conscience says,--No: take heed, honest Launcelot; take heed, honest
Gobbo:_ or (as aforesaid) _honest Launcelot Gobbo; do not run: scorn
running with thy heels_. Well the most courageous fiend bids me pack.
_Via_! says the fiend; _Away_! says the fiend, _for the heavens_;[44]
_rouse up a brave mind_, says the fiend, _and run_. Well, my conscience,
hanging about the neck of my heart, says very wisely to me, _my honest
friend, Launcelot, being an honest man's son_, or rather an honest
woman's son;--for, indeed, my father did something smack, something grow
to, he had a kind of taste;--well, my conscience says, _Launcelot, budge
not; budge_, says the fiend; _budge not_, says my conscience.
Conscience, say I, you counsel well; fiend, say I, you counsel well; to
be ruled by my conscience I should stay with the Jew, my master, who
(Heaven bless the mark!) is a kind of devil; and to run away from the
Jew I should be ruled by the fiend, who, saving your reverence, is the
devil himself. Certainly, the Jew is the very devil incarnation; and in
my conscience, my conscience is a kind of hard conscience, to offer to
counsel me to stay with the Jew. The fiend gives the more friendly
counsel: I will run, fiend; my heels are at your commandment, I will
run.

[_As he is going out in haste_

_Enter_ OLD GOBBO, _with a basket_.

_Gob_. Master, young man, you, I pray you; which is the way to master
Jew's?

_Lau. (aside.)_ O heavens, this is my true-begotten father! who, being
more than sand-blind, high-gravel blind,[45] knows me not: I will try
conclusions[46] with him.