DEONTOLOGY. 285 
constitute the requisite authority must comprehend a will, 
and (for this of course is presupposed) an intellect. Exception 
has, indeed, been taken to the transcendental use of any 
names of human attributes; yet it should be evident that, 
having represented to our minds an Almighty and Eternal 
Being, we by no means nullify the concept in our application 
of such names to aspects of his character and power relatively 
to our creaturely conditions. Hence, assumed antinomies are 
nothing more than shadows, and they vanish from our path 
as we advance by any of those routes of genuine and coherent 
reasoning which, one and all, converge upon the truth, that 
whatsoever form of being is conditioned in respect to space 
and time owes its existence to the fiat of a Sovereign Will, 
under whose government the universe has been from the 
creation’s dawn, and will continue through all ages. Thus no 
room remains for doubt that the authority of that All-rulng 
Willis virtually acknowledged in such actions as are proper to 
the higher and specifically human sense of duty. 
This, then, is the sense of duty which, associated in all men 
with the capacity for mental introspection and self-govern- 
ment, discharges functions that have been epitomised in the 
appellation conscience, and of which, as must be evident, the 
range and scope may be inferred from possibilities apparent 
in the intellectual advance that of necessity takes place 
along with its development, and is essentially included im the 
process. Further, seeing that, according as it manifests 
activity, the subject of it shows an aptitude to recognize, not 
only intellectually, but with filial reverence, that is, to trust, 
adore, and love, the Author of his being, it contributes 
argument for the belief, which is among its most conspicuous 
concomitants, that men are spirits, being children of a Father 
who himself is Spirit, and as such act through, not from, that 
lower nature which connects them for a season with this 
lower world. But now I find myself in a position to observe 
that psychic is no proper epithet for an affection which is 
shared by man with none of the inferior animals. A psychic 
sense of duty he does, indeed, possess, and thus, whereas 
it should be governed by the underlying nobler sense, 
the latter, when they chance to be in conflict, is in many a 
case oppressed and stifled; as may be seen whenever any 
person, influenced by a will or wills which he is wont to pay 
respect to, and lacks courage to withstand, betrays confusion 
if discovered acting in accordance with his higher sense 
of duty, or allows them, it may be, to shame him into doing 
something which his conscience disapproves. By way of 
x 
