But in most contemplated action there are relations that
raise the question of right or wrong--in some cases only by remote
implication, in others in clear and burning emphasis. There are degrees
in this respect, all the way from the faintest glimmering of ethical
quality to the boldest and most transparent certainty. We are by no
means entitled to doubt the existence of conscience, because in all
these unequal conditions, with imperfect knowledge of the relations
of particular actions and feelings, it fails to apply its unchanging
affirmations of generic duty, with equal or unmistaken certainty and
exactness, to all the varied motives, feelings and deeds of men. It is
clear how differing moral judgments may occur, without any impeachment
whatever of either the ethical reality or the existence of the faculty
for its discernment.
==Infallibility Not Involved.==
Fifthly, we must add that the reality of this faculty, as an essential
endowment of the human soul, by no means involves infallibility in its
action. No one of the human faculties is, in all its range and the
application of its data, absolutely infallible, incapable of error or
of being misled. The sense-perceptions, the memory, the logical power,
the power of applying the notions of time and space, are all liable to
error. Yet these are all original, constitutional and normal faculties
of man, divinely-given guides for his self-direction and suited to the
ends for which they exist. The reality of a faculty is not disproved by
its fallibility. Finiteness, limitation and consequent incompetence to
exclude mistake or only partial discernment, are no reason for denying
the existence of any faculty within the range of its given action and
real discriminations. The very errors that appear in its action are at
once evidence of its existence and proof of limitations which harmonize
it with the aggregate human psychology. The objection against the
conscience from its fallibility, which is but another name for this
diversity in its applicatory judgments, if applied to all the psychical
faculties, would discredit the reality of the aggregate complex of the
psychical powers and overthrow the basis of all our knowledge, even of
that which is employed to effect such overthrow. No diversity occurs
in the primary judgment of distinction between moral good and evil. As
already explained, it is easy to see how differences, varied and great,
should appear in the application of the distinction to the complicated,
obscure and ever-changing aspects and relations of human conduct.
==Proofs Independent of Origin.==
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