THE CONSCIENCE. 



155 



some have called it. It allies itself with all our physiological facul- 

 ties. A man feels and knows ; and the moral faculty, the faculty of 

 duty, allies itself with the senses. There is a feeling of pleasure 

 when we follow the guidance of Conscience, and a feeling of pain 

 when we do not follow that guidance. Conscience also allies itself 

 with knowledge ; it associates faculties with the actions in which 

 they become apparent, and perceives intuitively and at once whether 

 the moral faculty agrees or not with the moral standard. To the 

 will, Conscience makes special appeal. 



It appears to me that, throughout his paper, the author has made 

 the mistake of regarding Conscience as referring specially to action. 

 In our own case, no doubt, we can see if our actions are right or 

 wrong — and why 1 Because in our own case we know the motives, 

 and therefore the moral qualities. In the case of other people, 

 however, not knowing their motives, we may get into all sorts of 

 difficulties because unable to see the moral quality of their actions. 

 We guess at it ; we argue about it. There we bring in intellectual 

 judgment, and the combination of true conscience and intellectual 

 judgment has greatly confused the subject of Conscience. That lax 

 use of the term Conscience, in which intellectual judgment enters as 

 well as the moral faculty, has done a great deal of mischief to clear- 

 ness of thought on the subject. 



Miss HODGKIN : There is one point in Mr. Webb's lecture to which 

 I venture to draw attention : 



"A citizen who refuses to take his share in the defence of his 

 country is declining a fundamental duty of citizenship .... he is 

 resigning all claim to the protection of the State, and making 

 himself — for conscience' sake, no doubt — an outlaw. He has no 

 further claim upon the State." 



In reply, I would say that there are duties of citizenship other 

 than the one which the lecturer considers "fundamental." How 

 does the Quaker compare with citizens generally in respect of the 

 fulfilment of duties other than military A large amount of the 

 religious liberty enjoyed in our country to-day is the result of 

 the stand made by our Quaker forefathers 260 years ago, when 

 2000 of them were in prison at one time for conscience' sake. I 

 recall the stand for freedom made by John Bright, the work of 

 Joseph Sturge for the liberation of the slave, the influence of 



