CONSCIENCE AND SUPEREGO 435 



development and some eventual perfection, and that there are 

 ways of acting that profit hira and ways that damage him, and 

 that he (at least apparently) can choose one or the other freely 

 — as soon as this is perceived, even in a general and more or 

 less indefinite way, man responds with the sense of obligation, 

 i.e. with the sense of responsibility for his own actions. In 

 the broadest sense, he perceives without any further instruction 

 that he should do what is ' right ' and avoid what is ' wrong.' 

 These two, however, might be more precisely defined. 



To sum all this up and perhaps clarify some points, some- 

 thing might be said of that correlative of law, namely obedience. 

 Against the not uncommon opinion that all obedience is, at 

 best, a temporary expedient, and not entirely in harmony with 

 human dignity, and an unwarranted imposition of one man's 

 will on another's — as a form of oppression. Catholic morality 

 has always held for the essential nobility of obedience as a 

 virtue for those who are subordinate. In essence, the Catholic 

 position is that, a man's strength and virtue should be easily 

 responsive to authority, if he is in a subordinate position. 

 Lest this position be misunderstood, a distinction must be made 

 immediately. There are two forms of obedience, the servile 

 obedience of slaves and the filial obedience of children, or the 

 civil obedience of citizens, and the like. In servile obedience, 

 the command is given and the service exacted, not for the 

 sake of the slave, but for the use and profit of the master. 

 There is no dignity in this. Filial obedience is radically dif- 

 ferent. Ideally, the command is given and obedience is required, 

 not for the benefit of the parents, but precisely for the benefit 

 of the child. This presupposes, of course, something more funda- 

 mental, namely, that in the natural order of things, children 

 are in a position to benefit from their parents' knowledge, love, 

 power and care, and will further benefit the more thoroughly 

 they respond to the expressions of these qualities. Ideally, their 

 growth will be quickest, surest and richest, if they respond 

 perfectly to parental guidance. Ideally, if the parental norms 

 are set up as prompted by love and guided by intelligence, the 



