is chiefly designed by Nature for aiding the
parent and teacher in this most important part of their labours.

7. Another circumstance connected with this subject is, that the
executive powers of conscience always act according to the belief of the
person, and not according to what would have been the dictates of
conscience in the exercise of her legislative functions.--This of itself
is a sufficient proof of the separate and independent agency of these
two principles. The legislative powers, as at first implanted in the
heart of man, there is reason to believe, would, if allowed to act
freely, never have been in error; and even still, they are generally a
witness for the purity of truth;--but the executive powers invariably
act, not according to what is really the truth, but according to what
the person himself believes to be right or wrong. The child who was told
that it was a sin to eat flesh on a Friday, would be reproved by his
conscience were he to indulge his appetite by doing so;--and the
conscience of the zealous Musselman, which would smite him for indulging
in a sip of wine, would commend and reward him by its approval, for
indulging in cruelty and injustice to the unbeliever in his faith. The
executive functions of conscience then act independently of the
legislative, and frequently in opposition to them. There must be a
feeling of wrong, before the executive powers will reprove; and there
must be a sense of merit, before they will commend;--but a mistake in
either case makes no apparent difference. This is another, and a
powerful argument for the early moral instruction of the young; and it
shews us also, the greater value which Nature puts upon the
_application_ and _use_ of knowledge, than upon its possession. She not
only encourages this application in all ordinary cases; but here we find
her, for the purpose of maintaining the general principle, lending her
assistance in the application and use of the knowledge received, even
when the knowledge itself is erroneous, and the application mischievous.

8. Another important circumstance which is worthy of especial notice,
is, that conscience is much more readily acted upon by _examples_, than
by _precepts_.--In communicating a knowledge of duty, this principle in
Nature has become proverbial; but it is not less true with respect to
the executive powers, in approving or reproving that which is right or
wrong. It is the prerogative of conscience to excite us t