[1] Justice, when equal scales she holds, is blind,
Nor cruelty nor mercy change her mind.
When some escape for that which others die,
Mercy to those, to these is cruelty:
A fine and slender net the spider weaves:
Which little and slight animals receives;
And if she catch a summer bee or fly,
They with a piteous groan and murmur die;
But if a wasp or hornet she entrap,
They tear her cords, like a Sampson, and escape;
So, like a fly, the poor offender dies;
But like the wasp, the rich escapes and flies.
--_Sir John Denham._
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law. But 'tis not so above:
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In its nature: and we ourselves compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence.--_Shakespeare._