180 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



habit of compliance with the will of every man who may 

 choose to impose his commands ; such a temper would be 

 called slavish rather than obedient. For proper or rational 

 obedience there must exist a definite relation between two 

 men which gives to the one the right to command, and 

 requires the other to comply. This relation may be either 

 social, or political, or religious. The relations of parents 

 to children, of masters to servants, of teachers to their 

 pupils, constitute a social condition ; of soldiers to their 

 captains, or of citizens generally to their laws and the legal 

 commands of their government, a political ; of laymen to 

 their priests, of the lower ranks of the hierarchy to the higher, 

 and of all to the divine ordinances as embalmed in their 

 traditions, or revealed in their sacred books, a religious 

 condition, under which compliance becomes a rational 

 obedience. Obedience, under any one of these conditions, 

 becomes either a social, or a political, or a religious obliga 

 tion, but it is not, on that account merely, an ethical obliga 

 tion or duty ; it only becomes a duty, as distinct from a mere 

 obligation, when compliance under one or another of these 

 conditions is approved by the conscience. When a legiti 

 mate ruler commands a subject to commit an injustice, 

 or when compliance with ecclesiastical authority involves 

 the support of an institution which has become notoriously 

 and scandalously immoral, the political or the religious 

 obligation no doubt remains, but it is opposed to the 

 moral obligation, and not a duty. 



Like all other impulses, but more obviously than most, 

 obedience may be carried to excess, and it then ceases to 

 be virtuous. The idea of excess is derived from the conflict 

 of impulses, each of which when regarded by itself may 

 be a subject of general approbation, but may cease to be 

 good when opposed to others. Gratitude, truthfulness, 

 benevolence, have been instanced as virtues which it is 

 impossible to carry to excess; that is to say, which are 

 good under all conceivable circumstances. But this opinion 

 is mistaken. The gratitude which assists a benefactor when 

 he betrays his country, the truthfulness which overwhelms 



