not impairing, but at the very first wholly preventing the exercise of the Mental powers. The first a deficiency of the Will, the second of the Affections, the third of the Reason, the fourth of the Conscience. Actual stupidity in nine cases out of ten is caused, not by deficiency in the Mental faculties, but by inertness of the moral powers; and he that examines history and sees how the fierce passions which inflame and set the Will, ambition and hatred and avarice, have enabled the mental powers to act, may see this to be true. He, too, that sees how much the Affections will both give a spring and impetus to mental labor shall see the same.

But most fully it may be observed in teaching. In fact this is the great secret of educational ability, the skill and knowledge of character, to see that "in the moral faculties are the beginnings of mental ability," and the power to discern in the pupil that part of the moral nature that is easiest to cultivate, and then the cultivation of it so as to apply the moral force mentally.

This explains the value of a teacher and of teaching in contradistinction to mere reading.

But we can, I think, confirm this conclusion by another reason, and that is, that if we look at actions in a moral or religious point of view, we shall find that all immoral actions do more or less impede mental activity. With regard to grosser crimes and sins, it is sufficiently manifest that they decay the mental powers, nay, sometimes utterly erase them. With regard to others, I think that the experience of most men will show, that not only great sins, but even moral faults, errors, deficiencies do more or less impede the mental powers, and, of course, to take them away will be to give greater freedom to the mental powers, and greater development.

And he that shall consider the three laws of these governing faculties, as I have laid them out, and then reflect upon the power of Motive upon mental action, the power of Habit and the power of Order, he shall not be slow in concluding that those faculties whose peculiar office it is to guide and govern; secondly, to act continuously; and thirdly, to act according to a fixed law; must, from the very nature of the thing, have an exceeding great effect upon intellectual ability.

But to conclude this subject. I would request the reader to suspend his judgment until he has seen the chapters that treat of these powers separately, and then I hope he shall see so much to

confirm his view that he will accede to the opinion I have here enounced.

In the meantime, from a very extended experience, both in teaching and in observation upon society, I will say that there is more mental ability and mental power running to waste in this country than in any other, and that ten thousand times more mental development in general might there be than there is; and the reason of it is this, that as teachers and parents in general we do not see the relation there is between the "governing" and the "mental" powers, and we often omit altogether the cultivation of the first, and apply ourselves entirely to the development of the second: and for that reason mental ability remains torpid, and powers that otherwise would be in vigorous action do not even germinate.

The remedy for this is in a careful culture bestowed especially upon the moral power; a steady and equable discipline that shall exercise and develope to the utmost the Conscience, the Higher Reason, the Affections, and the Will. This alone can remedy the evil of which we speak.

AU

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BOOK II.

THE CONSCIENCE.

CHAPTER I.

Of Conscience.-Mistakes with regard to it.-What it is not.—It is the sense of responsibility.—Socrates and Pythagoras.-The action of Conscience is, 1st, Prohibiting, 2d, Recording, 3d, Prophetic.-The Prohibiting office of Conscience considered.—The Recording Conscience.-The books that shall be opened. The true solution of the facts of Conscience is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.-Conscience in us is not the Holy Spirit, but the ear that listens to His voice.-It is at once infallible and fallible.

THIS first chapter we have entitled "of Conscience," because, according to a former enumeration, we consider that he who would enter upon the path of moral improvement must begin with this the first, and therefore we place "Conscience" the first.

Now we confess candidly, we think that this matter of Conscience has been confused and disturbed beyond all measure. For there are some that confound it with "Consciousness," and thereby make it merely the knowledge that we have internally, by our reasoning power, as to whether we have acted right or wrong. Again, there are others that make it the sense of right or wrong absolutely, by which we perceive those qualities, whereas there are other faculties by which we feel right and wrong-the Reason and the Affections-by both which we have a perception and measure of right and wrong, as well as by the Conscience. And there are others that call it exclusively the "Moral Sense," as if there were other "immoral senses," whereas all the spiritual faculties are moral, or as if, by it alone, we were guided into morality. And others there are who consider that there is no such thing as a natural faculty, whereby we apprehend a Moral Quality in any action;

and, therefore, when we talk of Conscience, conceive that it is but a short method of saying that such a thing is "useful," or "agreeable," or "reasonable," or "consonant to our nature," or to any other standard that is set up. Now with reference to these opinions, we shall meddle with but few of them. Some are decided by principles previously settled; some others are mere paradoxes which we need not argue against; and for others, it is not worth arguing for or against.

Conscience is not the

We shall therefore state our conclusion. moral sense exclusively, or that which has exclusively a natural perception of Good. For Reason perceives as a sense that which is good in reference to our individual Self. The Affections perceive that which is good in reference to Society, but Conscience that which is good in reference to a future responsibility unto God. In other words, the Law of God is manifested to us through Reason and through the Affections as through Conscience. By all these faculties we perceive that which is morally Good, or as some choose to style it, "the moral quality in actions." Strictly, therefore, do we confine the definition of Conscience to the " perception of the good or evil in action with reference to a future responsibility."

Now, let any man look to these three faculties, and he shall see that they embrace a perception of Good, or of accordance with God's will in all things that can possibly come in contact with man-the Reason in reference to his nature internally, and the agreement of all its powers with the external system; the Affections of Good and Evil in reference to the Home, the Family and the Church, and the Conscience of "Good and Evil in relation to a future responsibility," or what may still more plainly declare it, "the relation of Good and Evil in Time and Space to Good and Evil in Eternity."

The Conscience, therefore, in man, we consider to be the faculty by which he perceives the moral effect of actions in Time in reference to their results upon himself in Eternity. It is that sense which over and above the idea of Right and Wrong, has with it the idea of duty, the sense that it is right, and proper, and suitable to act this way, and not that; and the sense that if we do this way, then are we to be declared just; if we do that way, then are we to be declared unrighteous. That it is the sense of Duty and of Responsibility. An idea manifestly altogether different in

itself from that of a perfect accordance with Reason. For although that which is perfectly in accordance with Reason, shall also be perfectly our duty, yet still in fact the ideas are different.

It needs no other proof than that in all men and in all nations the feeling "I ought" exists cotemporaneous with the feeling of choice in actions. The child feels it just as soon as the man. And oftentimes this feeling "I ought" shall come in, in an actionwe shall reject it, yet subsequent experience shall show it to have been right, Reason shall prove it, and Law. It must be, therefore, a separate original faculty. Nay, furthermore, it is the earliest in action of all moral faculties, and that which is the gate of entrance unto all moral action.

Now, in this stage of our examination, it may be as well to confirm our assertions, by the opinions of two men antecedent to Christ and Christianity, Socrates and Pythagoras, of whom the first was clearly that man among the Heathen, who, by the force of nature, came nearest to Christianity, and the other was, perhaps, the man of greatest Genius among the Ancients.

Socrates, as the foundation of his own moral progress, asserted that it depended upon his Demon, or Spiritual Guardian. He asserted that this spiritual being never commanded, but always forbade, so that if he were going to do anything, and he felt no prohib⚫tion, then he might do it, and its consequences would be good. If not, he felt a peculiar check coming from his Demon, which he could not more particularly describe, and if he did not comply with it and refrain, evil invariably followed. And anccdotes without number are told by his disciples with reference to circumstances so ensuing.

Again, with regard to Pythagoras. Although in regard to him we are in more difficulty than in respect of Socrates, in that his lessons were given to a secret society under ambiguous and enigmatic forms, still we can see that his moral philosophy was one founded upon the Conscience and the Reason, as naturally moral and governing powers. His Y was a famous instance of this. The Greek letter upsilon, similar in form to the English Y, was considered by him to be a "deep mystery."

The reader will see that in the figure of the letter there is one path dividing into two, one to the right and the other to the left. The "mysterious" meaning of it, then, is that at each moment of a man's life he is at the angle of the fork, two paths before him, one