ly weaken, and will at
last destroy its executive powers. When a person knows that a certain
action is wrong, and is tempted to commit it,--conscience will speak
out, and for the first time at least it will be listened to. But if this
warning be neglected, and the sin be committed, the conscience will be
proportionally weakened, and the self-will of the individual will
acquire additional strength. When the temptation again presents itself,
it is with redoubled power, and it meets with less resistance. It will
invariably be found in such cases, that the person felt much more
difficulty in resisting the admonitions of conscience in the case of the
first temptation, than in that of the second; and he will also feel more
during the second than he will during the third. Frequent resistance
offered to the executive powers of conscience will at last lay them
asleep. The beginning of this downward career is always the most
difficult; but when once fairly begun, it grows every day more easy,
till the habit of sin becomes like a second nature.

11. There is yet another feature in the exhibition of the moral sense in
adults, which ought not to be overlooked by the Educationist in his
treatment of the young. We here allude to the remarkable fact, that the
conscience scarcely ever refers to consequences connected merely with
this world and time, but compels the man, in spite of himself, to fear,
that his actions will, in some way or other, have an influence upon his
happiness or his misery in another world, and through eternity.--The
mere uneasiness arising from the fear of detection and punishment by
men, is a perfectly different kind of feeling, and never is, and never
ought to be, dignified with the name of conscience. It is the
consequence of a mere animal calculation of chances;--similar to the
feelings which give rise to the cautious prowling of the hungry lion, or
the stealthy advances of the timorous fox. But the forebodings, as well
as the gnawings of conscience, extend much farther, and strike much
deeper, than these superficial and animal sensations. Conscience in man,
as long as it is permitted to act freely, has always a reference to God,
to a future judgment, and to eternity, and is but rarely affected by
worldly considerations. The valuable lesson to be drawn from this
circumstance obviously is, that the parent and teacher ought, in their
moral training of the young, to make use of the same principle. The
anticipated