l power
began to be seriously curtailed. "The Divine right of kings" went its
way with other archaisms into the limbo of oblivion, from which the
reigning monarch in Prussia would appear to be vainly endeavouring to
rescue it, while man began to realise that the causes of natural and
human phenomena were to be sought in nature and in man. As a
consequence of this, a new theory of conscience began to take shape,
which was ultimately described by one of the boldest of later English
philosophical writers, the late Professor Clifford, as "the voice of
man commanding us to live for the right".[1]

In these definitions of conscience, as "the voice of God" and "the
voice of man," we have an instance of propositions which in logic are
called _contraries_. Both, therefore, cannot be exclusively and
simultaneously true, but both may be simultaneously false. Thus, "all
men are white" and "no men are white" are contraries, but they are both
false. And this, I submit, is the judgment to be pronounced on these
two exclusive definitions of conscience. Neither is, exclusively
speaking, true, but there is a measure of truth common to both, and
that measure it will be the purpose of the following remarks to
determine.

But, before going any farther, we must get a clear idea of what we mean
by conscience. In a general way, of course, we all know what is meant
by the word: an appeal to conscience would be intelligible by every
one. We understand it to be a faculty which decides on a definite
course of action when alternatives of good and evil are before us. We
look upon it as an instinct, magnetic in its power, incessantly
prompting us towards the fulfilment of duty, and gravely reproaching us
on its dereliction. We recognise it as the sweetest and most
troublesome of visitants; sweetest when the peace unspeakable sinks
into our souls, most troublesome when we have been guilty of a great
betrayal. So delicate is that voice that nothing is easier than to
stifle it; so clear is it that no one by any possibility can mistake it.

Thus, in general terms, we may describe conscience. Coming now more
closely to a philosophical analysis of the conception, we shall find
therein much enlightenment for the purposes of our present
investigation. In the first place, the word is of comparatively late
origin. It does not occur in the Hebrew writers of the Old Testament.
Its earliest appearance is in the Book of Wisdom, the work of a
Hell