214 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAP. 



prehension of the point in dispute ; for such facts tell in 

 favor of it. 



Were it asserted that man possesses a distinct innate 

 power and faculty by which he is made intuitively aware 

 what acts considered in and by themselves are right and 

 what wrong an infallible and universal internal code 

 the illustration would be to the point. But all that need 

 be contended for is that the intellect perceives not only 

 truth, but also a quality of " higher " which ought to be 

 followed, and of " lower " which ought to be avoided ; 

 when two lines of conduct are presented to the will for 

 choice, the intellect so acting being the conscience. 



This has been well put by Mr. James Martineau in his 

 excellent essay on Whe well's Morality. He says : 14 "If 

 moral good were a quality resident in each action, as 

 whiteness in snow, or sweetness in fruits ; and if the moral 

 faculty was our appointed instrument for detecting its 

 presence; many consequences would ensue which are at 

 variance with fact. The wide range of differences observ- 

 able in the ethical judgments of men would not exist ; and 

 even if they did, could no more be reduced and modified 

 by discussion than constitutional differences of hearing or 

 of vision. And, as the quality of moral good either must 

 or must not exist in every important operation of the will,, 

 we should discern its presence or absence separately in 

 each; and even though we never had the conception of 

 more than one insulated action, we should be able to 

 pronounce upon its character. This, however, we have 

 plainly no power to do. Every moral judgment is rela- 

 tive, and involves a comparison of two terms. When we 

 praise what has been done, it is w T ith the coexistent con- 

 ception of something else that might hce^j been done; 

 and when we resolve on a course as right, it is to the 

 exclusion of some other that is wrong. This fact, that 



14 "Essays," Second Series, vol. ii., p. 13. 



