see a soul whose acts are all regal, graceful, and pleasant as roses, we must thank God that such things can be and are, and not turn sourly on the angel and say, ’Crump is a better man with his grunting resistance to all his native devils.’” A Chinese proverb says, “He who finds pleasure in vice and pain in virtue is still a novice in both.”  The saint is he who has learned really to love virtue, in its concrete duties, better than all the allurements of sin; to him we may say, as Virgil said to Dante, “Take thine own pleasure for thy guide henceforth.”  But until we are saints it is wise for us to cultivate conscientiousness, the habit of obedience, even when it costs, to that inward urging which is, on the whole, for most of us, our safest guide.

F. Paulsen, System of Ethics, book ii, chap.  V, secs. 1, 2, 5.  H. Spencer, data of ethics, chap.  VII, secs. 44-46.  S. E. Mezes, ethics, descriptive and explanatory, chaps.  V, VIII.  Sutherland, op. cit, chap.  XV.  F. Thilly, introduction to ethics, chap.  III.  Westermarck, op. cit, chap.  V. Darwin, descent of man, partt.  I, chap.  III.  J. H. Hyslop, elements of ethics, chaps.  VI, vii.  J. S. Mill, utilitarianism, chap. v.  H. W. Wright, self-realization, part.  I, chap.  IV.

CHAPTER V

THE INDIVIDUALIZING OF CONSCIENCE

Conscience as we have seen, is the result of a fusion of elements coming from personal experience and tribal judgment.  In its early phases the latter elements predominate; conscience may be fairly called the inner side of custom.  Primitive men have little individuality and involuntarily reflect the general attitude.  But with widening experience and growing mental maturity, conscience, like man’s other faculties, tends to become more individual and divergent, until we find, in civilized life, a man standing out for conscience’ sake against the opinion of the world.  The individualization of conscience, with the consequent clash of ideals, gives the study of morality much of its interest and difficulty; it will be worthwhile to note some of its causes.  Why did not the individualizing of conscience occur earlier?

(1) In primitive man there is not much opportunity for the development of individuality.  There are few personal possessions, there is little scope for the exercise of peculiar talents, there is little power of reflection, to develop strongly individual ideas.  The self-assertive instincts are to considerable extent still dormant for lack of stimulus to call them forth.  The individual is content to take his place in the group life, and it seldom occurs to him to question the group-judgment.