Our senses and consciousness are often great deceivers, and unless corrected by sufficient knowledge, are frequently as great a source of error in moral questions as in mental ones.[18] Their incessant influence is a cause of selfishness, and of the fallacious tendency existing in nearly every man, to exaggerate the importance of himself and of everything relating to him. {139} It has led man to consider himself "the Lord of Creation";--to believe that his volitions are not subject to natural laws &c.:--and has given rise to the comparatively narrow-minded idea "the study of mankind is man." The fact that consciousness frequently misleads men of energetic temperament who feel their energy, indicates its connection with a physical basis. Consciousness is also an essential condition of what we term evil. If we define evil as that which produces pain or discomfort in sentient creatures, then evil is that influence only which unpleasantly affects consciousness. And if we admit this, then all evil is relative, and there is no absolute evil; because, if there were no sentient creatures, there would be no evil. It is manifest also, that if the existence of evil is dependent upon that of sentient creatures, and if the existence of such creatures depends upon physical conditions, and upon the operations of the great principles of science, then the existence of evil must itself depend to that extent upon those conditions and principles. What we term Evil, is caused, not only by the actions of man, but also on a large scale by the operation of the simplest forces of matter, in earth-quakes, storms, volcanic outbursts, droughts and famines, pestilences, etc. Evil (as well as good) may therefore be viewed as a result, to some extent, of the operation of the laws of the Universe; and here again we are compelled to recognise a scientific basis of morality. {140}