"Conscience, the high chancellor of the human breast, whose small still voice speaks terror to the guilty--Conscience has pricked her--and, with all her wealth and titles, she is an object of pity."
— Sancho, Charles Ignatius (1729-1780)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by J. Nichols
Date
1782
Metaphor
"Conscience, the high chancellor of the human breast, whose small still voice speaks terror to the guilty--Conscience has pricked her--and, with all her wealth and titles, she is an object of pity."
Metaphor in Context
THERE is something inexpressibly flattering in the notion of your being warmer--from the idea of your much obliged friend's caring for you;--in truth we could not help caring about you--our thoughts travelled with you over night from Bond Street to the Inn.--The next day at noon--"Well, now she's above half way--alas! no, she will not get home till Saturday night--I wonder what companions she has met with--there is a magnetism in good-nature which will ever attract its like--so if she meets with beings the least social--but that's as chance wills!"--Well, night arrives--and now our friend has reached the open arms of parental love--excess of delightful endearments gives place to tranquil enjoyments--and all are happy in the pleasure they give each other.--Were I a Saint or a Bishop, and was to pass by your door, I would stop, and say, Peace be upon this dwelling!--and what richer should I leave it?--for I trust where a good man dwells, there peace makes its sweet abode.--When you have read Boffuet, you will find at the end, that it was greatly wished the learned author had brought the work down lower--but I cannot help thinking he concluded his design as far as he originally meant.--Mrs. Sancho thank Heaven, is as well as you left her, and your godson thrives--he is the type of his father--fat--heavy--seepy--but as he is the heir of the noble family, and your godson, I ought not to disparage him.--The Dutchess of K---- is so unwell, that she has petitioned for a longer day--they say that her intellects are hurt;--tho' a bad woman, she is entitled to pity.--Conscience, the high chancellor of the human breast, whose small still voice speaks terror to the guilty--Conscience has pricked her--and, with all her wealth and titles, she is an object of pity.--Health attend you and yours!--Pleasure of course will follow.--Mrs. Sancho joins me in all I say, and the girls look their assent.--I remain--God forgive me! I was going to conclude, without ever once thanking you for your goodness in letting us hear from you so early--there is such a civil coldness in writing, a month perhaps after expectation has been snuffed out, that the very thought is enough to chill friendship--but you, like your sister Charity, as Thomson sweetly paints her (smiling thro' tears), delight in giving pleasure, and joy in doing good.--And now farewell--and believe us in truth, our dear Miss L----'s [...]
(I.xxxii, pp. 87-90; pp. 69-70 in Carretta)
(I.xxxii, pp. 87-90; pp. 69-70 in Carretta)
Categories
Provenance
Reading; text from DocSouth
Citation
Five entries in ESTC (1782, 1783, 1784). [Second edition in 1783, third in 1784.]
See Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African. In Two Volumes. To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of His Life (London: Printed by J. Nichols, 1782). <Link to text from Documenting the American South at UNC>
Reading Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, ed. Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin, 1998).
See Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African. In Two Volumes. To Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of His Life (London: Printed by J. Nichols, 1782). <Link to text from Documenting the American South at UNC>
Reading Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, ed. Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin, 1998).
Date of Entry
07/11/2013
