mena, that, where two or more courses
involving moral issues are before us, whether we have a consciousness of
_power_ to choose between them or not, we have a consciousness that we
_ought_ to choose between them; a sense of duty--[Greek: hoti dei touto
prattein]--as Aristotle expresses it, which we cannot shake off.
Whatever this consciousness involves (and some measure of freedom it
must involve or it is nonsense), the feeling exists within us, and
refuses to yield before all the batteries of logic. It is not that of
the two courses we know that one is in the long run the best, and the
other more immediately tempting. We have a sense of obligation
irrespective of consequence, the violation of which is followed again by
a sense of self-disapprobation, of censure, of blame. In vain will
Spinoza tell us that such feelings, incompatible as they are with the
theory of powerlessness, are mistakes arising out of a false philosophy.
They are primary facts of sensation most vivid in minds of most vigorous
sensibility; and although they may be extinguished by habitual
profligacy, or possibly, perhaps, destroyed by logic, the paralysis of
the conscience is no more a proof that it is not a real power of
perceiving real things, than blindness is a proof that sight is not a
real power. The perceptions of worth and worthlessness are not
conclusions of reasoning, but immediate sensations like those of seeing
and hearing; and although, like the other senses, they may be mistaken
sometimes in the accounts they render to us, the fact of the existence
of such feelings at all proves that there is something which corresponds
to them. If there be any such things as 'true ideas,' or clear, distinct
perceptions at all, this of praise and blame is one of them, and
according to Spinoza's own rule we must accept what it involves. And it
involves that some where or other the influence of causes ceases to
operate, and that some degree of power there is in men of
self-determination, by the amount of which, and not by their specific
actions, moral merit or demerit is to be measured. Speculative
difficulties remain in abundance. It will be said in a case, _e.g._ of
moral trial, that there may have been _power_; but was there _power
enough_ to resist the temptation? If there was, then it was resisted. If
there was not, there was no responsibility. We must answer again from
practical instinct. We refuse to allow men to be considered all equally
guilty w