252 The Morality of Nature 



the product of affections and emotions; and of heredity and 

 education; distinguished from his logical reason and self- 

 interest and arising in something apart. 



The community recognizes in this motive a thing superior 

 to the conscious intellect of the individual evincing it. 



This conscience is the function of some power which in 

 practice invests the human being with a moral authority 

 for his own actions, which is a proper test of their rightness, 

 and which, exercised in collective wisdom of democracy, re- 

 veals at once the authority and guide and restraint of govern- 

 ment. This is the faculty which, having upset the old codes, 

 still reserves the right to upset the new ; and bases that right 

 upon the fact that it established them in a knowledge never 

 perfect, but always aspiring toward perfection. 



Conscience is not authority itself; it is a connecting link 

 between man and the infinite. Its beginning is in the first 

 volition of the first life. Its possible development is not 

 limited except in the full understanding of absolute good, 

 which may be considered as its ultimate unattainable end. 

 Conscience is not infallible, although it is unfailing. Its 

 power at any time will depend upon the plane of attainment 

 in all knowledge from which the individual views his pur- 

 poses, and by all knowledge is meant unconscious knowledge 

 as well as that which is conscious. Conscience is the belief 

 of the greater immortal ego. 



The search for a fixed describable goodness, as the ob- 

 ject of the authority in conscience, is therefore as futile as 

 that for a fixed code of active conduct. Nay, more so, be- 

 cause the compiling of codes, for the guidance of others, in 

 government and education, is justified by the acquiescence of 



