€itap. III. 
MORAL SENSE. 
99 
faction which every animal feels when it follows its 
proper instincts, and the dissatisfaction felt when pre- 
vented, be called selfish. 
The expression of the wishes and judgment of the 
members of the same community, at first by oral and 
afterwards by written language, serves, as just re- 
marked, as a most important secondary guide of 
conduct, in aid of the social instincts, but sometimes 
in opposition to them. This latter fact is well exem- 
plified by the Law of Honour , that is the law of the 
opinion of our equals, and not of all our country- 
men. The breach of this law, even when the breach 
is known to be strictly accordant with true mo- 
rality, has caused many a man more agony than a real 
crime. We recognise the same influence in the burn- 
ing sense of shame which most of us have felt even 
after the interval of years, when calling to mind some 
accidental breach of a trifling though fixed rule of eti- 
quette. The judgment of the community will generally 
be guided by some rude experience of what is best in 
the long run for all the members ; but this judgment 
will not rarely err from ignorance and from weak powers 
of reasoning. Hence the strangest customs and super- 
stitions, in complete opposition to the true welfare and 
happiness of mankind, have become all-powerful through- 
out the world. We see this in the horror felt by a 
Hindoo who breaks his caste, in the shame of a Maho- 
metan woman who exposes her face, and in innumerable 
other instances. It would be difficult to distinguish 
between the remorse felt by a Hindoo who has eaten 
unclean food, from that felt after committing a theft; 
but the former would probably be the more severe. 
How so many absurd rules of conduct, as well as so 
many absurd religious beliefs, have originated we do 
not know ; nor how it is that they have become, in all 
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