FACULTIES OF THE MIND. 239 
in such cases, theologians apply the term Conscience, and 
others, the Moral Sense. 
The question, then, What is Duty ? in reference to its 
rules or standard, is one of very difficult solution,—or ra- 
ther, is one which unassisted reason cannot resolve. If we 
take the question in detail, and ask, What will be accept- 
able to the Supreme ? the Hindoo devotee will say, to fall 
under the wheels of the moving temple of the god Jug- 
gernauth, and be crushed to death, or to drown himself in 
the Jumnah at its junction with the Ganges. What is the 
duty of children to their aged parents ? Some will say, to 
nourish and comfort them, others to expose them to hunger 
and death. What treatment ought the mother to bestow 
on her new born babe? The wives of Madagascar will say, 
those that are born in the months of March and April, in 
the last week of every month, and on all the Wednesdays. 
and Fridays of every week, ought to be exposed to perish 
with hunger, or cold, or be devoured by the wild beasts. 
We could easily swell the proofs of the variableness of the 
human standards of duty,—and although all are convinced 
that there is, or ought to be a standard, they differ with 
respect to its character. This display of a moral deficiency 
or want in our nature, is the strongest proof that can be 
urged for the necessity of a revelation. The Christian 
religion supplies this moral want,—and furnishes a stand- 
ard which, if observed, would make all men in every con- 
dition happy, exalted ahd wise. 
The divine original of Christianity may be almost de- 
monstrated, from the circumstance of its contaming an ac- 
count of our own imperfections, whose existence human 
partiality would never have discovered, nor human pride 
acknowledged. What is it but this partiality whi chin- 
duces many to believe in the existence of an active power, 
termed a Moral Sense, the origin of moral obligation >— 
