CONSCIENCE AND MORALITY 143 



reaction can be set up at all unless the proper stimulus is 

 first applied. 



The differences of moral character which are noticeable 

 between individuals become still more numerous and more 

 definite when races or nations are compared. The moral 

 reactions of the Jew and the Greek, the Scotchman and 

 the Red Indian, the German and the Spaniard, or any other 

 races we may choose to mention, present even more numerous 

 points of contrast than their physical conformation. They 

 differ both in the stimuli by which they are set up and in 

 their strength and direction. The sight of cruelty, which 

 repels one race, attracts another ; each contradicts the 

 others in its code of honour, its attitude in questions con 

 cerning the sexual relations, its estimate of the value of 

 truthfulness, and in innumerable other particulars. This 

 point has been so well dealt with in one of Hume s best 

 known essays that it would be waste of time to elaborate 

 it further, but it may be added that the differences in the 

 moral constitutions of different races, great though they are, 

 appear comparatively insignificant when the differences 

 in moral character between the two sexes throughout 

 the world come to be considered. 



There is, however, another side to the picture, and one 

 that is less obvious. Notwithstanding differences which 

 it would be hard to exaggerate, there appears to be a certain 

 universality in all the higher ethical judgements ; and this, 

 it seems to me, is a point on which they differ from the 

 aesthetic judgements. Though it is true that the higher 

 types of beauty ought to have universal validity, the truth 

 is merely speculative ; it is not practical, and will not bear 

 the test of experience. We may take an illustration from 

 music. With a large class of hearers, even though they may 

 be adequately endowed with the mechanical apparatus 

 for appreciating differences of pitch and tone, the higher 

 kinds of music elicit no response, however often they may 

 be repeated and however strongly and intelligently they 

 may be recommended. A faculty of appreciation is there ; 

 good music is easily discriminated from bad, but it is the 



