Chap. III. MORAL SENSE. 99 



faction which every animal feels when it follows its 

 proper instincts, and the dissatisfaction felt when pre- 

 vented, be called selfish. 



The expression of the wishes and judgment of the 

 members of the same community, at first by oral and 

 afterwards by written language, serves, as just re- 

 marked, as a most important secondary guide of 

 conduct, in aid of the social instincts, but sometimes 

 in opposition to them. This latter fact is well exem- 

 plified by the Law of Honour, that is the law of the 

 opinion of our equals, and not of all our country- 

 men. The breach of this law, even when the breach 

 is known to be strictly accordant with true mo- 

 rality, has caused many a man more agony than a real 

 crime. We recognise the same influence in the burn- 

 ing sense of shame which most of us have felt even 

 after the interval of years, when calling to mind some 

 accidental breach of a trifling though fixed rule of eti- 

 quette. The judgment of the community will generally 

 be guided by some rude experience of what is best in 

 the long run for all the members ; but this judgment 

 will not rarely err from ignorance and from weak powers 

 of reasoning. Hence the strangest customs and super- 

 stitions, in complete opposition to the true welfare and 

 happiness of mankind, have become all-powerful through- 

 out the world. We see this in the horror felt by a 

 Hindoo who breaks his caste, in the shame of a Maho- 

 metan woman who exposes her face, and in innumerable 

 other instances. It would be difficult to distinguish 

 between the remorse felt by a Hindoo who has eaten 

 unclean food, from that felt after committing a theft; 

 but the former would probably be the more severe. 



How so many absurd rules of conduct, as well as so 

 many absurd religious beliefs, have originated we do 

 not know ; nor how it is that they have become, in all 



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