186 THE WHENOE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



And remember tliat the primitive religion is a tribal 

 religion. The gods felt toward a man just as his 

 neighbors did. A public opinion of this sort is irre- 

 sistible, and a man's conscience and estimate of himself 

 and his actions must confrom to it. But you may 

 say a man may grant that this opinion is in a sense 

 irresistible, and find himself very miserable and un- 

 happy under its condemnation. But he would not feel 

 remorse ; this is a very different feeling. Possibly it 

 may be. I am not so sure. But what I am interested 

 in maintaining is that the condemnation of one's fellow- 

 men puts more vividly before one's eyes, and empha- 

 sizes, the condemnation of one's own self. It may 

 often be a necessary step in self-conviction. And 

 what is most important, even in our own case, the con- 

 demnation of our fellows often brings with it self- 

 condemnation. 



Try the experiment, as you will some day, of follow- 

 ing a course of action which you feel fairly confident 

 is right, but which all your neighbors think is foohsh 

 and Avrong. See if you do not feel twinges within you 

 which you must examine very closely to distinguish 

 from twinges of conscience. If you do not, I see but 

 one explanation — you are conscious that God is with 

 you, and content with this majority. But in the case 

 of primitive man God was always on the side of one's 

 tribe. 



Now this does not explain the origin of man's con- 

 ception of right ; it presupposes such a conception in 

 some dim form. I do not now know why right is right 

 or beauty beautiful. I only know they are so. Where 

 or when either of these perceptions dawned I do not 

 know. But, given some such dim perception, I be- 



