664 
AN ESSAY ON THE FUTURE EXISTENCE 
ment, which is a knowledge of knowing what is right and what is 
wrong. 
Let us take one of the aborigines of America for an example of 
this, who, in accordance with his political and religious belief, in 
order to prove himself virtuous and valorous, and to be considered 
equal to his fellow-men, is required to be in possession of the 
scalps of a certain number of his victims. This man, until having 
performed those duties which are held out by the doctrines of his 
barbarous religion, will feel an inward dictation that he had not 
performed those things which rendered him, in the eyes of his 
surrounding fellow-barbarians, equal in virtue to most of the rest 
of them; and he would, perhaps, be regarded in an immoral point 
of view by his fellow-countrymen, more especially if he had not 
acted with his wonted bravery when certain opportunities offered. 
He would feel degraded, restless, unhappy, or, more decidedly 
speaking, his conscience, — fashioned by his barbarian birth and 
education — would condemn him until he had fulfilled these duties. 
While we, on the contrary, bred in a Christian and civilized na- 
tion, have our ideas of right and wrong, our judgment, — that is to 
say, our conscience, — fashioned altogether by the train of thinking 
which our minds have been subject to in the course of our religious 
Christian education. Thus conscience must be considered as al- 
together a relative term — a sensibility of the mind — an impulse 
dictatory to the mind as to what is right and what is wrong, which 
inward monitor is only the production of an accumulation of know- 
ledge, or known facts and doctrines; in fine, conscience is know- 
ledge and knowledge is conscience. 
And have the brute creation no conscience] Yes; each animal 
possesses a conscience according to his capacity, and agreeably to 
the education which he has received. “ Observation and experi- 
ment are fast leading to the conclusion, that it is one particular 
part of the brain that is the peculiar seat of intelligence , — the ex- 
ternal, cineritious, or cortical part. To this portion fibres may be 
traced from all the organs of sense, and from it to every part of 
the frame. Thither the intelligence is communicated, and thence 
the commands are received*.” That portion, compassing the bulk 
of the different brains, is far more abundant in the human being 
than in any of the inferior animals; it is also more abundant in 
monkeys, elephants, and dogs, than in some other of the lower 
ones, such as the sheep and the ox: and it is singular that, while 
we are calculating the relative proportions of brain that are found 
in each, we are also recording the comparative intelligence of these 
animals. 
Youatt. 
