Ground of Acco^intability, 271 



gation requires, or it may be opposed to it. Every 

 choice involving Obligation, or subsequent to the 

 impulse of Obligation, whether in accordance with 

 it or against it, is a decision between the higher 

 and lower nature, and determines which of them 

 shall, for the time, rule. It is in the power of this 

 intelligent choice, that we discover the highest free- 

 dom, the only true freedom, and it is here that we 

 see the ground of maiis accountability. 



The impulse of Obligation being given to se- 

 cure the right, or most effective, use of all our pow- 

 ers, it may extend to every act towards ourselves, 

 our fellow-men and God. As it is ultimate, in the 

 sense of having no impulse to action higher than 

 itself, it has connected with it a fearful power, by 

 which it enforces its commands. It has nothing 

 above it to restrain its action ; and it never needs 

 restraint, but only light, that it may act in the right 

 direction. Then the best results come from the 

 full measure of its activity. In this respect, it is, 

 in its action, analogous to the instincts of animals, 

 which unconstrained work out the best results for 

 them, provided the senses furnish the proper con- 

 dition of action. 



As there is nothing above Obligation to restrain 

 it, so there is nothing to aid it as an impulse. It 

 secures its own effective action only by its own 

 constitution, if at all. Remorse is the recoil of 

 this great impulse to action, in the higher nature 

 of man, when its action is thwarted by the power 

 of the lower instincts, which were not made to rule. 



If any act is contrary to the demands of Obliga- 



