To say that the right is obligatory is to say, then, that we consider ourselves held to do it, without being forced to do it. On the contrary, if we were to do it by force it would cease to be the right. It must therefore be done freely, and duty may thus be defined _an obligation consented to_. Duty presents itself in a two-fold character: it is _absolute_ and _universal_. 1. It is absolute: that is to say, it imposes its commands unconditionally, without taking account of our desires, our passions, our interests. It is by this that the _commands_ of duty may be distinguished, as we have already said, from the counsels of an interested prudence. The rules or calculations of prudence are nothing but _means_ to reach a certain end, which is the useful. The _law_ of duty, on the contrary, is in itself its own _aim_. Here the law should be obeyed for its own sake, and not for any other reason. Prudence says: "The end justifies the means." Duty says: "Do as thou shouldst do, let come what will." 2. From this first character a second is deduced: duty being absolute, is _universal_; that is to say, it can be applied to all men in the same manner and under the same circumstances; whence it follows that each must acknowledge that this law is imposed not only on himself, but on all other men also. To which correspond those two beautiful maxims of the Gospel: "Do to others as thou wishest to be done by. Do not do to others what thou dost not wish they should do to thee." The law of duty is not only obligatory in itself, it is so also because it is derived from God, who in his justice and goodness wishes we should submit to it. God being himself the absolutely perfect being, and having created us in his image, wishes, for this very reason, that we should make every effort to imitate him as much as possible, and has thus imposed on us the obligation of being virtuous. It is God we obey in obeying the law of honesty and duty. =10. Moral conscience.=--A law cannot be imposed on a free agent without its being known to him; without its being present to his mind--that is to say, without his accepting it as true, and recognizing the necessity of its application in every particular case. This faculty of recognizing the moral law, and applying it in all the circumstances that may present themselves, is what is called _conscience_. Conscience is then that act of the mind by which we apply to a particular case, to an action _to be performed_ or already _performed_, the general rules prescribed by moral law. It is both the power that commands and the inward judge that condemns or absolves. On the one hand it _dictates_ what should be done or avoided; on the other it _judges_ what has been done. Hence it is the condition of the performance of all our duties.