CXXXVI ADMINISTRATIVE BEPORT [kth. ann. 20 



conduct and to inhibition of immoral conduct. This tendency 

 is called conscience. Every human being is thus endowed 

 with conscience as an instinct or hereditary aptness to act in a 

 moral way. There are many other ludjits tliat are instinctive, 

 and other instincts niay control the individual while the moral 

 instinct is held in abeyance. The moral instinct, like all the 

 other instincts, is inherited oidy as an aptness and must be 

 developed by exercise. Conscience can lie cultivated only 

 by the moral sentiments which the individual entertains. The 

 sentiments of good and evil are governed by the knowledge of 

 truth and error; that is, the emotions are fundamentally gov- 

 erned by the intellect, although the emotions mav in like 

 manner govern the intellect, for intellect and emotion are 

 cooperatiA'e in every act of life. 



The knowledge of good and evil follows hard upon the 

 knowledge of truth and error. In the economy of nature the 

 intellect is first the servant of the emotional life until by its 

 high development it becomes the master. In the ethics or 

 religion of man in the scientific stage of culture the knowledge 

 of good and evil will depend upon the knowledge of trutli and 

 eiTor. Then conscience will be an infallible guide; thus con- 

 science becomes the ultiniate criterion. Etliical conduct is 

 conduct sanctioned bv conscience. The ideal of relig-ion has 

 ever been the control of conduct by that agency, although 

 other sanctions have been employed. Conscience is the child 

 of religion and evolves as religion evolves, and religion evolves 

 as the intellect evolves. 



Such are the characteristics of the religion or principles of 

 ethics inherited by the moral teachers of modern times — teach- 

 ers who flourish in the atmosphere of science. Among these 

 there is a goodly nvmdjer of moral reformers; in fact, as a class 

 they are all moral reformei's, some preaching against this evil, 

 some against that; some exalting this virtue, others exalting 

 til at. 



The moral teachers of the times are more and more eschew- 

 ing the ancient doctrines of theoretical ethics and devoting 

 their energy to practical ethics. Theories of faith are held in 

 abeyance to theories of practice. It nt'eds ])at a few genera- 



