus, that the prescient soul Hath her own proof of immortality.