DEONTOLOGY. 305 
interpreted, it embodies what I take to be the fundamental con- 
ception of the science which has been named Deontology. 
In the course of the discussion it was argued that if any animals 
have what may appear to be a sense of duty, it cannot be natural 
to them, but must be a result of some training, seeing that it is 
never found in wild animals. But the assumption on which this 
objection rests is not generally admitted by those who have made 
animal intelligence their study, and it is unquestionable that there 
are creatures which in their natural state, birds, for instance, and 
even insects, notably ants, make it evident in actions which display 
some degree of intelligence, oftentimes in strikingly ingenious 
adaptation of means to ends, that they are sensible of obligation 
to conform to a constituted social order, and that measures are 
adopted by the experienced and orderly among them for enforcing 
conformity on the part of the untrained and the contumacious. A 
social impression of what is fitting largely controls individualistic 
impulses and tendencies, and renders prosperity and safety com- 
patible with a comparatively low degree of individual ability to 
foresee the consequences of irregular action. Such phenomena as 
I am alluding to disclose what I have ventured to term, not indeed 
a reflective perception, but a sense of duty, that is to say, of what 
is due to the community. 
I have intimated my belief that the psychic sense is essentially 
distinct from the pneumatic, and I have pointed out conceivable 
cases in which they may conflict with one another, but I beg 
leave to observe that I have not therefore asserted the possibility 
of a conflict of duties. For human beings, such law as psychic 
intelligence has capacity for apprehending is subordinate to 
that, which, as children of the Father of Spirits, they are bound 
to obey. The psychic man’s perception of the latter is limited to 
dim, confused, and inconsistent notions. And I should think it 
will not be denied that, as compared with enlightened Christians, 
children who are just old enough to be taught to believe in God 
have a feeble conception of a Being who requires truth in the in- 
ward parts. In their case, and in that of savages also, the 
desideratum is no mere intellectual development; they need, what 
all adult believers need more or less, spiritual advance, and there- 
fore, on the supposition that the spiritual sense has been awakened, 
increased activity in that innate aptitude truly to respond to the 
demands of the Author of their existence. In making this supposi- 
