MORAL SENSE. 131 



rence of incest is due to our possessing a special God- 

 implanted conscience. On the whole it is intelligible, that 

 a man urged by so powerful a sentiment as remorse though 

 arising as above explained, should beledtoactin a manner, 

 which he has been taught to believe serves as an expiation, 

 such as delivering himself up to justice. 



Man prompted by his conscience, will through long habit 

 acquire such perfect self-command, that his desires and 

 passions will at last yield instantly and without a struggle 

 to his social sympathies and instincts, including his feeling 

 for the judgment of his fellows. The still hungry, or the 

 still revengeful, man will not think of stealing food, or of 

 wreaking his vengeance. It is possible, or as we shall here- 

 after see, even probable, that the habit of self-command 

 may, like other habits, be inherited. Thus at last man 

 comes to feel, through acquired and perhaps inherited 

 habit, tliat it is best for him to obey his more persistent 

 impulses. The imperious word ought seems merely to^ 

 imply the consciousness of the existence of a rule of con- 

 duct, however it may have originated. Formerly it must 

 have been often vehemently urged that an insulted 

 gentleman ought to fight a duel. We even say that a 

 pointer ought to point, and a retriever to retrieve game. 

 If they fail to do so, they fail in their duty and act 

 wrongly. 



If any desire or instinct leading to an action opposed t( 

 the good of others still appears, when recalled to mind, 

 strong as, or stronger than, the social instinct, a man will 

 feel no keen regret at having followed it; but he will b( 

 conscious that if his conduct were known to his fellows, it) 

 would meet with their disapprobation; and few are so desti- 

 tute of sympathy as not to feel discomfort when this is 

 realized. If he has no such sympathy, and if his desires 

 leading to bad actions are at the time strong, and when 

 recalled are not overmastered by the persistent social 

 instincts, and the judgment of others, then he is essen- 

 tially a bad man; * and the sole restraining motive left 

 is the fear of punishment, and the conviction that in the 

 long run it would be best for his own selfish interests to 

 regard the good of others rather than his own. 



*Dr. Prosper Despine in his " Psychologic Naturelle," 1868 (torn, 

 i, p. 243; torn, ii, p. 169), gives many curious cases of the worst 

 criminals, who apparently have beec entirely destitute of conscience. 



