Defence of Criminals 



is another question. It may be, and, as the reader 

 would gather, probably is, a matter which at the 

 last eludes definition. But though it may elude 

 exact statement, that is no reason why approxi- 

 mations should not be made to the statement of 

 it ; nor is its ultimate elusiveness of intellectual 

 definition any proof that it may not become a real 

 and vital force within the man, and underlying 

 inspiration of his actions. To take the two con- 

 siderations in order. In the first place, as we saw 

 from the beginning, the experience of society is 

 continually leading it to classify actions into 

 beneficial and harmful, good and bad ; and thus 

 moral codes are formed which eat their way from 

 the outside into the individual man and become 

 part of him. These codes may be looked upon 

 as approximations in each age to a statement of 

 human service ; but, as we have seen, they are 

 by the nature of the case very imperfect ; and 

 since the very conditions of the problem are con- 

 tinually changing, it seems obvious that a final 

 and absolute solution of it by this method is im- 

 possible. The second way in which man works 

 towards a solution is by the expansion and growth 

 of his own consciousness, and is ultimately by 

 far the most important — though the two methods 

 have doubtless continually to be corrected by each 

 other. In fact, as man actually forms a part of 

 society externally, so he comes to know and feel 

 himself a part of society through his inner nature. 

 Gradually, and in the lapse of ages, through the 

 development of his sympathetic relation with his 



165 



