THEOLOGY AND LAW. 237 



nature of justice and the origin of society, which 

 have again and again been proved historically 

 false, and ask ourselves, What is it which lies at 

 the root of our legislative and judicial system ? It 

 is a question which concerns not any particular 

 laws, nor the various developments of law, but 

 that which is presupposed in all law, that without 

 which law could not be. What, then, is this ? The 

 answer is plain. It is CONSCIENCE, the power to 

 judge of acts as right and wrong. We may ignore, 

 for the moment, questions as to its origin and 

 development, and simply take the fact. Man 

 judges because he has what we call a conscience. 

 I must judge as my conscience directs me. Men 

 may laugh at my judgment ; they may tell me my 

 conscience is untrained or mistrained ; they may 

 tell me it is morbidly sensitive and over-scrupu- 

 lous, or hint that it is defiled by conscious sin. 

 But my conscience is for me my final court of 

 appeal, and quicquid fit contra conscientiam cedificat 

 ad gehennam. So it is, and must be, in my private 

 judgments. But the complex fabric of Law must 

 ultimately be traced back to the same fact. For 

 Law is the expression of the " best self" of the 

 community, the judgment of the conscience of the 

 nation, growing in truth and fulness and perfection, 

 as that conscience becomes more pure and clear. 

 Take stone from stone in that majestic edifice of 

 Law ; roll back the course of time, and see Law in 



