Law of Being Defined, 257 



lition, which he has, in common with the brutes, — 

 and, last of all, he needs the Sense of Obligation^ as 

 the highest possible impulse to action. 



It was suggested, in the last lecture, that' we 

 should find in the sense of obligation, considering 

 all its demands and relations, the true law of human 

 action, as we find in the lower instincts, the law of 

 animal activity. And by the law of action, for any 

 being, we mean that within him, which guides, or 

 tends to guide him, to that end for zvhich he was made. 

 So men, as well as animals, have within them an 

 impulse urging them to seek the end for which they 

 were made, only men are left to learn what that 

 end is, from the study of the impulse, and to guide 

 themselves towards it, by the use of all their high- 

 er powers, — while the guidance to the animal comes 

 from his organic development, and is towards an end, 

 of which he knows nothing. We see, on every hand, 

 the sufficiency of the instincts, as a guide to ani- 

 mals ; while in man, these same instincts need con- 

 trol from some power beyond them. If we find 

 Obligation to be such a controlling power, either 

 alone or with the aid of other powers, we shall be 

 satisfied. 



It is not with us a question, now, how animals 

 or man came by any of these powers. It is a ques- 

 tion of possession, and of the nature and value of 

 the possession. 



Let us now try to find the facts in the case, 

 without being bound by any preconceived notion 

 or favorite definition. 



In the first place, when two courses of action are 



