130 THE REV. H. J. CLARKE ON THE 
The latter, let us suppose, unless infor med of his loss, is sure - 
to remain in ignorance of it ; and the amount is insignificant. 
Still, if the other’s conscience should forbid him to leave the 
error unrectified, the scruple by which his action is deter- 
mined will be perfectly intelligible to upright minds, and not 
at all abnormal or extraordinary. Perhaps he discovers that 
he has received from a person of great wealth some payment 
slightly in excess of the amount he was entitled to. In this 
case it cannot be pretended that his scruple has sprung from 
sympathy; the circumstances are such as to preclude all 
anxiety lest. he should be abridging, be it ever so little, the 
comforts or the pleasures of a fellow-creature ; yet so long as 
he remains conscious of leaving unsatisfied a claim that might 
justly be made upon him, he is not quite at his ease. Is it 
conceivable that a feeling of uneasiness which the possession 
of a secret impenetrably close and secure, so far from stifling, 
only aggravates, is after all the mere development of a fear 
generated by coercive measures which society has thought 
it expedient to adopt with a view to its own preservation ? 
Let the teacher in whose eyes whatever anxiety or terror 
may be experienced in the recollection of wicked deeds 
originates in awe inspired by outward and visible authority, 
and is traceable to this source alone, find, if he can, a name 
for the motive which now and then urges an unsuspected 
criminal to give himself up to justice; and let him explain 
how it comes to pass that in a variety of cases, in which 
prudential considerations might seem to counsel the strictest 
silence, troubled consciences seek relief in confession, and 
only in this way succeed in ridding themselves of burdens 
too heavy for them to bear. Human life abounds in con- 
current proofs that perturbation, horror, and remorse are 
liable to arise from the mere consciousness of a deviation from 
rectitude, and, moreover, that the mental distress thus expe- 
rienced is by no means proportioned in each case to the dread 
of incurring such penalties as human tribunals have power 
to inflict, that timidity as regards these deterrents from crime 
may coexist with moral insensibility, and on the other hand 
courage with conscientiousness. Human nature, in so far as 
earthward tendencies allow its distinctive features to appear, 
shows itself to have been stamped with no equivocal testi- 
mony to the truth that the ultimate ground of all admissible 
authority is not Might but Right, and that to make this an 
adversary is to be overthrown and crushed. 
Deeds which outrage righteousness and presuppose deep 
wounds inflicted on the sense of moral fitness are apt to pro- 
