Chap. Ill] MORAL SENSE. 95 



The expression of the wishes and judgment of the 

 members of the same community, at first by oral and 

 afterward by written language, serves, as just remarked, 

 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 exemplified by the Law of Honor \ 

 that is the law of the opinion of our equals, and not of all 

 our countrymen. The breach of this law, even when the 

 breach is known to be strictly accordant with true moral- 

 ity, has caused many a man more agony than a real crime. 

 We recognize the same influence in the burning 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 etiquette. 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 superstitions, in complete opposi- 

 tion to the true welfare and happiness of mankind, have 

 become all-powerful throughout the world. We see this 

 in the horror felt by a Hindoo who breaks his caste, in the 

 shame of a Mahometan 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 religions beliefs, have originated we do not 

 know ; nor how it is that they have become, in all quar- 

 ters of the world, so deeply impressed on the mind of 

 men; but it is worthy of remark that a belief constantly 

 inculcated during the early years of life, while the brain 

 is impressible, appears to acquire almost the nature of an 

 instinct ; and the very essence of an instinct is that it is 



