On a GOOD CONSCIENCE. Stephen Duck Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T90234 K073280.000 Duck, Stephen, 1705-1756. Poems on several occasions: By Stephen Duck. London printed for the author 1736 pp. 66-67. xl,334,[2]p. ; 4⁰.

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On a GOOD CONSCIENCE . THE solid Joys of human Kind Are those that flow from Peace of Mind ; For who the Sweets of Life can taste , With Vice , and tim'rous Guilt , opprest ? 'Tis Virtue softens all our Toils , With Peace our Conscience crowns ; Gives Pleasure , when our Fortune smiles , And Courage , when it frowns ; Calms ev'ry Trouble , makes the Soul serene , Smooths the contracted Brow , and chears the Heart within . WHILE guilty Minds , involv'd with Woe , Anticipate the future Blow ; Which is ( to make Damnation more complete ) The lesser Hell , in Passage to the great ; Bold and intrepid honest Men appear ; For , as they know no Evil , none they fear : A glorious Shield of Virtue guards their Breast ; Arm'd with themselves , they always walk at Rest . THUS , under bursting Clouds , and stormy Skies , When Thunder roars , and Lightning flies , Th'Imperial Eagles boldly rove , Nor dread the firy Bolt of JOVE ; While meaner Birds in secret creep below ; And trembling fear , and often feel , the Blow .