THE EVOLUTION OP THE MORAL SENSE 117 



science has arisen first from the feeling of coercion, 

 which later was felt as obligation. While the model 

 differs with different races and different centuries, 

 man is impelled to imitate that model by the same 

 sense of duty. 



It may possibly seem that thus to explain the 

 origin of conscience deprives it of all its imperative 

 force. But this position indicates only a superficial 

 view of the matter. The fact that conscience is 

 known to develop in the individual while it is 

 absent in the child, does not in the slightest degree 

 decrease the cogency of the oughtness when it is 

 developed. All individuals certainly begin life 

 without conscience, and all develop it. "With the 

 adult the appeal to one's conscience forms com- 

 monly the most powerful of motives. It is the 

 motive that will generally influence man when all 

 appeals to expediency and reason fail. It will lead 

 him to sacrifice his happiness and his life, and it has 

 been the cause of most revolutions in history. It 

 forms the strongest motive in legislation and, as we 

 shall presently see, has been at the foundation of 

 civilization itself. It does not make this motive any 

 less significant to know that the individual is born 

 without it and develops it under the conditions of 

 his childhood. The fact that as a babe he had no 

 conscience, and that his mother not only taught him 

 to do right but even taught him that there was a 

 right, does not make his conscience any less a part 

 of his nature. Does it not follow that conscience is 

 equally cogent for the individual and the race, even 

 if we should accept its development in the race by a 

 series of steps such as outlined in the previous 

 pages? The conclusion that conscience has devel- 



