248 REV. W. R. INGE, D.D., ON FREEDOM AND DISCIPLINE. 



in strange seas of thought instinctively feel the danger of making 

 experiments in conduct, and choose deliberately to live quite 

 conventionally on this side. This is especially the case in our 

 own country, where the fear of logic is almost instinctive. Some 

 of our most emancipated free-thinkers have been, to their own 

 great advantage, almost philistines in their acceptance of 

 traditional ideas in morality. Experience certainly seems to 

 indicate that in morals authority is indispensable. The in- 

 dividual is not only an incompetent judge in some matters of 

 right and wrong, but his judgment is likely to be warped by 

 his temperament precisely in those questions where he is in 

 most need of sound guidance. Now it is obvious that authority 

 is much more efficacious in overcoming temptation when it is 

 regarded as absolute. This is why religion has so much more 

 potent an influence upon conduct than mere ethics. For religious 

 authority is always a guidance which is conceived of as external 

 to ourselves, and infallible. To accept authority means to submit 

 voluntarily and without question to the dictation of a will or 

 wisdom which is not our own. It is necessary to insist on 'this, 

 because some writers, like Mr. Balfour, have lumped together 

 all non-rational processes by which men come to assent to 

 propositions, and have called them authority. This would even 

 cover the " will to believe " of the experimental pragmatist. 

 But the essence of authority as a source of belief and a guide to 

 conduct is that it issues absolute commands which must not 

 be questioned, and which are supposed to emanate from some 

 power, not ourselves, who has the right to issue them. It is 

 the negation of private judgment. Belief in such an absolute 

 authority has a great influence upon external conduct, and there 

 is no doubt that the form of moral habits modifies the character 

 itself. 



Advocates of strong Discipline may also appeal to the diver- 

 sities of human endowments. Men are born unequal. Demo- 

 cracy rests on a pure superstition — viz., that a large number of 

 admittedly foolish persons, voting together, will somehow evoJve 

 political wisdom. We may say that it is a belief in the plenary 

 inspiration of the odd man. But in reality the majority of 

 human beings recognize their incompetence either to govern 

 other people or to devise a religion and a philosophy for them- 

 selves. So much is this the case that the path to freedom is 

 barred far m.ore by the many who wish to obey than by the few 

 who wish to rule. And there are many persons who will develop 



