ORIGIN OF MORAL EVIL 325 



of the writer of the story of Adam and Eve ; for he 

 represents shame as following the act of disobedience 

 before its discovery by God. 



A beautiful picture by Mr. Long called " Christ or 

 Diana," well illustrates the awakened conscience. A 

 girl, who has become a Christian, refuses to put incense 

 on the altar of the goddess. A score of figures at least 

 are around her ; but not one understands why she refuses. 

 It is merely a state ceremony ; a state law orders her to 

 do it ; it is a political test. To put some incense on the 

 altar was less as an honour to Diana than obedience to 

 the state. That young girl, alone of all the crowd, 

 knows what conscience means. 



The state, of course, has no alternative but to send 

 her to the arena. 



The occasion has arisen ; the " circumstances " are 

 all there. She is conscious of the power of her will to 

 submit or to refuse. The conscience supplies the motive 

 for refusal. A more powerful motive than that of obey- 

 ing the state is present in her mind, viz., the Abstract 

 Co7iception of Duty to her Master, Christ. The Will has 

 been called into action, and she refuses to belie her con- 

 science^ at the expense of saving her life. 



It is hardly necessary to add much on Original Sin. 

 The conception that all men became tainted through 

 being descended from Adam and Eve is, of course, a pure 



^ The Greek word for "conscience'" is a-uueiSriffis. It does not ap- 

 pear to be of common occurrence in Greek literature, being only known 

 in a passage quoted from the lost works of the poet Menander. St. Paul 

 uses it, and even quotes a line from Menander — " Evil communications 

 corrupt good manners ". This shows that the idea of conscience was not 

 at all prominent to the Greek. Nor, indeed, could it have been, when we 

 consider what the moral conduct of the gods and goddesses was supposed 

 to be. It was Christianity which brought about the development of a 

 " pure conscience towards God ". 



