childhood, the idea of
doing wrong (that is, of doing what is forbidden, or what is injurious to
others) and the idea of punishment are presented to the mind together, and
the intense character of the impressions causes the association between
them to attain the highest degree of closeness and intimacy. Is it strange,
or unlike the usual processes of the human mind, that in these
circumstances we should retain the feeling and forget the reason on which
it is grounded? But why do I speak of forgetting? In most cases the reason
has never, in our early education, been presented to the mind. The only
ideas presented have been those of wrong and punishment, and an inseparable
association has been created between these directly, without the help of
any intervening idea. This is quite enough to make the spontaneous feelings
of mankind regard punishment and a wrong-doer as naturally fitted to each
other--as a conjunction appropriate in itself, independently of any
consequences," &c.--Mill, Examination of Hamilton, p. 599.

[16] Grammar of Assent, pp. 106, 107.

[17] Throughout these considerations I have confined myself to the
_positive_ side of the subject. My argument being of the nature of a
criticism on the erroneous inferences which are drawn from the _good_
qualities of our moral nature, I thought it desirable, for the sake of
clearness, not to burden that argument by the additional one as to the
source of the _evil_ qualities of that nature. This additional argument,
however, will be found briefly stated at the close of my supplementary
essay on Professor Flint's "Theism." On reading that additional argument, I
think that any candid and unbiassed mind must conclude that, alike in what
it is _not_ as well as in what it _is_, our moral nature points to a
natural genesis, as distinguished from a supernatural cause.

[18] The illustration to which I refer is that of the watershed of a
country being precisely adapted to draining purposes. The rivers just fit
their own particular beds: the latter occupy the lowest grounds, and get
broader and deeper as they advance; pebbles, gravel, and sand all occupy
the best teleological situations, &c., &c.

[19] "Order of Nature," by the Rev. Baden Powell, M.A., F.R.S., &c., 1859,
pp. 228-241.

[20] I think it desirable to state that I perceived this great truth before
I was aware that it had been perceived also by Mr. Spencer. His statement
of it now occurs in the short chapter of _