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cefanati#jjpittuoft      ,,conscience   
,,fanaticism  ,an ,essay on ,moral      
,values  by  ,,george ,,pitt-,,rivers   
quam memento servare mentem             
,illustration3 #aiai  ,london3 ,william 
,heinemann  ,london3 ,william           
,heinemann1 #aiai     ,,preface   ,in   
presenting this little volume to the    
public ,i am fully conscious of my      
presumption in introducing my personal  
views in a region where many hundreds of
 better qualified writers have devoted  
their best efforts4 ,since1 however1 no 
apology can justify a profitless task1  
if such it be1 or add to its utility1 if
 indeed it possesses any1 ,i will not   
attempt to make one4  ,if ,i have       
contributed in ever so slight a degree  
towards an understanding of the mental  
state or attitude we call fanaticism1   
for the purpose of guarding against the 

catastrophes it begets1 ,i shall have   
achieved my purpose4 ,it is             
unfortunately inevitable that a         
discussion which involves current       
opinions and beliefs must necessarily   
encounter strong prejudices and         
opposition1 but it is less on this      
account that this little work is likely 
to fail than for the reason to which    
,hume attributed the failure which      
attended the publication of his         
,treatise of ,human ,nature1 which he   
described as his guilt of a very usual  
indiscretion1 in going to the press too 
early4 ,a circumstance which prevented  
that unfortunate literary attempt from  
reaching such distinction as even to    
excite a murmur among the zealots4#a    
,needless to say1 ,i have relied for my 
interpretation of human notions and     
ideas1 and the conduct which results    
from them1 very largely upon the works  
of past and contemporary writers2 and my
 indebtedness to those with whom ,i     
differ no less than those with whom ,i  

agree is but very inadequately          
acknowledged in my references to the    
works of some of them4  ,the earlier    
portions of the essay are devoted       
chiefly to an examination of moral      
ideas1 the latter portions more         
exclusively to the facts of nature and  
of mind from which they derive their    
meaning4 ,throughout ,i have attempted  
to keep the argument as free as possible
 from the thin air of philosophical and 
scholastic dialectic1 and as far as     
possible in terms of common usage and   
thought4 ,with this end in view1 and for
 the sake of brevity1 the authors to    
whose works ,i have referred most       
frequently have been selected either    
because they are better known or because
 their opinions are more widely held    
than in the case of others4 ,but in any 
case no claim to exhaustive or even     
adequate treatment can be made for so   
slight a review of so vast a subject4   
,the first problem which ,i have        
attempted to deal with is one which     

confronts all moralists4 ,it consists in
 the difficulty of deriving ethical     
notions from notions which are not      
ethical1 or of deducing the moral law   
from the facts of experience and of     
nature4 ,the attempt to escape from this
 difficulty often takes the form of     
adopting a theory by which the whole    
world is divided into two unrelated     
worlds1 a world of values and a physical
 world of mechanical sequences4 ,in     
order to bring these two independent and
 self-consistent systems within the same
 reality and to weld them together1 ,god
 is postulated4 ,god is necessary1 it is
 argued1 to prove the objectivity of    
morality4 ,that is to say1 that since   
moral values are eternally valid1       
independently of man's capacity to be   
conscious of them1 they can only have   
existence in the one eternal mind4#b    
,the purpose of this essay is to offer a
 different solution4 ,as this question  
of the status of moral values is of     
great importance to the moral argument1 

a preliminary examination of the ground 
may be helpful4  ,the predication of    
value to an object which elicits moral  
approbation is not1 as most ,theistic   
writers stubbornly maintain1 an implicit
 acknowledgment of the objectivity of   
the goodness predicated1 it is merely   
the act of appreciating the subject or  
valuer's attitude in relation to the    
object 7the relationship may be purely  
hypothetical71 but it may1 and usually  
does1 invite a similar attitude on the  
part of any number of subjects4#c ,the  
relation of subject to object--this also
 applies to all relations--may belong to
 objective reality1 but not the moral   
worth we ascribe to the object as a     
result of that relationship4 ,this      
distinction is important and involves1  
necessarily1 a discrimination 7not      
always made7 between the treatment of   
knowledge and of value4 ,hume1 by       
denying the objective character of the  
relations and connexions of nature      
equally with moral judgment1 in his     

interpretation of individual experience1
 treated moral judgment and knowledge of
 natural science in an identical manner4
 ,in the following discussion truth1 to 
which ,i have denied relativity1 is     
accorded a position altogether distinct 
from value4 ,appreciation of truth and  
interest in knowing is treated as a     
value1 but not truth itself to which    
subjectivity is denied4 ,the method ,i  
have adopted of treating this           
fundamental point may perhaps be made   
clearer by a simple illustration4 ,let  
us take any particular moral judgment1  
for example1 ,a a conscious individual  
is good4 ,the assertion implies that ,a 
is the habitual doer of desirable       
actions1 or is benevolently disposed    
towards the valuer1 ,society at large1  
or ,god1 according to the valuer's idea 
of goodness4 ,in any case ,a's conduct  
or his attitude must have evoked        
approbation by reason of its effect     
7emotional or material7 upon the valuer 
or those with whom he is in sympathy4   

,the valuer might attempt to refute this
 definition by maintaining that ,a's    
habitual conduct does him the greatest  
injury1 but that his predication of good
 in respect of ,a is the assertion of an
 objective fact4 ,in spite of such an   
objection1 ,i would reply that the moral
 judgment may indeed be intended to     
imply certain definite objective        
qualities or properties because the     
valuer considers these desirable1 and   
chooses arbitrarily to define good as   
containing those definite properties1 or
 because in the community to which he   
addresses himself they are customarily  
so defined4 ,the veracity1 however1 of  
the moral judgment1 considered as a     
statement of fact1 can only be tested   
after an agreement has been reached as  
to the content of the symbol good4 ,it  
has then been given a meaning which     
alone it does not possess4 ,the validity
 of moral judgment1 when it is not      
merely the expression of individual     
attitude1 will therefore always depend  

upon the criterion of conduct previously
 adopted4 ,in this way it is held that a
 moral judgment differs from a statement
 of fact1 which is valid irrespective of
 the existence of any mind capable of   
apprehending that fact4  ,in the last   
two chapters1 where an examination of   
psychological processes has been        
necessary1 ,i have experienced no slight
 difficulty in finding appropriate terms
 by which to distinguish certain        
conceptions which are in some respects  
new4 ,an inapt terminology and the      
misuse of terms is so grave a fault1 and
 so habitually results in errors1       
obscurity1 and confusion1 that it may   
not be superfluous to call attention to 
the terms that are more liable to       
misinterpretation and in many ways least
 satisfactory4 ,for this purpose it will
 be necessary to give the briefest      
possible account of the use to which    
they are put1 while their more precise  
definition will be left to the chapters 
in which they occur4  ,the psychic life 

and the mental activity of human beings 
is conditioned by three factors4 ,the   
first1 heredity1 denotes the            
accumulation of experiences and         
consequent structural modifications     
acquired by the race during the process 
of its adjustment to its environment2   
the manifestation of the result of this 
experience in behaviour is called       
instinct4 ,the second is the result of  
the habits and acquirements of the      
individual from the moment of conception
 to the end of his existence3 this1     
together with the first1 produces what  
we call character4 ,the third1 those    
external influences operating upon the  
individual1 we refer to as environment4 
,if we would reflect upon the mental    
life of humanity we must consider the   
individual mind in relation to the world
 of mankind4 ,in considering the        
individual mind ,i have adopted the     
terms objective mind and subjective mind
 to denote two aspects of mind4 ,the    
words objective and subjective in       

conjunction with mind are used in a     
special sense which has to be defined4  
,the world of men has been considered as
 the psychic environment of the         
individual mind1 and ,i have introduced 
a term to denote the power of           
aggregations of human thoughts and      
impulses4 ,it has been viewed as an     
aspect of the universal process         
underlying the conative disposition and 
will-to-power of all living beings1 and 
on account of the mode of its operation 
it has been termed cosmic suggestion4   
,the term is not intended to imply that 
the psychic forces of the human mind can
 be given off and have separate         
existence1 like the odylic fluid of the 
early ,mesmerists4 ,the power is that of
 collective minds2 suggestion an effect 
of its activity1 not a derived essence4 
,it must be understood that these three 
terms are provisional1 and will be      
discarded if1 in the course of time1    
better ones suggest themselves4         
,finally1 ,i would crave the indulgence 

of my readers to say a few words about  
the philosophy of egoism4 ,there is a   
view of egoism--the principle of        
self-interest--as distinguished from    
altruism1 which is seen in opposition to
 asceticism and mysticism1 a view which 
prompted ,lecky when he wrote3 ,taking  
human nature with all its defects1 the  
influence of an enlightened             
self-interest first of all upon the     
actions and afterwards upon the         
character of mankind1 is shown to be    
sufficient to construct the whole       
edifice of civilization2 and if that    
principle were withdrawn1 all would     
crumble in the dust4444 ,when1          
therefore1 the ascetic1 proclaiming the 
utter depravity of mankind1 seeks to    
extirpate his most natural passions1 to 
crush the expansion of his faculties1 to
 destroy the versatility of his tastes1 
and to arrest the flow and impulse of   
his nature1 he is striking at the very  
force and energy of civilization4 ,how  
infinitely preferable is the spirit of  

enlightened egoism to the blind altruism
 of the fanatic6 ,the egoism that       
enhances rather than dims the love of   
others4 ,it is only through the         
realization of community of interests   
and aims that like thought will result  
in like conduct4 ,it is a recognition of
 this principle of systematic           
integration of interests and their      
concomitant obligations1 starting from  
egoism1 in the sense of a realization of
 the relation of self to environment1   
and then through successive stages of   
widening appreciation of the full       
contents of environment to the          
identification of the self with the     
community1 which alone leads to ,state  
or ,national morality1 and will lead1   
ultimately it may be hoped1 to the      
morality of a community of all          
nations--that is1 a world morality4 ,it 
is for this reason that we say that the 
end and aim of a true ethical system is 
to find the interests of mankind in the 
interests of the individual4  ,and now1 

as we stand on the threshold of a new   
era--a new world in search of its       
soul--what better precept can we have   
than the simple words of the great      
thinker who1 three hundred years ago1   
also stood on the threshold of a new    
world of thought8   ,il suffit de bien  
juger pour bien faire1 et de juger le   
mieux qu'on puisse1 pour faire aussi    
tout son mieux1 c'est--dire1 pour       
acqurir toutes les vertus1 et ensemble  
tous les autres biens1 qu'on puisse     
acqurir2 et lorsqu'on est certain que   
cela est1 on ne saurait manquer d'tre   
content4--,descartes1 ,discours de la   
,mthode4   ,g4 ,p4 ,r4  ,,hinton ,,st4  
,,mary1 ,,dorset ,january #a1 #aiai     
,,footnotes3  #a ,hume's ,autobiography4
  #b ,this is the position of the       
,idealistic schools and is adopted in   
,professor ,sorley's recently published 
,gifford ,lectures1 ,moral ,values and  
the ,idea of ,god4  #c ,this            
relationship may be expressed in        
psychological terms4 ,dr4 ,mc,dougall   

expresses it thus3 ,objects have value  
for us in proportion as they excite our 
conative tendencies2 our consciousness  
of their value1 positive or negative1 is
 our consciousness of the strength of   
the conation they awake in us4--,body   
and ,mind1 p4 #cbi4     ,,contents      
,,chap4                                 
,,page   ,i4 ,,introduction             
#a       ,the importance ascribed to the
 word conscience      by public opinion3
 by the ,state3 by the ,church3         
need for examination of its credentials 
,,ii4 ,,the ,,validity ,,of ,,moral     
,,judgments                        #g   
,theism and ,determinism3 the ,intuitive
 schools3      the ,rationalistic       
schools3 recognition of ,good3      the 
facts stated3 the ,utilitarian standard 
demanded  ,,iii4 ,,the ,,meaning ,,of   
,,moral ,,obligation                    
#bj       ,the argument against         
,utilitarianism3 ,mill's defence      of
 ,utilitarianism3 a variation of ,mill's
 position3      the principle of        

proximity3 the meaning of ,truth3       
duty3 an illustration from history3     
,robert ,e4 ,lee   ,,iv4 ,,religion     
,,and ,,morality                        
#cb       ,probing the essentials3 the  
need for a moral code3      its         
artificial character3 the deeper        
morality3      ,morality and ,religion3 
religious and political      fanaticism3
 moral values and psychic force3        
,monism and ,duality3 a reconciliation  
of systems3      conservation of the    
soul3 education and the formation       
of opinion4    ,v4 ,,the ,,laws ,,of    
,,suggestion ,,and ,,subjective ,,mind  
#dd       ,the power of ideas3 origin of
 the ,world ,war3      psychodynamics   
and the law of suggestion3 ,haeckel     
on emotion3 ,dr4 ,samuel ,johnson on the
 progress of      an agitator3          
consciousness3 ,hudson's hypothesis3    
the two aspects of mind3 ,theology on   
the origin      of ,good and ,evil3     
self-knowledge3 ,socrates and      ,joan
 of ,arc3 the phenomena of madness3 men 

of      genius3 evolution and organic   
memory3 telepathy3      the power of    
suggestion3 psychotherapeutics3         
faith-healers3 ,christian ,science3     
memory3      ,coleridge's case3 ,william
 ,james3 ,bernard ,shaw      on ,art4   
,,vi4 ,,valuer ,,and ,,valuation        
#gc       ,factors determining valuation
 and arrangement of      the discussion4
       7#a7 ,,instinct ,,and ,,heredity 
#gc       ,prof4 ,ward on heredity3     
,haeckel on instincts3      ,mc,dougall 
on instincts3 imitation and morality3   
demagogues and fanatics3 geniuses and   
politicians3      maternal impressions3 
heredity versus environment3            
conscience as an emotional and          
instinctive      organ1 and conscience  
as a thinking and intellectual          
organ3 the force of cosmic suggestion on
 morality3      remorse4       7#b7     
,,the ,,factor ,,of ,,emotion           
#hf       ,emotion defined3 its         
manifestations3 its control3      ,ward 
on emotion3 ,james on emotion3 the      

sthetic      emotions3 ,racine and the  
element of mystery in      ,art3        
,william ,hazlitt on the worship of     
names3      emotional sensibility3      
sthetic appreciation4       7#c7        
,,judgment ,,of ,,ends                  
#if       ,the intellectual and critical
 processes3 realization      of ends3   
recognition of ,good3 the norm of       
valuation4       7#d7 ,,cosmic          
,,suggestion                            
#ii       ,public opinion3 emotional    
suggestions3 individual                 
suggestibility3 gregarious attraction3  
ecstatic      oratory3 ,rasputin3 ,mark 
,antony3 propaganda3      the ,press3   
,mr4 ,hilaire ,belloc's views3 the      
influence      of literature3 the       
worship of symbols3 ,bergson's          
definition of metaphysics3 the necessary
 task of      religion3 progress or     
decline3 the highest form of            
morality4     ,,conscience ,,and        
,,fanaticism     ,i  ,,introduction     
,in all ages conscience has been the    

theme of priest1 politician1            
philanthropist and obstructionist4 ,so  
often used and so seldom analysed1      
beyond a bare assertion of its function1
 it is curious to reflect on the strange
 medley of uses to which this word is   
put4  ,conscience is at once the        
standard and the refuge of orthodox and 
fanatic1 patriot and                    
anarchist--according as they are        
described by admirer or detractor--but1 
let us believe with ,lecky1#d least     
often of the genuine hypocrite4  ,never 
was a nation so beset with conscientious
 men and women as ,england is to-day2   
some helping1 some hindering1 some      
having little effect on the national    
welfare4 ,some flaunt the badge         
obtrusively1 they label themselves      
conscientious objectors to military     
service1 conscientious objectors to     
vaccination1 conscientious teetotallers2
 in some cases anti-vivisectionists1#e  
social reformers and 7formerly7         
suffragettes proclaim their exertions   

endured for conscience' sake2 so1 for   
the most part1 do missionaries and      
religious functionaries1 and1 in fact1  
all and any who engage in propaganda or 
obstruction1 because1 they say1         
something higher than reason prompts our
 motives--'conscience'4#f ,others refer 
to conscience shyly as of something too 
sacred to be spoken of publicly1 and    
again others only in moments of intense 
earnestness--or alcoholic remorse4  ,a  
conscience1 in fact1 is an invaluable   
asset2 where it does not gain           
approbation1 it at least gains some     
measure of respect4  ,most people1 then1
 admit the existence and the reality of 
what we popularly call conscience1 and  
although fewer people are agreed as to  
its origin and nature1 it is1           
nevertheless1 accorded a high place of  
importance and almost universal         
recognition as an arbiter in the affairs
 of men4  ,so undisputed is this claim  
to inviolability of conscience in       
twentieth-century ,england that the     

,state1 in framing her laws1 modifies   
their application by the interspersion  
of caveats in the form of conscience    
clauses4  ,the principle on which the   
conscience proviso is allowed to        
negative the universal applicability of 
the ,state's demand for service or      
compliance with her rules appears1      
however1 to be somewhat arbitrary and   
uncertain1 and can hardly be said to be 
devised solely in deference to any      
possible religious sanction1 since1     
although a man's conscience is allowed  
to exempt him from vaccinating his      
children1 the plea of religious         
sanction1 in the case of a man          
professing the polygamous doctrine of   
,brigham ,young1#g would not exempt him 
from amenability to the law concerning  
bigamy2 or1 again1 the conscience of a  
,quaker or of a ,christadelphian#h is   
recognized as a stronger qualification  
for exemption from combatant service    
than the equally recalcitrant           
consciences of1 e4g4 an ,atheist or a   

,member of the ,church of ,england4 ,yet
 the standardization of privileged      
denominational consciences is strongly  
disavowed6 ,in spite1 however1 of a     
certain illogical inconsistency in      
practice1 it is virtually conceded as a 
right that a man should justify any     
conduct by the plea of conscience1 even1
 in many cases1 when it militates       
directly against the good of the ,state4
  ,even more than the ,state and public 
opinion does the ,protestant ,church    
insist upon the authority and           
inviolability of conscience4 ,driven1   
step by step1 from the time of the      
,reformation1 by the encroachments of   
science and the progress of             
,rationalism1 from her defence of the   
infallibility of ,doctrine and          
,scripture1 the ,protestant ,church has 
sought to render her position           
impregnable by increased insistence upon
 the inviolability and sanctity of      
revelation and conscience4 ,lecky1      
speaking of the trend of ,protestant    

,rationalism1 says3 ,its central        
conception is the elevation of          
conscience into a position of supreme   
authority as the religious organ1 a     
verifying faculty discriminating between
 truth and error4#i  ,the most recent   
stalwarts of the ,church of ,england are
 equally insistent upon this point1 thus
 the ,rev4 ,g4 ,l4 ,richardson writes3  
,we shall appeal to and invigorate the  
conscience in proportion as we rely upon
 the ,holy ,spirit as the one source of 
spiritual power4444 ',the fellowship of 
the ,holy ,ghost' and ,his grace through
 the ,church is the master word of the  
twentieth century4#aj ,this passage well
 illustrates the supreme importance1    
with regard to her position1 which the  
,church attaches to the appeal to       
conscience at the present day4 ,in      
another passage the same author says1   
the authority of conscience is 444      
paramount for the individual4 ,dr4 ,j4  
,n4 ,figgis in his ,churches in the     
,modern ,state says that any doctrine   

which would destroy the springs of      
spiritual life in the individual        
conscience would be disastrous to civic 
as well as to religious life4  ,having  
raised the individual conscience to a   
pinnacle of ethical omniscience1 the    
ecclesiastic next proceeds to bring it  
into line with1 or rather into          
synchronous subordination to1 the       
aggregate ,church ,conscience4 ,the     
,church is a ,divine society1 her       
members will feel an obligation to be   
loyal to her discipline4444 ,the        
conscience of her members will respond  
with approval or shame when they keep1  
or neglect to keep1 her standards4 ,from
 this the resulting code and sentiment  
is the ,church ,conscience4#aa  ,mr4 ,g4
 ,k4 ,chesterton throws further light on
 this interrelationship4 ,the ',church  
,conscience' is rather to be conceived  
as a fortress to which the individual   
may return for shelter and strength when
 the attacks of temptation threaten to  
overwhelm him4 ,at such times it is well

 to feel that we are not dependent on   
the 'inner light' of conscience alone1  
but that we can throw ourselves on a    
social force mightier than our own1 and 
behold with astonishment and enthusiasm 
a ,divine company and a ,divine         
,captain4#ab  ,whilst ,church and ,state
 are in agreement regarding its         
importance and sanctity1 the same       
unanimity is not exhibited in dealing   
with the origin and character of        
conscience4 ,equally divided in this    
respect are the philosophers and        
psychologists4  ,priests are fond of    
telling us that conscience is the voice 
of ,god within us4 ,to some men it      
appears strange that the voice of the   
same ,god should frequently induce men  
to oppose each other with such          
particular bitterness4 ,this objection  
is sometimes met by the explanation that
 although it is the voice of ,god       
speaking through the medium of our      
souls1 we fail to recognize or interpret
 rightly its significance4 ,this        

explanation1 again1 is not altogether   
satisfactory1 since1 if that were the   
case1 the voice of ,god must be so      
uncertain a guide it were better not to 
rely on it4  ,when we look back through 
the pages of ,history and consider the  
actions of men and the motives to which 
they ascribe them1 and see what an orgy 
of blood1 of persecutions1 of burnings1 
of torturings1 of blind passions and    
religious frenzy1 of diabolical         
imaginings and monstrous eschatology has
 been conceived at the instigation of   
conscience and religion1 and prescribed 
in the name of ,god1 we are inclined to 
inquire more deeply into the meaning and
 credentials of this watchword of all   
ages4  ,,footnotes3  #d ,hypocrites1 who
 from interested motives profess        
opinions which they do not really       
believe1 are probably rarer than is     
usually supposed4--,rise and ,influence 
of ,rationalism in ,europe4  #e ,a few  
years ago the ,animal ,defence and      
,anti-,vivisection ,society distributed 

pamphlets from their headquarters in    
,piccadilly1 beginning ,do not ask of   
your doctor his opinion on this matter1 
ask your conscience1 etc4  #f ,this     
distinction is commonly made between    
conscience and the intellectual faculty 
of reason2 thus1 when a man says1 ,my   
conscience tells me1 he usually means1  
,no reason will deter me4  #g ,mormon   
leader and preacher1 died in #ahgg1     
leaving seventeen wives4  #h ,the       
establishment of bona fide membership of
 either of the above-mentioned religious
 societies 7inter alia7 by a            
conscientious objector was recognized by
 ,military ,service ,tribunals 7acting  
under official instructions7 as         
sufficient cause for a verdict of       
exemption4  #i ,rationalism in ,europe1 
#aiac edition1 p4 #afg4  #aj            
,conscience1 its ,origin and ,authority 
7#aiae74  #aa ,conscience1 its ,origin  
and ,authority1 p4 #aej4  #ab           
,orthodoxy1 p4 #acg1 quoted by ,g4 ,l4  
,richardson4     ,,ii  ,,the ,,validity 

,,of ,,moral ,,judgments   ,any         
investigation of the phenomenon of moral
 conduct1 and of its interpretation1    
brings us face to face with two sets of 
conflicting theories4 ,these may1 for   
convenience1 be roughly divided into the
 two principal schools of thought which 
have been termed respectively the ,moral
 ,sense or ,intuitive schools and the   
,rationalistic schools of ethics4       
,certain writers in their search for the
 springs of moral conduct have attempted
 to place the issue between ,naturalism 
or ,determinism 7by no means synonymous 
or necessarily connected7 on the one    
side1 and ,theism on the other#ac2 and1 
in their eagerness to discredit the     
former to the advantage of the latter1  
imagine they demolish ,determinism 7at  
any rate in the ethical sphere7 by      
pushing it to its logical conclusion and
 by showing that it has connected       
completely and indissolubly1 as far as  
observation can carry us1 mind with     
matter2 it has established a functional 

relation to exist between every fact of 
thinking1 willing or feeling1 on the one
 side1 and some molecular change in the 
body on the other side1 and man1 with   
all his ways and works1 is simply a part
 of nature1 and can1 by no device of    
thought1 be detached from or set above  
it4#ad  ,what1 after all1 is involved in
 the acceptance of such a conclusion8   
,what is there to fear8 ,to concede     
this1 it is thought1 would mean to      
relegate man to the position of a mere  
automaton1 freed from accountability to 
,god1 responsibility to man1 and the    
fears of conscience4  ,so far from      
ridding man of responsibility1 the clear
 recognition by him of the true nature  
of his environment and antecedents1 the 
laws by which they influence him1 and   
his inherent capacity of resistance--in 
other words1 the two processes          
observable in the world1 action contrary
 to1 and action along1 the line of least
 resistance#ae--;does1 on the contrary1 
greatly increase his responsibility of  

action and his power to know himself4   
,is not mind and matter subject to the  
same law8 ,do they not react to the same
 ,god8 ,what matter1 then1 if we adopt  
the formula of ,pampsychism and assert  
that all individual things are animated 
albeit in divers degrees8 or endorse the
 conclusion of ,professor ,james ,ward1 
who finds no ground for separating      
organic life from psychical life8 and   
continues3 ,all life is experience4 ,we 
cannot therefore assume that experience 
has no part in the building up of the   
organism1 and only begins when viable   
organism is already there4#af  ,the     
belief that there can be no life without
 mind does not necessarily imply that   
there can be no mind without body4 ,as  
,john ,stuart ,mill pointed out1        
,determinism does not imply             
,materialism1 a man may be a spiritual  
being but yet subject to the law of     
causation4 ,neither does it deny the    
dynamic character of will1 but allows   
that not only our conduct but our       

character is in part amenable to our    
will4 ,the causality involved in human  
actions would1 however1 enable any one  
who knew perfectly our character and our
 circumstances to predict our actions4  
,such considerations1 however1 although 
contributory1 do not1 of themselves1    
decide the question with which we are   
here concerned1 namely1 ,what is the    
real meaning and what the authority of  
conscience1 or of that mental act which 
takes place in our minds when we call   
certain conduct right and certain       
conduct wrong8  ,apart from the question
 of the ultimate sanction of moral      
conduct1 there have always been two     
explanations of the mental act variously
 known as ethical judgment1 moral       
faculty1 moral sense or conscience4 ,on 
the one side there have been those who  
considered that moral judgment was an   
emotion1 an intuition1 or instinctive   
recognition of right or wrong1 which    
implied no rational or intellectual     
process beyond that which is involved in

 registering or perceiving the fact4    
,and on the other side there have been  
those who treat moral approbation as    
essentially an act of judgment--the     
result of the reasoning and intellectual
 function of the mind4  ,the earliest   
exponents of a morality that in no way  
depended upon the work of ,reason were  
the ancient ,epicureans and ,cyrenaics2 
since for them good was pleasure and    
evil was pain1 the sources and tests of 
all ethical truth were necessarily1 in  
consequence1 the feelings and emotions4 
,in the eighteenth century there arose a
 school1 associated with the names of   
the third ,lord ,shaftesbury and        
,francis ,hutcheson1 the ,scotch        
philosopher1 which became known as the  
moral sense school1 widely different    
from the old hedonistic philosophers1   
since they were the first to assert the 
existence of a distinctively ethical1 as
 opposed to a merely pleasurable1       
feeling4  ,the philosophers of the moral
 sense school attempted to prove that   

there existed a distinct moral faculty  
which differed from all other           
perceptions or ideas1 in that it was a  
separate medium by which men could      
recognize ethical truth1 which was      
rather a matter of the heart than of the
 head4  ,as a result of the attacks of  
the various rationalist schools this    
idea of a moral faculty has been for the
 most part abandoned by those who       
approach ethics from the ,religious or  
,theistic standpoint1 for they are far  
more concerned to establish the ,divine 
authority and sacrosanct character of   
conscience than influenced by           
psychological or metaphysical           
distinctions4 ,for the most part such   
writers are content to assume that      
conscience is the knowledge of one's own
 soul with regard to questions of right 
and wrong1 but insist on that element of
 ,divine ,guidance which alone1 they    
think1 can give it the necessary        
authority and sanctity4  ,the ,rev4 ,g4 
,h4 ,richardson#ag defines conscience as

 the whole personality acting ethically2
 or1 more precisely1 conscience is the  
reaction1 pleasurable or painful1 of the
 whole personality in response to a     
human or ,divine standard4  ,it is      
neither wholly emotional nor wholly     
rational1 but is sensitive to motives of
 which the pure reason would take no    
account2 it is more akin to instinct    
than intelligence4 ,yet without reason1 
conscience would be blind impulse1      
though it might feel the consciousness  
of obligation4#ah  ,clearly1 then1      
conscience can derive little validity   
from intelligence2 the concession to the
 ,rationalists does not amount to much2 
it might almost get on without reason   
altogether4 ,it is the ,divine authority
 of conscience which1 for the ,theistic 
writer1 is the factor of prime          
importance4  ,as we are bound to trust  
reason in the intellectual sphere1 so we
 are bound to trust conscience in the   
moral sphere4 ,to deny the authority of 
the one or the other is to distrust the 

,power in whom physical and moral law   
have their source4 ,the authority of    
conscience is thus paramount for the    
individual2 it will be better for me to 
do what is objectively wrong1 but what  
,i conscientiously believe to be right1 
than do what is in fact right1 but what 
my conscience disapproves4#ai  ,here the
 writer appears to abandon his          
,rationalistic friends altogether2 the  
fanatic is given free rein1 his ravings 
are sacred4  ,dr4 ,h4 ,rashdall1 who by 
many is considered representative of    
rationalistic ethics1 insists on the    
objectivity of moral judgment4 ,feelings
 or emotions possess no objectivity2 and
 'without objectivity1' in the words of 
,eduard von ,hartmann1 'ethic has no    
meaning'4#bj  ,the all-important task   
for the ,theistic writer is to establish
 the factor of ,divine impulse4         
,therefore we say that conscience is a  
fundamental form of man's personal      
consciousness of eternity2 that         
ineffaceable certainty that the relation

 of ,duty1 with ,responsibility and     
,judgment1 is not a relation which      
stands and falls with our relations to  
the world and to men1 but in its essence
 is a relation to the holy and ,almighty
 ,god4444 ,additional force seems to be 
given to this way of regarding the      
,authority of conscience if we consider 
that its activity is set in motion by an
 impulse from the ,divine               
,personality4#ba  ,bishop ,butler refers
 to conscience as the voice of ,god1 and
 as supreme among human faculties2 and  
this is endorsed by ,richardson1 who    
finds that ,theism is essential to any  
doctrine of conscience1 because the     
alternative is destructive of its       
authority4  ,let us now summarize the   
,theistic conscience1 variously         
described in different passages1 in the 
author's own words3 ,its activity is set
 in motion by an impulse from the       
,divine ,personality1 and does not      
originate in the individual nor the     
world1 yet it reacts to public opinion1 

is often unreasonable and inconsistent1 
is subject to evolutionary growth and is
 not infallible1 is capable of infinite 
variety of interpretation and reacts to 
a human standard1 which1 however1 trails
 some clouds of glory from its ,divine  
original2 and in conclusion1 ,if we     
regard conscience not as a              
phosphorescent gleam playing upon the   
surface of consciousness1 but as a vital
 impulse1 partly rational1 partly       
instinctive1 welling up from the depths 
of ,personality1 we shall not run the   
risk of denying its authority4#bb ,it   
would be well1 however1 not to          
underestimate the risk1 although it     
undoubtedly caters for a great variety  
of tastes4  ,allied to the ,emotional   
school for the purpose of proving       
conscience are those ,rationalists1 of  
whom we have taken ,dr4 ,rashdall as an 
example1 who have for an object the     
establishment of the objective validity 
of moral judgment4 ,the real contention 
becomes clearer2 the chief point at     

issue is the question of authority4  ,we
 see1 then1 that there are two points to
 be decided3 7#a7 the ultimate validity1
 with which is connected the question of
 the ,divine ,authority1 of moral       
judgments2 and 7#b7 the mode of         
recognition1 with which is connected the
 cause or propellent which induces moral
 action4  ,rashdall summarily dismisses 
the dual character of the problem in a  
phrase4 ,the question at issue between  
,rationalists and ,emotionalists is not 
what impels me to do a virtuous act1 but
 how ,i know it to be virtuous4#bc ,the 
connexion between motive and judgment is
 too closely related to be thus calmly  
ignored4 ,it is agreed that the motive  
does not affect the intrinsic character 
or rightness of an action1 but at the   
same time it most certainly does affect 
a man's estimation of his action2 and   
this1 in order to arrive at the value of
 moral judgments1 is most obviously     
relevant4  ,for ,dr4 ,rashdall the      
distinction between how ,i know my      

action to be right or virtuous1 and how 
it is virtuous1 does not exist4 ,both   
imply recognition or statement of       
indisputable fact2 for him there can be 
no ultimate doubt as to the character of
 moral good1 which can in no way be a   
matter of opinion1 for good is sui      
generis3 it is good and nothing else2   
happiness may be good1 honesty may be   
good1 but good is good for no other     
reason than because such an abstraction 
is supposed to exist as a transcendental
 fact4 ,therefore good can be recognized
 just as any axiomatic truth can be     
recognized2 as1 for instance1 the fact  
that #b  #b  #d1 or two straight lines  
cannot enclose a space4 ,how is it then 
that people even of the highest         
intelligence do not invariably agree    
about what is good or morally right8    
,there are no two opinions about whether
 #b  #b does1 or does not1 equal #d1 yet
 there is no such general agreement     
about what is right4 ,if asked why a    
thing is right or good most people would

 reply either by giving a reason to show
 that it is desirable or else by quoting
 the authority of some one else's ipse  
dixit 7in which case it is inferred that
 the authority quoted had some reason   
for supposing it desirable74 ,the reason
 that #b  #b  #d is1 on the other hand1 
that there can be no possible           
alternative4 ,yet is it true to say that
 there can be no possible alternative to
 what the consensus of opinion in any   
one country considers morally right8    
,some things that are considered immoral
 in ,england are considered moral in    
,japan1 and vice versa4  ,dr4 ,rashdall1
 however1 conceives of but two          
alternatives in estimating moral values1
 the first of which he dismisses1       
because on this view our moral judgments
 could possess no objective validity4   
,he says3 444 ,i examined the question  
whether our moral judgments are in      
ultimate analysis merely statements     
asserting the existence of a particular 
kind of feeling in particular minds1 or 

whether they are intellectual judgments 
of universal validity--judgments1 of    
course1 of a very peculiar and          
distinctive kind1 but just as much      
intellectual and universal judgments    
about the nature of ,reality as the     
judgments #b  #b  #d1 or 'this is a good
 inference and that is a bad one'4#bd   
,it is difficult to know whether this   
arbitrary elimination of the subjective 
element from ethical judgments1 and the 
attempt to translate moral values into  
terms of mathematical formul1 is        
intended to denote the infusion of a    
mystic factor into the exact sciences1  
or an attempt to reduce metaphysics and 
morality to rule of thumb6 ,the         
following thesis1 however1 which will be
 elaborated in the course of this       
discussion1 is based on a synchronous   
realization of rational principles and  
psychological processes4  ,thus1 what an
 individual conceives to be morally     
right and good1 when he is conscious of 
having acted so according to his own    

standard1 may be either3  7#a7 ,wholly  
irrational1 illogical1 anti-social and  
undesirable 7from every point of view   
except his own71 even though arrived at 
solely by an intellectual and reasoning 
process2 or  7#b7 ,an entirely          
instinctive1 blindly impulsive or       
emotional action1 afterwards endorsed by
 the intellect 7i4e4 subsequently       
rationalized72 or  7#c7 ,the result of  
thoughtful deliberation1 carefully and  
logically designed to bring about       
certain preconceived moral ends such as 
social happiness1 justice1 fulfilment of
 duty2 all of which are artificial and  
conventional standards1 and good only   
because they are desirable1 not because 
they are universally valid--irrespective
 of time1 locality and circumstances2 or
  7#d7 ,any combination of these three4 
,the foregoing applies as much to the   
aggregate moral consciousness of a      
community in different stages of        
civilization1 or in varying states of   
emotional abnormality1 as to the        

individual conscience4  ,it can also be 
shown that the communal conscience      
reacts upon the individual conscience in
 inverse ratio to the latter's emotional
 or intellectual capacity for           
resistance2 and that the communal       
conscience 7identified at a later stage 
of this inquiry with ,cosmic            
,suggestion7 is the integral product of 
the numerical and dynamic strength of   
the convictions of the members of the   
community1 and operates upon the        
individual conscience1 either           
consciously or subconsciously1 in the   
same way that ,suggestion1 according to 
the law discovered by ,libeault and     
employed by the ,nancy ,school1 operates
 in hypnotic phenomena4  ,it will then  
7if this view can be established7 be    
shown that the factors of conscience    
are3 7#a7 emotional1 7#b7 intellectual1 
7#c7 internal 7including hereditary and 
organic elements71 and 7#d7 external    
7environment--material and psychic72 and
 that its validity1 in ultimate         

analysis1 can but rest on codes1 which  
may be not only ,conventional and       
,artificial1 but also ,rational or      
,intellectual1 ,social and ,utilitarian2
 and in any case variable1 in the same  
way that the soundest and most logical  
policies must1 to a certain extent1 be  
variable1 or capable of adjustment as   
circumstances change2 the only elements 
which should be constant and invariable 
in any policy 7which is not a misnomer7 
being logic and truth4 ,so it is with   
rules of conduct4  ,as regards the      
purely internal sanction of our actions 
and thoughts1 that is to say1 our       
relationship with ,ultimate ,reality1   
which is ,god or the ,law of ,existence1
 there is only one conception of the    
latter which seems to comprehend the    
infinite with the finite1 and that is   
,force1 because it is the continuity of 
,existence1 or after the manner of      
,leibnitz3 ,substance1 the ultimate     
reality1 can only be conceived as force4
 ,any moral law which may be said to be 

fundamental in itself and independent of
 circumstances will be in relation to   
force4 ,but such laws will also be      
independent of the moral imperatives and
 written codes1 for they are independent
 of volition--of the will to obey them4 
,can a man be possessed of love1        
greatness1 nobility1 courage1 honour1 at
 a word of command8 ,therefore if it can
 be truly said that love is the greatest
 thing in the world1 it is because it is
 the most powerful force4 ,hate is      
disruptive1 disintegrating and          
annihilating2 love is integrating and   
strengthening4  ,but there is yet one   
good1 one fundamental imperative which  
needs no proof1 and that is             
,truth--ultimate truth1 because it is   
the statement of what ,is2 without which
 logic1 or1 indeed1 intelligible        
language1 would be impossible4 ,but     
truth is not opinion1 or assertion1 or  
hope1 or faith1 or in the words of      
,huxley those idols built up of books   
and traditions and fine-spun            

ecclesiastical cobwebs4 ,truth and all  
its derivatives--honesty1 integrity1    
truthfulness and sincerity--have an     
intrinsic value of their own1 for their 
negation implies the negation of the    
principles of ,existence4  ,but men     
require more than this1 they require a  
moral code or standard to give coherence
 to their relationships2 this code1     
then1 is that which is desired1 or      
imposed1 and this want is most          
efficiently supplied by the principle of
 ,utility4  ,,footnotes3  #ac ,see      
,conscience1 its ,origin and ,authority1
 p4 #be4  #ad ,w4 ,h4 ,mallock1 quoted  
by ,richardson4  #ae ,professor ,james  
,ward uses the terms anabolic and       
catabolic processes in this connexion1  
also in a sense analogous to the        
distinction between doing and suffering4
  #af ,j4 ,ward1 ,heredity and ,memory1 
#aiac4  #ag ,conscience1 its ,origin and
 ,authority1 p4 #fi4  #ah ,ibid41 pp4   
#fg and #fh4  #ai ,conscience1 its      
,origin and ,authority1 p4 #if4  #bj    

,hastings ,rashdall3 ,is ,conscience an 
,emotion8  #ba ,conscience1 its ,origin 
and ,authority1 p4 #ii4  #bb            
,conscience1 its ,origin and ,authority1
 pp4 #ii1 #ie1 #if1 #gj1 #gb and #gc4   
#bc ,is ,conscience an ,emotion8 p4     
#aac4  #bd ,is ,conscience an ,emotion8 
p4 #eb4     ,,iii  ,,the ,,meaning ,,of 
,,moral ,,obligation   ,the author of   
,conscience1 its ,origin and ,authority1
 attempts1 after the manner of priests1 
to demolish the ,utilitarian principle  
of morality by stating that the         
,utilitarian must1 to be logical1       
justify any means if the end is         
desirable4 ,as though the ,utilitarian  
and not the ,theist was for ever trying 
to show that the intrinsic character or 
value of an action depended upon the    
motive 7which must be distinguished from
 the intention2 a man who saved another 
from drowning in order to put him to    
death afterwards would be influenced by 
an intention to murder1 but the motives 
were3 first1 desire to rescue1 and1 for 

the subsequent action1 desire to kill74 
,mr4 ,richardson writes3 ,the ,good and 
the ,right possess their authority to   
the ,utilitarian because they tend to   
the greatest possible happiness of the  
greatest number of sentient beings4 ,now
 suppose a case which ,i do not think   
actually happened1 but which may easily 
be conceived as happening4 ,suppose that
 ,cecil ,rhodes deliberately caused the 
,south ,african ,war1 as many people    
believed at the time4 ,this would be    
characterized 7and was1 in fact1        
characterized7 as an immoral act of     
unscrupulous aggression4 ,but he might  
defend his action thus3 ,granted that so
 many thousands of soldiers and citizens
 will be slain1 and the land cleared of 
its inhabitants4 ,in a few years the    
land so cleared will produce increased  
harvests of gold and grain4 ,more food  
will mean an increase of human          
productiveness and an increase of       
population2 thriving townships and      
farmsteads will support a people more   

numerous and richer in the comforts     
which make life desirable than could    
have existed without my action4         
,therefore on the ,utilitarian          
hypothesis my action was right and good1
 and deserved1 not reprobation1 but     
approval4  ,not only is this position   
not admitted by ,utilitarians1 but ,john
 ,stuart ,mill long ago pointed out that
 such a hypothesis is to mistake the    
very meaning of a standard of morals1   
and to confound the rule of action with 
the motive of it4 ,it is the business of
 ,ethics to tell us what are our duties1
 or by what test we may know them2 but  
no system of ethics requires that the   
sole motive of all we do shall be a     
feeling of duty4444 ,the great majority 
of good actions are intended1 not for   
the benefit of the world1 but for that  
of individuals1 of which the good of the
 world is made up2 and the thoughts of  
the most virtuous man need not on these 
occasions travel beyond the particular  
persons concerned1 except so far as is  

necessary to assure himself that in     
benefiting them he is not violating the 
rights--that is1 the legitimate and     
authorized expectations--of any one     
else4#be  ,this is sufficient refutation
 of such objections to ,utilitarianism  
as the one brought forward by           
,richardson1 and clearly founded on a   
misconception4  ,mill1 in what is still 
the best defence of this system1        
continues3 ,utilitarians 444 are 444 of 
opinion that in the long run the best   
proof of a good character is good       
actions2 and resolutely refuse to       
consider any mental disposition as good1
 of which the predominant tendency is to
 produce bad conduct4#bf  ,the creed    
which accepts as the foundation of      
morals1 ,utility1 or the ,greatest      
,happiness ,principle1 holds that       
actions are right in proportion as they 
tend to promote happiness1 wrong as they
 tend to produce the reverse of         
happiness4#bg  ,the ,theistic writer    
says the essence of morality is         

sacrifice4#bh  ,the utilitarian morality
 does recognize in human beings the     
power of sacrificing their own greatest 
good for the good of others4 ,it only   
refuses to admit that sacrifice is      
itself a good4 ,a sacrifice that does   
not increase1 or tend to increase1 the  
sum total of happiness1 it considers as 
wasted4  ,as regards conscience3 the    
,utilitarian1 when he attempts an       
analysis1 realizes that in that complex 
phenomenon as it actually exists1 the   
simple fact is in general all encrusted 
over with collateral associations       
derived from sympathy1 from love1 and   
still more from fear2 from all forms of 
religious feeling2 from recollections of
 childhood and of all our past life2    
from self-esteem1 desire of the esteem  
of others1 and occasionally even        
self-abasement4#bi  ,for the priest     
ethics cannot be built securely upon    
anything less than religious sanctions1 
and it is for the sake of conscience    
that ethics have a practical value4#cj  

,can an honest and unbiased thinker     
doubt that the first is the truer       
statement8  ,let us now return to a     
further statement of the position of    
,utilitarianism as dealt with by ,j4 ,s4
 ,mill4 ,from ,professor ,sidgwick and  
those ,utilitarians who attempt to claim
 for the atheistic moralist a conscience
 of mathematical accuracy we are        
unlikely to derive much assistance4     
,according to the ,greatest ,happiness  
,principle1 the ultimate end1 with      
reference to1 and for the sake of which1
 all other things are desirable 7whether
 we are considering our own good or that
 of other people71 is an existence      
exempt as far as possible from pain and 
as rich as possible in enjoyments1 both 
in point of quantity and quality2 the   
test of quality1 and the rule for       
measuring it against quantity1 being the
 preference felt by those who1 in their 
opportunities of experience1 to which   
must be added their habits of           
self-consciousness and self-observation1

 are best furnished with the means of   
comparison4#ca  ,this1 according to     
,utilitarians1 is also the standard of  
morality4  ,in conformance with this    
principle of moral obligation1 we choose
 the greater before the lesser good4    
,between ,general ,morality and the     
obligation of ,duty1 with which he      
associates justice1 ,mill draws what    
appears to be a somewhat unnecessarily  
hard line of distinction1 insomuch as   
the difference may be seen to consist   
more of degree than of kind4 ,other     
ethical writers make the same           
distinction when they divide moral      
duties into the two classes of perfect  
and imperfect obligation1 the latter    
being those in which1 though the act is 
obligatory1 the particular occasions of 
performing it are left to our choice1 as
 in the case of charity or beneficence4 
,if1 in assessing the amount of good1 we
 take into consideration1 besides the   
categories of quantity and quality1 a   
third category of proximity1 it would1  

,i think1 prove a useful qualification  
by enabling the ,utilitarian ,good to   
embrace all moral obligation1 including 
legal ,duty1 which is considered by     
,mill apart from general morality4 ,by  
proximity it is intended to imply that  
the nearer good is more binding than the
 further good1 which may in some measure
 counteract the value of quantity and   
quality where these are involved1 and   
when a decision between conflicting     
moral obligations has to be made4       
,though this additional category of     
,good may not altogether abolish the    
distinction which ,mill makes between   
general morality and justice or duty    
which may be obligatory by law1 it      
appears to amplify and extend the scope 
of the principle of ,utility4  ,duty1 in
 the words of ,j4 ,s4 ,mill1 is a thing 
which may be exacted from a person as   
one exacts a debt4 ,unless we think that
 it might be exacted from him we do not 
call it his duty4  ,from this it might  
be assumed that there could never be any

 doubt about what is a person's duty1   
since when any one owes another or the  
community a debt1 he is clearly         
conscious of it1 even to the amount4 ,in
 the case of right conduct which implies
 ,duty1 this1 however1 is not always so 
clearly recognized1 especially when     
,duty implies ,allegiance or            
,responsibility4  ,in this connexion we 
may say that the good we do for our own 
country is a nearer good than the good  
we do for an alien country1 therefore if
 doing the good involves a choice we    
should choose our own country2 for the  
debt we owe to our own country is       
greater than the debt we owe to humanity
 at large4 ,equally the good we owe to  
our own family is nearer than1 and      
therefore comes before1 the good we owe 
to society4 ,to this most people will   
accede1 and1 in fact1 the realization of
 this is at the base of all sense of    
,responsibility2 thus every man1 in     
whatsoever capacity he is acting1       
whether as statesman1 county councillor1

 soldier or head of a family1 should put
 the considerations of the body he      
represents or belongs to before all     
others2 and finally he owes it to       
himself--or ,god#cb--to be true to      
himself1 even before he can be true to  
another1 in the sense that keeping faith
 with a friend will not excuse a man    
acting dishonestly or untruthfully      
towards himself4 ,and this for the      
reason that ,truth is independent of    
,utilitarian valuation1 since ,truth    
alone is an a priori and self-evident   
good2 by its very meaning it is a       
statement of what is1 temporally as well
 as ultimately2 as such it must be a    
statement of indisputable fact1 not     
opinion or faith which rests on         
assertion4 ,since more things are       
capable of being proved untrue than     
ultimately true1 it follows that as a   
criterion of conduct its value is       
chiefly negative4 ,it can thus be shown 
that lying1 deception1 breach of        
contract are wrong per se1 for truth is 

the basic principle upon which all      
others depend1 and the necessary        
postulate of the idea of ,god1 whilst   
the value of our positive acts must for 
the most part depend upon some such     
standard as the ,greatest ,happiness or 
,utility principle4  ,as an illustration
 of the nearer is the greater good      
principle may be cited the line taken up
 by ,disraeli when the controversy over 
the opium trade between ,india and      
,china first came to the fore4 ,disraeli
 firmly refused to ruin our export trade
 in opium for any quixotic              
considerations involving the moral      
effect upon the ,chinaman1 whilst it in 
no way implied a breach of faith with   
him4  ,less clear is the question of    
precedence when two primary obligations 
are conflicting2 primary obligations are
 here intended to mean those obligatory 
duties which may rightly be exacted from
 a person by reason of his indebtedness 
to the corporate body to which he       
belongs1 or which he represents1 and    

which is entitled to a preference in the
 good he does4  ,for instance1 it may   
sometimes be said that a man's duty to  
his country as a soldier conflicts with 
his duty to his family as its sole      
support2 both are primary obligations2  
as long1 then1 as allegiance to one does
 not involve a betrayal of the other1   
which could only be if their interests  
were fundamentally opposed and directed 
against each other1 both obligations    
must be equally acknowledged1 and a via 
media discovered to satisfy the claims  
of both to an equal extent4  ,should1   
however1 this confliction of interests  
be so direct and antagonistic as        
necessarily to involve an overt         
repudiation of the claims of one or the 
other1 as in the hypothetical case of a 
soldier being ordered to execute the    
members of his own family1 his conduct1 
supposing him to be actuated by a desire
 to act solely in conformance with      
ethical considerations1 would be        
determined by his judgment as to which  

course would promote the greater good or
 ,utility1 having regard to the         
categories3 quantity1 quality and       
proximity2 the nearer in this case      
undoubtedly being his family1 though    
this fact alone would not necessarily   
outweigh the other values of quantity   
and quality4 ,in certain ,eastern       
countries it would possibly appeal to a 
man's sense of appropriateness to be the
 agent by which the crime or dishonour  
of his relative would be expiated4  ,a  
man is often heard to claim that his    
moral duty towards himself1 in other    
words his conscience1 absolves him from 
the fulfilment of another primary duty  
or obligation4 ,as ,i have attempted to 
show1 the only real or a priori duty    
which a man can prove he owes to        
himself1 and therefore has a right to   
place before any other clear duty       
derived from the fact of his membership 
of any community or corporate body1 is  
his obligation not to violate ,truth1   
which is a statement of reality1 not of 

opinion4 ,thus no other duty can rightly
 oblige a man to perjure himself4  ,if  
this maxim is accepted1 it will be seen 
that a deadlock of this sort between a  
man's duty to his country as a citizen  
and his duty to himself or his          
conscience1 could rarely occur in a     
civilized or rational community4        
,against this a man might argue that he 
had solemnly vowed not to shed human    
blood1 either as a soldier or otherwise1
 and that he is right to resist any     
attempt to conscript him for the army1  
since he would thereby be required to   
perjure himself4 ,the answer is simple1 
for the man clearly violated his duty to
 his country in the first place by      
vowing he would deprive his country of  
his services should they be required1 a 
right which no country has ever forsworn
 and which is considered the natural    
return due for free citizenship and     
state protection2 these conditions are  
presumed to be accepted with the        
benefits of citizenship and protection  

of person and property2 his first       
violation of duty towards his country   
will therefore not absolve him of a     
second4  ,neither can it be shown       
according to this principle that a man  
is entitled to take an oath of this     
nature1 regardless of potential         
conflicting obligations1 on the score   
that such an oath is merely in          
conformance with the postulates of      
,truth1 since the question of the       
,rightness or ,wrongness of shedding    
blood under all circumstances is not    
susceptible of ultimate proof1 but must 
remain finally on the authority of an   
ipse dixit1 or of ,utility4  ,thus far  
we have examined to some extent the     
purely ethical basis on which the idea  
of priority of duty1 as evinced by      
conscience or reason1 rests3 the        
sanction of conscience which rests on   
religious authority is dealt with       
elsewhere4  ,to further illustrate the  
nearer good principle with which we have
 been dealing1 it may be profitable to  

refer to a passage from an account of   
the life of ,general ,robert ,e4 ,lee1  
,commander-in-,chief of the ,confederate
 troops during the ,american ,civil     
,war1 a devoutly religious man1 and a   
lifelong member of the ,protestant      
,episcopal ,church4#cc  ,colonel ,lee   
was in command of the department of     
,texas in #ahfj1 but was recalled to    
,washington early in #ahfa1 when the    
'irrepressible conflict' between the    
free and the slave states seemed        
imminent4 ,when ,lee reached the capital
 in ,march #ahfa1 seven states had      
passed ordinances of secession from the 
,union1 and had formed the ,southern    
,confederacy4 ,virginia seceded from the
 ,union on ,april #ag1 and ,colonel     
,lee1 believing that his supreme        
political allegiance was due to his     
state rather than to the ,union1 felt   
compelled to send his resignation to    
,general ,scott1 which he did on ,april 
#bj4 ,the bitter struggle between his   
personal preferences and his high sense 

of duty is shown in the words of his    
wife written to a friend at the time3   
',my husband has wept tears of blood    
over this terrible war2 but he must as a
 man and a ,virginian share the destiny 
of his state1 which has solemnly        
pronounced for independence4'  ,lee's   
action in choosing the nearer duty to   
his own state in preference to the duty 
he owed to the ,union as a soldier and a
 citizen1 even against his personal     
preferences and1 as far as one can      
discern them1 his religious opinions1   
affords a striking example of the       
principle ,i have been attempting to    
illustrate4  ,whether his decision was  
arrived at spontaneously and            
impulsively1 or as the result of        
deliberation1 is immaterial as affecting
 the rightness of his action4 ,equally  
immaterial is the possibility that he   
might have arrived at an opposite       
conclusion whilst still employing the   
same principles1 by judging that the    
categories of quantity and quality      

outweighed that of proximity4 ,whenever 
clear duties are mutually annihilating1 
which fortunately is very rarely the    
case1 the problem will always have to be
 solved1 if it is solved with scrupulous
 honesty1 by a careful balance of       
values1 whilst the result at best cannot
 be infallible4  ,what stands out1      
however1 in this case1 is the triumph of
 clearly recognized duty founded on     
nearer indebtedness1 and so of          
responsibility1 over lesser             
indebtedness1 even though the latter was
 reinforced by personal predilection and
 religious sentiment4  ,,footnotes3  #be
 ,utilitarianism1 #aeth edition1 p4 #bg4
  #bf ,ibid41 p4 #cj4  #bg ,ibid41 p4   
#i4  #bh ,richardson's ,conscience1 p4  
#aea4  #bi ,utilitarianism1 p4 #db4  #cj
 ,richardson's ,conscience1 p4 #baa4    
#ca ,j4 ,s4 ,mill1 ,utilitarianism4  #cb
 ,the idea of ,god personified is often 
used as standing for a symbol or norm of
 ideal conduct1 bearing an affinity to  
the ideal self or ego4 ,the theory of   

conduct maintained here is therefore    
equally applicable to ,theist or        
,atheist4  #cc ,n4 ,b4 ,webster in      
,chambers's ,encyclopdia4     ,,iv      
,,religion ,,and ,,morality   ,as long  
as morality is regarded as a ,divinely  
implanted principle1 subject to no laws 
beyond the caprice and changing mood of 
a personal ,deity1 the essentials which 
underlie our conduct are lost sight of4 
,morality1 that is to say those moral   
codes which are observed and recognized1
 consists of the imposition of values2  
but the meaning and the virtue of those 
values lie in the policy which will     
produce desired results4 ,moral values  
are subject to constant revision as     
world influences affect our outlook4    
,our endeavour should always be to probe
 the essentials4 ,as long as morality is
 thought to depend on ,revelation and   
religious superstition1 the essentials  
are lost sight of4 ,the connexion       
between ,religion and ,morality is      
arbitrary1 and since ,religions owe     

their power to the fear of the ,unknown1
 and the virtue of ,morality depends    
upon the necessity of conforming to that
 mode of conduct which will produce     
known results1 ,religions tend to mask  
the essentials in ,morality and make it 
unreal4  ,morality is held to include   
two distinct principles2 moral          
obligation1 or conduct towards others1  
and conduct towards1 or the debt we owe1
 ourselves4 ,we are here concerned      
chiefly with the first2 the             
second--those rules of conduct which    
concern only ourselves1 are bound up    
with the purpose of existence1 with the 
ultimate end4 ,moral obligation has     
arisen out of the necessity for         
co-ordination and system in our mutual  
relationships4 ,without a moral code1   
social life would become chaotic and    
impossible1 comparable only to the state
 of ,russia under mob rule in the year  
of grace #aiah--;a state immeasurably   
more degraded than that of ,britain in  
the era ,b4,c42 the early ,briton like  

the modern ,kafir1 at any rate1 gave    
vent to his predatory and murderous     
instincts1 for the most part1 outside   
his own little tribe4 ,the imposition of
 some recognized rules of conduct1      
safeguarding the security of life and   
property1 is as necessary to the        
community as the existence of a coinage 
for the negotiation of commercial       
bargains2 in fact it is more so4 ,the   
two are analogous3 the moral code must  
give effect to that first and universal 
principle of ethics expressed thus1 ,do 
unto others as you would they should do 
unto you1 which is only another way of  
saying1 ,you may expect others to treat 
you as you intend to treat them in      
similar circumstances4 ,hence the       
standardization of rules of conduct     
becomes a principle of ,utility4        
,altruism has nothing whatsoever to do  
with it4 ,even indignation at the       
spectacle of acute suffering needlessly 
inflicted on animals1 where             
considerations of reciprocal treatment  

on the part of the animal do not apply1 
is correctly based on the offence such a
 discordance causes to the sthetic      
sensibility of the cultivated1 or the   
induced sympathetic discomfort of the   
many4 ,in many natures the              
pain-suggesting spectacle1 or even the  
mere thought of it1 spontaneously evokes
 anger1 which seeks satisfaction in the 
punishment of the author of its         
occurrence4 ,the only rational or       
intellectual process involved in the    
resulting moral judgment is1 as a rule1 
confined to a realization of the        
pain-suggesting idea1 and the direction 
of vengeful impulses against the        
offender1 while the consequences or ends
 of conduct in no way determine the     
judgment4 ,the particular idiocy of the 
anti-vivisection agitation is obvious4  
,we are here1 of course1 purposely      
considering1 not actual and arbitrary   
morality1 but the essentials upon which 
all moralities are based4 ,we shall deal
 more fully as we proceed with those    

psychic and emotional factors which do1 
in fact1 colour and distort all moral   
values4 ,to return to our analogy--we   
may say then1 that a conventional moral 
rule stands for the credit of national  
morality1 much as a five-pound note     
stands for the credit of national       
wealth4  ,however wise a code of        
morality may be1 it is necessarily      
artificial4 ,it has grown up to suit the
 peculiar circumstances and demands of  
race1 climate and time4 ,the basic      
reason for its existence is too often   
encrusted and disguised by fears1       
superstitions and illusions1 perpetual  
creatures of the human mind2 the        
essentials are often lost sight of or   
forgotten1 and ,truth is parodied as the
 principle that gave birth to the       
ecclesiastical chimera which forms the  
edifice of modern cults4 ,is it         
surprising1 then1 that morality is      
garbed in the changing coat of a        
chameleon8 ,that what is held moral     
to-day is immoral to-morrow1 and that   

what is held immoral here is moral      
elsewhere8  ,the second and deeper      
morality concerns ourselves only4 ,it   
demands an answer to the eternal        
question3 ,what is the ,ultimate ,good8 
,one great imperative stands out        
pre-eminent3 we must be true to         
ourselves4 ,he who would seek the truth 
must himself be true4 ,without truth    
there is no creation1 no progress4 ,but 
before we can be true to ourselves1 we  
must know ourselves2 that is the problem
 we are considering--knowledge of the   
ego4  ,some men are content to supply   
synonyms for the ,ideal--for            
,perfection1 the goal of                
endeavour--imagining they are thereby   
showing the way4 ,others realize the    
first task must be to cleanse the way of
 the inadequacies and perversions which 
masquerade as the whole ,truth1 as the  
word of ,god4  ,the ,ultimate ,good     
cannot be translated into the petty     
codes of human convenience1 neither can 
it be deduced from the wanton phantoms  

of man's wild fancy1 called religion1   
which1 by attempting to expound         
everything1 explains nothing4  ,what is 
religion8 ,is it the search for truth8  
,is it not an attempt to clothe our     
conception of the ,infinite in terms    
finite8--the result being grotesque1    
bearing no relation to existence1 a     
lawless chimera1 born of man's dread of 
the unknown1 an amorphous fantasy       
fashioned out of the distorted visions  
of man's hopes and fears1 modelled1     
amended and shaped in course of time in 
accordance with the postulate of man's  
nature--man the religious animal6       
,science cannot give us the whole truth 
and admits it6 ,absolute beginnings or  
origins are beyond the pale of          
science4#cd ,but religion professes to  
know and is disproved at every step4 ,it
 is when ,religion refuses to learn that
 she is harmful2 because her values are 
false and her thought retrospective that
 she is inadequate4 ,it is not because  
the religions of the past and their     

legacies to-day cannot prove the        
,transcendent that they should be       
discarded1 but because they attempt to  
prove it and turn the world into chaos  
in so doing4 ,it is not only because1 in
 the words of ,huxley1 everywhere       
priests have broken the spirit of wisdom
 and tried to stop human progress by    
quotations from their ,bibles or books  
of their ,saints1 that the old religion 
is outgrown1 but because it is daily    
growing more and more impotent4         
,whether for good or evil the influence 
of religion on the conduct of men daily 
grows less4 ,religious fanaticism is    
gradually giving place to secular and   
political fanaticism1 whose votaries    
shriek in the name of ,democracy1       
,socialism or other watchword of        
,utopia1 ever attempting to impose new  
moral values bearing as little          
correspondence to reality as the old    
values4 ,neither can recent attempts to 
express the old religion in terms of    
modern thought revive that which is     

perishing of inanition4 ,huxley wrote   
thus of the attempt3 ,if the religion of
 the present differs from that of the   
past1 it is because the theology of the 
present has become more scientific than 
that of the past1 not because it has    
renounced idols of wood and idols of    
stone1 but begins to see the necessity  
of breaking in pieces the idols built up
 of books and traditions1 and fine-spun 
ecclesiastical cobwebs1 and of          
cherishing the noblest and most human of
 man's emotions by worship1 'for the    
most part of the ,silent ,sort1' at the 
altar of the unknown and unknowable4444 
,we have no desire to follow in the wake
 of an unprovoked attack on the         
churches1 our concern is the defence of 
a rational1 against the imposition of an
 irrational1 code of morality4  ,but    
ethical systems are still built upon the
 fantastical dogmas of religious or     
political visionaries4 ,ethics1 say the 
former1 cannot be built securely upon   
anything less than the ,religious       

,sanctions4 ,the rules which govern the 
practical conduct of life must conform  
to divine laws which in their           
interpretation have passed through a    
metamorphosis as varied and dissimilar  
as the habits and customs which         
distinguish the twentieth century from  
the second6 ,was it a sign of the       
security and infallibility of ethics    
founded on religious beliefs that       
,christian ,england as late as the      
beginning of the ,eighteenth ,century#ce
 sanctioned the execution and torture of
 harmless old women for the imaginary   
crime of witchcraft8 ,it must be        
remembered that the moral code of the   
period1 enforced by the laws of the     
land1 reflected contemporary religious  
thought4 ,lecky1 referring to the causes
 upon which witchcraft depended1        
says3#cf ,it resulted1 not from         
accidental circumstances1 individual    
eccentricities1 or even scientific      
ignorance1 but from a general           
predisposition to see ,satanic agency in

 life4 ,it grew from1 and it reflected1 
the prevailing modes of religious       
thought2 and it declined only when those
 modes were weakened or destroyed4 #e4  
,the fact is1 as most impartial students
 of psychology admit1 that both         
religious and political ethics owe far  
more of their character to the emotional
 cravings combined with the interested  
propaganda current in the age1 than to  
any real value they may possess from a  
utilitarian or1 assuming the ,divinity  
to be rational1 from a ,divine point of 
view4 ,ibsen has truly said that moral  
values are dependent on                 
power-conditions2 morals1 politics and  
law are to a great extent shaped and    
propelled by might-conditions1 by the   
fancied needs and interests of dominant 
classes2 but the greatest factor in     
power-condition is psychic2 the greatest
 world-propellant1 the ultima vires1 is 
more mind than muscle2 it is this great 
world force which ,i have spoken of as  
,cosmic ,suggestion4#cg ,too little may 

yet be known of this force to trace its 
means of transmission1 but the reality  
of its existence can no longer be       
doubted4 ,it has been described in the  
following way3 there exists an effluence
 or force generated by1 or resulting    
from1 the molecular activity of each    
individual brain4 ,these forces are     
constantly influencing the souls of men1
 encountering1 overcoming1 and repelling
 opposition1 and reacting upon the      
conscious intelligence of the authors of
 their generation2 or they may unite    
themselves into groups and operate      
collectively1 forming a psychic stream  
of power4#ch  ,the fact of this power   
must be received into the monistic      
system as part of the one great law4 ,a 
purely materialistic monism cannot      
contain it4 ,though we postulate a      
single law with a dual aspect or duality
 within unity1 whatever hypothesis we   
assume will be of less importance than  
the discovery and co-ordination of the  
invariable laws of its operation4 ,we   

accept the principle of monism not1 ,i  
fancy1 because we are compelled to do so
 by the logic of ,haeckel1 the great    
exponent of modern monism1 or of his    
fellow-scientists1 but because we are   
driven to do so without their help4 ,the
 principle of oneness and unity1 alone1 
is capable of satisfying our intellect1 
our sense of order and logic4 ,there    
cannot be conflicting truths2 there     
cannot exist true systems which disprove
 each other2 all knowledge is           
complementary2 there cannot be true     
objective facts and equally true        
subjective ideals which contradict them2
 otherwise the world is chaos and there 
is no reality4 ,but if we know anything 
we know that matter is real and thought 
is real1 and the law of their           
inter-relationship is within the same   
reality4 ,no commonplace of science is  
more widely known or more firmly        
established than the law of the         
conservation of energy or of the        
persistence of force and of matter1     

which ,haeckel calls the law of         
substance4 ,can we be content to believe
 that no force exists that is not       
susceptible to physical analysis8 ,or   
does the first step towards the         
elucidation of the ultimate and unsolved
 riddle of existence1 that is1 the real 
character of substance or the cosmos1   
lie 7as we believe7 in the direction of 
reconciling the metaphysical with the   
monistic system8  ,we seek no escape    
from the underlying principle of one    
universal law which determines all      
matter1 life and energy2 but our monism 
must comprise the psychic factor4 ,for  
us this cannot be stated in             
physiological terms4 ,force cannot be   
regarded as a pure attribute of matter4 
,recent advances in psychological       
research appear to endorse this view4   
,it is1 in any case1 less important to  
insist upon one particular hypothesis1  
when much1 at the present stage of      
knowledge1 is insoluble1 than to        
appreciate by observation and           

introspection the laws that appear to   
evolve from it4  ,haeckel cannot        
conceive mind apart from matter or1     
conversely1 protoplasm without mind 7for
 him they develop concurrently72 yet why
 should the fact that both are subject  
to the same cosmic law invalidate the   
idea of the persistency of an immaterial
 force1 which may even under certain    
conditions1 or metamorphoses1 break the 
partnership with matter2 provided that  
the unit of psychic force is in itself  
immaterial8#ci ,this psychic unit       
,haeckel terms psychoplasm1 that is1 the
 materialistic basis of mind in         
protoplasm4 ,the laws of psychic        
phenomena1 however1 only appear         
intelligible when we concede that the   
psychoplasm possesses an immaterial     
aspect which1 at a certain stage of     
development1 may persist as force1 even 
after the disintegration of matter into 
its chemical components4 ,on the other  
hand1 it may1 below a certain stage of  
development or intensity1 lose cohesion 

and dissipate2 organic matter1 however1 
is never without it4 ,the wonderful     
discoveries of recent psychological     
research1 especially in the department  
of hypnotism1 in the facts of memory and
 above all in the evidence lately       
forthcoming of the existence of         
telepathy1 should encourage us to adopt 
a hypothesis which1 to the materialistic
 philosopher1 appears chimerical4#dj ,a 
final decision of the ultimate problem  
remains at present unattainable1 its    
discussion is therefore of necessity    
speculative in character4 ,but the need 
for recognizing the existence of a      
psychic factor1 whose phenomena cannot  
be reconciled on a materialistic basis1 
makes its inclusion in the cosmic system
 imperative4 ,this need is the greater  
in view of the tendency amongst an      
ever-increasing class to relegate all   
psychic phenomena to the chaotic realms 
of emotional thought1 resulting in the  
propagation of the wildest fanaticism   
under such titles as ,spiritualism1     

,christian ,science or ,theosophism4    
,there are two modes of thought and they
 lead in opposite directions3 emotional 
assumption and analytical investigation2
 the two systems are illustrated by the 
world phenomenon of religious beliefs   
arising from a common source1 and in    
their development splitting up1 breaking
 away and variating1 whilst all         
scientific knowledge unifies and becomes
 reconciled during its progress1 all    
laws eventually resolving themselves    
into one4 ,it is often said1 and it is  
well to remember1 that no system of     
human belief is without some fact to    
sustain it4 ,but when the great variety 
of antagonistic beliefs that have sprung
 from different conceptions of the same 
facts are taken into account1 one must  
realize1 as too few educationalists do1 
that the value of human opinions and    
beliefs depends far more on habits of   
mind and methods of assimilation than on
 the ultimate facts on which they are   
based1 or the conviction with which they

 are held4  ,there are many people so   
ignorant of human nature and            
psychological fact that they imagine the
 truth of a statement may be            
demonstrated by the credulity with which
 it has been received1 forgetting that  
faith fills the void of ignorance where 
scepticism is reserved for new ideas4   
,so long as education comprises the     
inculcation of beliefs founded on       
emotional assumption 7it should be clear
 to any one who thinks on the subject   
that few beliefs outside the analytical 
and exact sciences are logically        
reasoned out from fundamental           
principles7 and the facile repetition of
 archaisms is appraised as intellectual 
thought2 in short1 so long as our       
methods are retrospective rather than   
critical1 emotion and fanaticism will   
triumph over reason4  ,,footnotes3  #cd 
,professor ,j4 ,ward4  #ce ,the last    
execution for witchcraft is believed to 
have taken place in ,scotland in #agbb4 
,see ,lecky's ,rationalism1 #aeth       

edition1 p4 #ac  #cf ,op4 cit41 p4 #hb4 
#cg ,see definition in ,preface4  #ch   
,this description with a slight         
variation is taken from ,ibsen's        
,quintessence4  #ci ,it may be objected 
that the idea of the conservation of the
 psyche is only intelligible on the     
assumption of a pre-somatic1 as well as 
a post-somatic existence1 or that it    
necessarily involves some form of       
transmigration4 ,in place of any theory 
of the soul's preformation1 ,i would    
prefer to view the origin of the soul as
 bearing relation to the epigenesis of  
the organic germ1 bearing in mind that  
the organism is but the medium of the   
soul's activity and avoiding all        
dogmatism on the question of its        
ultimate destination4 ,we should1       
however1 remember1 as ,professor ,ward  
points out1 before we apply the formul  
of physical science to the realm of     
spiritual ends1 of this fundamental     
difference3 ,individuality is           
inseparable from mind and altogether    

foreign to matter1 which loses nothing  
by disintegration and gains nothing by  
integration4 7,realm of ,ends1 p4 #bgi47
  #dj ,see ,mc,dougall's ,body and      
,mind1 #bnd edition1 p4 #cdi4     ,v    
,,the ,,laws ,,of ,,suggestion ,,and    
,,subjective ,,mind   ,it has long been 
recognized that ideas rule the world1   
and that ,power is the translation of   
ideas into material force1 but the real 
nature of world forces and the          
elementary laws of their operation have 
been obscured by superstition and       
prejudice1 and little attempt has been  
made to recognize their true            
significance4  ,the great world war has 
indeed emphasized the immense power of  
ideas4 ,we hear much of propaganda and  
ideals4 ,in medicine we hear more of    
psychotherapy1 or the treatment of      
disease by persuasive and hypnotic      
methods4 ,we are aware1 too1 that our   
merchants have long known the practical 
and tangible value of advertisement1    
that is1 the insistent repetition of a  

coloured statement until it is believed 
to be true1 and that our priests1       
teachers and politicians have for       
centuries relied on this method alone4  
,but for the most part these people have
 little real knowledge or understanding 
of the power they are using1 and of     
which they are themselves the mere      
puppets4 ,a supreme illustration is the 
real impotence of the various           
belligerent governments to direct or    
cope with the immeasurable psychic      
forces now pursuing their cataclysmic   
course1 and their inability to foretell 
the direction in which they are leading 
a bewildered world4 ,nowhere is this    
more graphically apparent than in       
,russia1 whose kaleidoscopic upheavals  
have baffled all prophets4  ,i do not   
suggest that the causal origin of the   
,european ,war is purely psychic in     
character1 it may with greater certainty
 be found years before its disastrous   
developments1 in the steadily increasing
 pressure of population1 assisted by the

 gradual elimination of the natural     
checks#da among the indigent and        
unfit#db and the proportionate increase 
in the burdens of the fit1 due chiefly  
to the growth of democratic ideas and   
trend of religious influences2 this     
pressure found expression in policies of
 expansion among the more prolific      
nations1 and in the case of ,germany1   
where relief could not adequately be    
found in colonization1 as a natural     
consequence engendered assiduous        
military and bellicose propaganda1 which
 was bound eventually to culminate in a 
world war4  ,in order to facilitate a   
brief analysis of mob-psychology and    
public opinion1 and to examine their    
rightful place in the science of        
psychodynamics and their relation to the
 hypnotic law of suggestion1 ,i have    
introduced the term ,cosmic ,suggestion4
 ,there are few thinkers who would      
attempt to deny that the same factors1  
processes and influences are observable 
in the formation of all classes of      

opinion1 whether they are called        
religious1 moral1 political or artistic4
 ,it is1 unfortunately1 equally evident 
that reason1 except in the case of      
scientific opinion1 usually plays the   
smaller and emotion and desire the      
greater part in their formation4 ,we say
 that this is unfortunate because       
emotion never brings us nearer the      
truth4 ,poets and ecstatic visionaries  
have sung the praises of emotion because
 to them emotion alone was real and the 
normal medium of truth4 ,on the other   
hand the investigator is bound to arrive
 at a different conclusion4 ,emotion has
 nothing whatever to do with the        
attainment of truth4 ,that which we     
prize under the name of emotion is an   
elaborate activity of the brain1 which  
consists of feelings of like and        
dislike1 motions of assent and dissent1 
impulses of desire and aversion4 ,it may
 be influenced by the most diverse      
activities of the organism1 by the      
cravings of the senses and the muscles1 

the stomach1 the sexual organs1 etc4    
,the interests of truth are far from    
promoted by these conditions and        
vacillations of emotion2 on the         
contrary1 such circumstances often      
disturb that reason which alone is      
adapted to the pursuit of truth1 and    
frequently mar its perceptive power4 ,no
 cosmic problem is solved1 or even      
advanced1 by the cerebral function we   
call emotion4#dc  ,from the earliest    
times shrewd observers have commented on
 the ease with which the passions of men
 are inflamed and united1 often by the  
least worthy of objects4 ,dr4 ,samuel   
,johnson1 describing the progress of an 
agitator bidding for adherence1 tersely 
remarks1 ale and clamour unite their    
powers1 the crowd1 condensed and heated1
 begins to ferment with the leaven of   
sedition4#dd  ,before proceeding        
further1 it may be well to make a brief 
examination of the hypothesis most in   
accord with the results of recent       
psychological research and ascertainable

 fact4  ,it has gradually come to be    
recognized in scientific circles that   
recent advances in psychology have made 
it impossible to pursue that science any
 longer entirely on a physiological1    
anatomical and histological basis4 ,it  
is now also hardly likely to be disputed
 that not only is consciousness not the 
sum total of man's psychic activities   
but that the greater part of them are   
subconscious or unconscious4 ,thus1     
according to ,professor ,james ,ward1   
our threshold of consciousness must be  
compared to the surface of a lake1 and  
subconsciousness to the depths beneath  
it1 and all the current terminology of  
presentations rising and sinking implies
 this or some similar figure4  ,another 
writer in a recent publication makes use
 of an analogous illustration by        
describing human personality as an      
iceberg1 the great bulk of which is     
always invisible and submerged4#de  ,the
 matter is further complicated by the   
fact that within the domain of the      

subconscious there exists a vitality    
which cannot be traced to a cerebral or 
somatic source4 ,stated in broad terms  
it may be said that mind1 or the sum    
total of ,personality1 must be viewed in
 two interactionary aspects3 the primary
 consciousness and secondary            
consciousness1 or the conscious and the 
subconscious or subliminal or 7in a     
special sense7 subjective1 according to 
the various terms used by different     
writers to express the same thing4  ,for
 the purpose of greater lucidity1 it has
 usually been found that this dual      
aspect of mind can be best expressed by 
treating the whole mental organization  
as consisting of two minds1 each endowed
 with separate and distinct attributes  
and powers2 each capable1 under certain 
conditions1 of independent action4 ,it  
may be that a truer idea would be       
conveyed if the mind-whole was described
 as possessing certain attributes and   
powers under some conditions1 and       
certain other attributes and powers     

under other conditions4 ,as my object1  
here1 is to enter no further into       
psychological questions than is         
necessary for the elucidation of those  
ethical considerations which are        
dependent upon them1 ,i shall give a    
short account of those theories which1  
in the light of present knowledge1      
appear best founded and afford most     
assistance in connexion with the subject
 of morality4  ,thomas ,j4 ,hudson1     
whose hypothesis ,i shall make use of to
 illustrate my meaning1 assumed for     
practical purposes that man has two     
minds4 ,in making use to some extent of 
,hudson's theory1 ,i do so not because  
it is necessarily correct1 for his      
hypothesis was1 admittedly1 to a certain
 extent provisional2 but because it was 
the first practical working hypothesis  
on which all psychic and hypnotic       
phenomena could be based1 and because it
 has largely been used as a basis for   
subsequent elaborations4  ,in #ahib1    
,hudson1 in his ,law of ,psychic        

,phenomena1 said3 ,in more recent years 
the doctrine of duality of mind is      
beginning to be more clearly defined1   
and it may now be said to constitute a  
cardinal principle in the philosophy of 
many of the ablest exponents of the new 
psychology4 ,to-day when                
psychotherapeutics have claimed the     
attention of students of pathology1 and 
when at last the medical profession has 
almost throughout enlisted the          
co-operation and help of hypnotism1     
there are far fewer people who would    
deny the existence of that substratum of
 consciousness1 distinct from the       
manifestation of the normal waking mind1
 which is so profitably studied in the  
phenomena of somnambulism1 hypnotism and
 lunacy4  ,the briefest statement of the
 salient features of ,hudson's          
hypothesis will suffice to enable me to 
suggest the irresistible conclusion that
 the prime factor in the formation of   
all opinion1 collective and individual1 
the chief determinant of conduct1 and   

the greatest motive force in the world1 
is analogous and co-relative to hypnotic
 suggestion4  ,hudson was the first to  
attempt a clear definition of the rle   
and nature of the two elements which    
constitute the dual mind4 ,for the sake 
of greater clearness he speaks of these 
two aspects of mind as though they were 
two minds1 possessing distinctive       
characteristics and a line of           
demarcation between the two1 clearly    
defined4 ,to continue in his own words3 
,their functions are essentially unlike2
 each is endowed with separate and      
distinct attributes and powers2 and each
 is capable1 under certain conditions   
and limitations1 of independent action4 
,the author then distinguishes the two  
by designating the one objective and the
 other subjective4 ,it is unfortunate   
that he makes use of a nomenclature in  
which these terms are slightly perverted
 from their legitimate meaning1 or      
perhaps1 as he expresses it1 modified   
and extended1 but since he prefers to   

use them rather than attempt to coin new
 ones1 it will be necessary to employ   
them with reference to his law2 in every
 case in which these designations are   
employed in conjunction with the word   
mind1 or printed in italics1 they will  
be used in this sense4  ,they are       
defined thus3 ,the objective mind takes 
cognizance of the objective world4 ,its 
media of observation are the five       
physical senses4 ,it is the outgrowth of
 man's physical necessities4444 ,its    
highest function is that of             
reasoning4#df ,in other words1 the      
objective mind functionates from the    
brain and is susceptible of anatomical  
localization1 whilst the subjective mind
 takes cognizance of its environment by 
means independent of the physical       
senses4 ,it perceives by intuition4444  
,it performs its highest functions when 
the objective senses are in obeyance4   
,in a word1 it is that intelligence     
which makes itself manifest in a        
hypnotic subject when he is in a state  

of somnambulism4#dg  ,whether we call it
 soul or subjective mind matters not2   
what matters is the fact that in all    
psychic phenomena there is sufficient   
evidence to show that the two aspects of
 mind interact according to certain     
observable principles4 ,the main        
principle affecting man's mental        
organization on which ,hudson builds his
 hypothesis is the ,law of ,suggestion1 
first discovered by ,libeault1 the      
founder of the ,nancy ,school of        
hypnotism1 during his researches in     
#ahff4 ,it is this3 that hypnotic       
subjects are constantly amenable to the 
power of suggestion4 ,this proposition  
may be said to have been demonstrated as
 true beyond all possibility of doubt4  
,starting with this discovery1 ,hudson1 
after defining the dual character of    
mind1 introduces two propositions1      
namely3 that the subjective mind is     
constantly amenable to control by       
suggestion1 and that the subjective mind
 is incapable of inductive reasoning4   

,man in hypnotic state has invariably   
given sufficient evidence to show that  
the subjective mind accepts1 without    
hesitation or doubt1 every statement    
that is made to it4  ,with regard to    
this ,law of ,suggestion it is well to  
remember that1 while the subjective mind
 is invariably and constantly swayed by 
suggestion1 and is capable of offering  
no resistance except that which has been
 communicated to it by the objective    
mind1 or which is inherent in its       
nature1 the objective mind1 on the other
 hand1 is perpetually assailed by       
extrinsic suggestion1 its capacity for  
resistance being in proportion to the   
dominant quality and development of the 
mind-whole4  ,the objective mind1 it    
will therefore be seen1 is potentially  
selective1 that is to say1 the measure  
of its quality is its capacity to select
 at will intellectual nourishment from  
the whole range of humanity and nature1 
free from the oppression of its psychic 
environment4 ,the rare combination of   

this intellectual fastidiousness with a 
super-sensibility is the mark of true   
genius4  ,every one is conscious that at
 times we become aware of impulses1     
inclinations and concepts which seem to 
form no part of our thinking or waking  
minds2 they seem to come from the depths
 of our souls in response to some vital 
need of our existence4 ,when the        
tendency appears to be hereditary we    
call these promptings instincts#dh and  
consider it right to suppress them or   
hold them in check4 ,we do not resign   
ourselves wholesale to unbridled        
licentiousness or anger because the     
reproductive instinct and pugnacity are 
inherent in our nature2 on the contrary1
 we realize that our best interests lie 
in self-control4 ,if1 on the other hand1
 the impulse is less easily accounted   
for1 if1 maybe1 the message of our souls
 runs counter to our normal instincts1  
our interests or reason1 we are apt to  
assume that the impulse emanates from   
outside our nature and must have1 many  

of us think1 a supernatural or ,divine  
origin4  ,it may be said then that most 
people distinguish good and bad         
impulses1 or impulses which must be     
inhibited and impulses which should be  
followed at all costs4  ,theology1 as   
taught in the ,sunday ,school1 treats   
the subject somewhat after this fashion3
 ,all mortals are assailed by the powers
 of ,good and ,evil2 the vehicle of the 
,divine ,will is ',conscience1' the     
voice of conscience is the voice of ,god
 within us4 ,beware of the ,world1 the  
,flesh and the ,devil2 the ,devil calls 
to his victims in the guise of the      
flesh4 ,this idea is exploited for all  
it is worth in conjunction with the     
doctrine of original sin3 the stock     
device of priestcraft to enhance the    
value of its own ministrations and      
sacraments4 ,the spiritual teacher will 
usually bring the lesson home by a vivid
 description of the habits and          
idiosyncrasies of a ,mephistophelian    
,devil with a particular liability to   

appropriate the laws of our lower nature
 for the sole purpose of baulking his   
equally anthropomorphic antagonist1 the 
,god of ,jews and ,christians1 whose    
voice may be recognized in the pangs of 
remorse and self-debasement4 ,a child   
subjected to this form of instruction   
during the most impressionable period of
 its existence is usually left for the  
remainder of its life with a vague      
distrust of nature1 a proportionate     
reverence for the super-natural1 and an 
impression that asceticism is the       
highest attainable virtue1 together with
 a totally false appreciation of mental 
phenomena and the real value of         
self-control4  ,every man should learn  
to know himself and seek the origin of  
his impulses4 ,history is full of       
examples of men and women who believed  
themselves attended by guardian angels  
or familiar spirits who prompted their  
actions and gave them advice2 ,socrates 
was constantly attended by his daimones1
 and ,joan of ,arc used to hear spirit  

voices4 ,these and similar cases were   
evidence of the predominance of the     
subjective over the objective mind4 ,in 
a normally balanced mind the objective  
is in control2 in the reverse process   
the objective mind is dormant and the   
subjective dominates the throne of      
reason4 ,this is the case in dreams1    
trance1 hypnosis and cerebral diseases4 
,it is also the case1 in greater or     
lesser degree1 whenever the brain is    
stunned or is said to be unbalanced as  
the result of great emotional excitement
 or shock4 ,it is then that impulse and 
instinct take the place of1 or inhibit1 
rational thought4 ,impulses emanate from
 the subjective mind1 and may result    
from the inherent nature and real       
character of the individual2 or they may
 reflect the autosuggestions of the     
individual1 or his bodily desires 7this 
may be termed reflex-suggestion71 or the
 suggestions of others2 or1 again1 the  
latter1 acting upon the subjective mind1
 may awaken related tendencies or       

inclinations and result in new complex  
impulses4 ,extreme cases of subjective  
control result in madness2 the false    
premises conveyed by the disordered     
cerebral organs must result in          
deductions by the subjective mind of    
equal abnormality4 ,control by the      
subjective mind nearly always produces  
in the subject either a feeling of dual 
personality1 in which two egos are      
realized1 each distinct from the        
other--the old me and the new me--or    
else the subjective mind is identified  
with a totally distinct1 extrinsic and  
usually superior individual2 delusions  
of dual personality or demoniacal       
control are among the first recognized  
symptoms of ,cerebral disease4 ,the     
greatest and maddest fanatics in history
 have usually attributed their powers to
 spirit control4 ,poets and artists have
 sometimes confessed that their most    
brilliant work was produced under       
conditions akin to trance2 in some      
cases--,coleridge and ,edgar ,allan ,poe

 are well-known examples--the state was 
artificially induced4 ,many have felt as
 though they were possessed by a        
mightier spirit than their own1 which   
dictated while they merely obeyed4      
,professor ,william ,james1 after       
describing delusions of dual1           
alternating and superimposed            
personality1 which are common symptoms  
of insanity1 continues3 ,the literature 
of insanity is filled with narratives of
 such illusions as these4444 ,one       
patient has another self that repeats   
all his thoughts for him4 ,others1 among
 whom are some of the first characters  
in history1 have familiar demons who    
speak with them1 and are replied to4 ,in
 another1 some one 'makes' his thoughts 
for him4 ,another has two bodies1 lying 
in different beds4 ,or the cries of the 
patient himself are assigned to another 
person with whom the patient expresses  
sympathy4#di  ,if ,macaulay is right in 
the following passage1 subjective       
control would appear to be the essential

 condition for the production of poetry3
 ,perhaps no man can be a poet1 or can  
even enjoy poetry1 without a certain    
unsoundness of mind--if anything which  
gives so much pleasure ought to be      
called unsoundness4444 ,truth1 indeed1  
is essential to poetry1 but it is the   
truth of madness4 ,the reasonings are   
just1 but the premises are false4#ej    
,another often quoted passage1 from     
,csar ,lombroso's ,man of ,genius1 bears
 out the same thing3 ,many men of genius
 who have studied themselves1 and who   
have spoken of their inspiration1 have  
described it as a sweet and seductive   
fever1 during which their thought had   
become rapidly and involuntarily        
fruitful1 and has burst forth like the  
flame of a lighted torch4 ,kuh's most   
beautiful poems1 wrote ,bauer1 were     
dictated in a state between sanity and  
reason2 at the moment when his sublime  
thoughts came to him he was incapable of
 simple reasoning4  ,not the least      
remarkable of the powers of the         

subjective mind is its apparently       
absolute memory2 not only are those     
experiences of which we have objective  
cognizance indelibly recorded1 but      
innumerable occurrences in our          
environment1 which pass unnoticed or of 
which we are even consciously unaware1  
seem to be registered by the subjective 
mind4 ,although it cannot be included in
 the term memory1 implying conscious    
memory1 we have good reason for         
believing that in common with all living
 organisms the subjective mind of men   
records not only the result of its own  
experience1 but also is impregnated by  
those experiences of its ancestors which
 have been transformed into habits and  
have become innate1 and that by this    
means only progress and evolution are   
capable of explanation4 ,this           
unconscious register of ancestral       
experience1 about which we shall have   
more to say in another chapter1 is here 
adduced as being an additional factor   
which must have considerable bearing on 

the nature of subjective impulses4 ,the 
theories of unconscious and of organic  
memories#ea throw a great deal of light 
on the transmission of hereditary       
characters and of instincts4 ,the very  
fact of the appearance of hereditary    
characteristics in1 for example1 young  
ducks hatched out by a hen1 who persist 
in showing their ancestry by making for 
the first pond they see in spite of the 
astonished remonstrances of their       
foster-mother1 points to race memory as 
the only solution4  ,telepathy is again 
another factor in connexion with the    
subjective mind which must be taken into
 account4 ,it has been described as the 
normal means of communication between   
subjective minds en rapport2 the        
possibilities of its influence cannot be
 ignored4 ,is it surprising1 when we    
realize the range1 scope and complexity 
of the subconscious intelligence within 
ourselves1 that its emanations are      
sometimes mistaken for messages from    
another world8  ,this brief reference to

 some of the more noticeable influences 
which affect the inherent character of  
the subjective mind may help to indicate
 the importance of the ,law of          
,suggestion with regard to the theory of
 conscience 7literally                  
self-knowledge--but in practice more    
often lack of self-knowledge74 ,this law
 can be most profitably studied in the  
phenomena of hypnotism1 for the reason  
that the objective mind1 or let us say  
man in his normal condition1 is not     
controllable1 against reason1 positive  
knowledge1 or the evidence of his       
senses1 by the suggestions of another4  
7,we have discussed his potential       
capacity for resistance47 ,the          
subjective mind1 or man in the hypnotic 
state1 on the other hand1 is            
unqualifiedly and constantly amenable to
 the power of suggestion4#eb ,in this   
condition the subjective mind accepts   
unhesitatingly every statement that is  
made to it1 no matter how absurd or     
incongruous or contrary to the objective

 experience of the individual4 ,if the  
subject is told that he is a dog1 he    
will instantly accept the suggestion1   
and to the limit of physical possibility
 act the part suggested4 ,if he is told 
he is ,napoleon1 he will again act the  
part with wonderful fidelity to life4   
,the suggestion of pursuing devils will 
send him into a lively terror4 ,he will 
become intoxicated by drinking a glass  
of water under the impression that it is
 brandy4 ,if told he is suffering from a
 high fever1 his pulse will become      
rapid1 his face flushed and his         
temperature will rise4 ,in short1 he can
 be made to see1 smell1 hear1 or feel   
anything in obedience to suggestion4    
,these are fundamental facts known not  
only to students of hypnotism but also  
very extensively to the general public4 
,equal and complementary to the ,law of 
,suggestion is the ,law of              
,autosuggestion4 ,having accepted for   
purposes of clarity ,hudson's view of   
the independent powers and functions of 

the two aspects of mind1 it naturally   
follows that the subjective mind of an  
individual is as amenable to the control
 of his own objective mind as to the    
objective mind of another2 in fact we   
have sufficient reason to know that it  
is more so4 ,for instance1 it is well   
known that a normal person cannot be    
hypnotized against his will1 for the    
contrary autosuggestion of the subject  
negatives the suggestion of the         
operator4 ,even after a subject has     
consented to be hypnotized the settled  
habits of his life are sufficiently     
strong autosuggestions to defend him    
against the violation of his most       
tenacious principles4 ,if1 for instance1
 a hypnotic subject is conscientiously  
opposed to the use of alcohol1 he cannot
 be persuaded to drink water under the  
impression that it is whisky4 ,this fact
 is of the greatest importance in       
relation to criminology4  ,in this      
connexion the following passage from    
,moll's ,hypnotism is of interest3 ,the 

more an action is repulsive to the      
disposition of an individual1 the       
stronger is his resistance4 ,habit and  
education play a large part here2 it is 
generally very difficult to suggest     
anything opposed to the confirmed habits
 of the subject4  ,for instance1        
suggestions are made with success to a  
devout ,catholic1 but directly the      
suggestion conflicts with his creed it  
will not be accepted4 ,the surroundings 
play a part also4 ,a subject will       
frequently decline a suggestion that    
will make him appear ridiculous4 ,a     
woman whom ,i easily put into cateleptic
 postures1 and who made suggested       
movements1 could not be persuaded to put
 out her tongue at the spectators4  ,it 
is interesting to observe the way in    
which resistance is expressed1 both in  
hypnotic and post-hypnotic suggestion4  
,i1 myself1 have observed the           
interesting phenomenon that subjects    
have asked to be awakened when a        
suggestion displeased them4#ec  ,it is a

 fundamental law of hypnotism that it   
cannot be used as an agent for the      
commission of a crime1 that is1 unless  
the subject is criminally disposed4 ,it 
is obvious that the same rule applies to
 sexual crimes2 ,hudson lays it down as 
an unassailable fact that no virtuous   
woman ever was1 or ever can be1         
successfully assaulted while in a       
hypnotic condition4  ,it will now be    
realized that autosuggestion embraces   
not only the assertions of the objective
 mind of an individual1 addressed to his
 own subjective mind1 but also his      
habits of thought and the settled       
principles and convictions of his whole 
life4 ,the more intense these principles
 and convictions are1 the stronger the  
autosuggestion will be1 and relatively  
harder to be overcome by the contrary   
suggestions of another4 ,it is a law of 
universal applicability that the        
strongest suggestion must prevail4  ,so 
far we have alluded only to suggestion  
applied during hypnosis2 it should be   

remembered1 however1 that it is now a   
settled principle of psychotherapeutics 
that suggestion also operates1 and from 
a therapeutic point of view is sometimes
 more efficacious1 in the normal waking 
or sleeping condition2 though in the    
latter case1 without complete           
amenability1 the results are seldom so  
striking4 ,the condition in normal      
waking life which produces phenomena    
most closely resembling those of        
hypnosis is that of strong emotional    
excitement4 ,we find1 also1 that in     
normal life suggestions of the greatest 
potency and having the most far-reaching
 effects are conveyed by means of       
emotional states4 ,although a close     
resemblance exists between the result of
 suggestion in hypnosis and the result  
of suggestion in normal and emotion     
states1 similarity of result does not1  
as ,dr4 ,bramwell points out in this    
connexion1 necessarily imply identity of
 cause4 ,in fact there are some         
important differences between the two   

conditions which produce the phenomena1 
as well as some distinctions between the
 phenomena themselves3 whereas fear1    
hope1 faith1 religious excitement and   
kindred emotions are almost invariably  
present in cases which are cited as     
analogous to hypnotic ones1 some of     
these1 such as fear and other violent   
emotions1 effectually preclude the      
production of hypnosis1 and further1    
subjects who are most amenable to       
emotional suggestions are often those   
whom it is most difficult to            
hypnotize4#ed  ,the principle of        
psychotherapeutics depends1 as is well  
known1 upon the close dependence of the 
organs and normal bodily functions upon 
the behests of the mind4 ,hudson        
expresses this in the form of a         
proposition1 namely3 ,the subjective    
mind has absolute control of the        
functions1 conditions and sensations of 
the body4 ,although this statement      
contains a very important principle we  
should not allow it to obscure the fact 

of the reverse process4 ,as ,james1     
,bain and others have shown1 antecedent 
bodily conditions often react directly  
upon the mind4 ,the general truth1      
however1 of the proposition may be      
readily perceived when we remember that 
perfect ansthesia can be produced at the
 will of the operator by suggestion4    
,the effect of mental stimuli upon      
functional conditions is also commonly  
observed under normal conditions in such
 phenomena as blushing1 turning pale1   
the quickening of the pulse1 fainting1  
etc41 all of which should be sufficient 
to convince any one who gives the       
subject a moment's consideration of the 
very direct and instant way the mind    
affects the body4  ,several typical     
examples of the influence of            
autosuggestion1 or imagination1 over    
intestinal action during sleep are      
quoted by ,bernheim from the            
,bibliothque choisie de ,mdecine4 ,they 
consist for the most part of recorded   
cases where1 for instance1 the subjects1

 having registered an intention to use a
 purgative the following day1 have      
dreamt during the night with particular 
vividness that the dose had already been
 taken1 with the result that1 influenced
 by the imaginary aperient1 they had    
awakened to yield to nature's demands1  
with the same result as if the dose had 
already been taken4  ,it may not be out 
of place to refer to another example    
from my personal experience of the      
potency of suggestion in affecting      
functional disturbances during sleep4   
,during my first week at a public       
school1 the dampness of the new climate 
brought on a bad attack of bronchial    
asthma1 which ,i had not been troubled  
with for some time previously4 ,the     
first bad attack occurred at night1 when
 some noise had caused me to wake up4   
,when ,i had recovered sufficiently to  
look at the time1 ,i noticed it was #b  
a4m4 and at the same time heard the     
school clock faintly striking that hour4
 ,fearing and half expecting another    

attack the next night2 ,i asked that    
asthma powder and the usual remedies    
might be made available in case they    
were needed4 ,that night1 as ,i had     
feared1 and for the next ten nights in  
succession1 ,i woke struggling for      
breath1 precisely on the first stroke of
 the school clock striking two1 and     
experienced the worst attacks ,i ever   
had4 ,they were undoubtedly induced at  
that exact time by the autosuggestion   
which connected the symptom with the    
hour and by the conviction or fear1     
after the first experience1 that the    
attack would recur at the same hour4    
,as we have already shown1 one of the   
chief factors in autosuggestion is      
faith4 ,this is1 in fact1 a fundamental 
principle recognized by all             
,faith-healers from ,jesus of ,nazareth 
onwards4  ,the cases during the present 
war where nervous aphonia and paralysis1
 popularly diagnosed with co-related    
cases of neurasthenia under the         
comprehensive title ,shell ,shock1 have 

completely yielded to simple suggestion 
by affirmation on the part of the       
physician and confidence on the part of 
the patient1 must number hundreds of    
recorded cases4 ,excellent results are  
often obtained in cases of aphonia and  
paralysis by the suggestive influence of
 electricity applied to the vocal cords 
and the nerve centres4 ,bernheim#ee     
records several cures of this           
description4 ,smith and ,pear#ef quote a
 striking but somewhat erratic case in  
which suggestion was conveyed purely by 
the faradic current4 ,the case is       
recorded by ,blsig#eg of a sailor on the
 ,german battle cruiser ,derfflinger4 ,a
 seaman from the ,derfflinger was       
brought into a naval hospital with loss 
of voice on ,december #bb1 #aiad1 and   
could only speak in a whisper4 ,he      
stated that his voice had always been   
clear and well under control4 ,at the   
beginning of ,december he had a slight  
cold1 which he attributed to sentry duty
 on deck in very stormy and wet weather4

 ,while in the ammunition chamber of the
 big guns1 he was greatly upset during  
the firing and suddenly lost his voice4 
,after fourteen days he recovered his   
speech4 ,on ,february #ab1 #aiae1 he    
returned to hospital with complete loss 
of voice1 immediately after the naval   
engagement in the ,north ,sea4 ,on      
,february #ae he was treated with       
electricity1 directly applied to the    
vocal cords1 and on ,march #bj he was   
discharged with complete recovery of his
 speech4 ,but on returning to duty1 as  
soon as he went on board his ship1 his  
voice was suddenly lost for the third   
time and he remained aphonic4  ,more    
spectacular1 but not more wonderful than
 the cures of the professional          
psychiatrist1 are some of the so-called 
miracles that fill the pages of         
religious history2 and they are less    
easy to explain1 according to the       
invariable laws of suggestion1 only in  
proportion to their lack of             
authenticity4 ,there is no reason for   

doubting that thousands of remarkable   
and absolutely authenticated cures have 
taken place at the healing waters of    
,lourdes1 or that many of the recorded  
cases of the cure of epileptics1 blind1 
deaf and dumb and sick at the hands of  
,saints and others are substantially    
true4 ,many of these stories are1 of    
course1 embellished and exaggerated1    
while others are wholly fictitious1 but 
the majority are based upon more than a 
foundation of fact4 ,the one essential  
in all these cases is faith in healer   
and patient4 ,the truth of the          
hypothesis upon which that faith is     
founded has not the slightest effect on 
the efficacy of the cure4 ,hudson quotes
 the following passage from ,bernheim3  
,among all the moral causes which1      
appealing to the imagination1 set the   
cerebral mechanism of possible causes at
 work1 none is so efficacious as        
religious faith4 ,numbers of authentic  
cures have certainly been due to it4 ,on
 this fact are based the numerous       

theories propounded by the different    
sects and schools of faith- and         
prayer-healers that exist to-day4  ,the 
conclusion is irresistible and obvious  
to any one not blinded by religious     
prejudice that whether the object of    
faith is real or false the result       
attained will be the same in either     
case4 ,faith will produce miracles      
irrespective of the premises on which it
 is founded4 ,this accounts for the     
quite considerable success 7apart from  
financial considerations7 attained by   
,christian ,scientists in spite of the  
self-evident absurdity of their tenets1 
and the fact that they are without the  
remotest conception of the real         
principles which underlie their         
so-called science4  ,one of the most    
important and striking facts discovered 
by students of hypnotism is the complete
 recollection by the subject in the     
hypnotic condition of all he may have   
learned or forgotten in the normal      
state1 and1 in fact1 of all he may      

consciously or unconsciously have       
experienced1 and this recollection can  
be induced at the will of the operator4 
,the subjective mind is said to have a  
perfect memory1 that is to say1 it is   
capable of registering with unfailing   
accuracy every experience of the        
individual2 for this reason hypnotic    
subjects have a range and wealth of     
knowledge quite beyond their waking     
abilities4 ,it is self-evident that any 
forgotten fact that is recalled by an   
effort or at random1 when an            
associationist explanation would be     
wholly inadequate1 must have lain stored
 all the while below the level of       
consciousness4  ,as the factors of      
memory and heredity together have an    
important bearing on the growth of moral
 ideas1 we may deal with the subject a  
little more fully4 ,according to ,james1
 ,the ,stream of ,thought flows on3 but 
most of its segments fall into the      
bottomless abyss of oblivion4#eh        
,retention means liability the italics  

are the author's to recall1 and it means
 nothing more than such liability4 ,the 
only proof of there being retention is  
that recall actually takes place4#ei    
,his position is slightly modified some 
pages later1 where he says1 after       
recording a few cases of hypnotic       
memory3 ,all these pathological facts   
are showing us that the sphere of       
possible recollection may be wider than 
we think1 and that in certain matters   
apparently oblivion is no proof against 
possible recall under other conditions4 
,but adds3 ,they give no countenance1   
however1 to the extravagant opinion that
 nothing we experience can be absolutely
 forgotten4#fj ,the only reason he      
gives1 however1 for discountenancing    
this possibility is that he cannot find 
sufficient explanation for it4 ,on the  
other hand1 we believe that there is now
 ample evidence to show that all        
experience is retained in some portion  
of the psychic whole1 and that although 
it may not have been consciously        

realized at all1 it will still have been
 subconsciously registered4 ,one of the 
cases most often quoted in illustration 
of this appears in ,coleridge's         
,biographia ,literaria#fa and is here   
repeated since it is given by ,james and
 also at greater length by ,hudson4#fb  
,according to the author it occurred a  
year or two before his arrival at       
,gttingen4  ,in a ,roman ,catholic town 
in ,germany1 a young woman1 who could   
neither read nor write1 was seized with 
a fever1 and was said by the priests to 
be possessed of a devil1 because she was
 heard talking ,latin1 ,greek and       
,hebrew4 ,whole sheets of her ravings   
were written out and found to consist of
 sentences intelligible in themselves   
but having slight connexion with each   
other4 ,of her ,hebrew sayings1 only a  
few could be traced to the ,bible and   
most seemed to be in the ,rabbinical    
dialect4 ,many eminent physiologists and
 psychologists visited the town and     
cross-examined the case on the spot4    

,all trick was out of the question2 the 
woman was a simple creature3 there was  
no doubt as to the fever4 ,it was long  
before any explanation1 save that of    
demoniacal possession1 could be         
obtained4 ,at last the mystery was      
unveiled by a physician1 who determined 
to trace back the girl's history1 and   
who1 after much trouble1 discovered that
 at the age of nine she had been        
charitably taken by an old ,protestant  
pastor1 a great ,hebrew scholar1 in     
whose house she lived till his death4   
,on further inquiry1 it appeared to have
 been the old man's custom for years to 
walk up and down a passage of his house 
into which the kitchen opened1 and to   
read to himself with a loud voice out of
 his books4 ,the books were ransacked1  
and among them were found several ,greek
 and ,latin ,fathers1 together with a   
collection of ,rabbinical writings4 ,in 
these works so many of the passages     
taken down at the young woman's bedside 
were identical that there could be no   

reasonable doubt as to their source4    
,james1 who considered that phenomenal  
memories were accounted for by the      
exceptional persistence or permanence of
 the paths of thought1 a purely         
physiological property of the           
brain-tissue of the individual1 quotes a
 case within his own experience which1  
if we accept ,hudson's theory1 affords a
 typical illustration of the facility   
possessed by some men of drawing upon   
the knowledge of their own subjective   
minds4  ,what these cases show is that  
the mere organic retentiveness of a man 
need bear no definite relation to his   
other mental powers4 ,men of the highest
 general powers will often forget       
nothing1 however insignificant4 ,one of 
the most generally accomplished men ,i  
know has a memory of this sort4 ,he     
never keeps written note of anything1   
yet is never at a loss for a fact which 
he has once heard4 ,as an instance of   
his desultory memory1 he was introduced 
to a certain colonel at a club4 ,the    

conversation fell upon the signs of age 
in man4 ,the colonel challenged him to  
estimate his age4 ,he looked at him1 and
 gave the exact day of his birth1 to the
 wonder of all4 ,but the secret of this 
accuracy was that1 having picked up some
 days previously an army register1 he   
had idly turned over its list of names  
with the dates of birth1 graduation1    
promotion1 etc41 attached1 and when the 
colonel's name was mentioned to him at  
the club1 these figures1 on which he had
 not bestowed a moment's thought1       
involuntarily surged up in his mind4    
,it is hoped that the foregoing has made
 it clear that a distinction exists     
between the normal or objective memory1 
or recollection1 which is capable of    
cerebral localization1 and the          
subjective memory1 which appears to be  
absolute and without anatomical basis4  
,the very fact that the normal memory is
 most efficient when the brain is       
healthy1 and the remarkable powers of   
the subjective memory are seen to the   

best advantage when the brain is        
diseased or dormant1 serves to emphasize
 the distinction4 ,this1 too1 explains  
the otherwise unaccountable fact that   
quite abnormal memories are sometimes   
possessed by imbeciles equally with men 
of genius1 especially that type of      
ecstatic mind often mistaken for genius 
by the world4 ,mr4 ,bernard ,shaw1      
laying great emphasis on the            
distinction1 proclaims the domination of
 will1 not reason1 as the mark of genius
 in art4#fc ,but the distinction is     
superfluous and misleading3 it is just  
that type of genius 7871 fruitful when  
the will is ansthetized and the range   
and wealth of the subjective mind given 
free play1 whose works degenerate into  
decadent mysticism2 it is when reason   
ceases to direct the course of genius   
that the subjective stratum dominates   
the throne2 and the mind1 fed and       
nourished by the deep-seated lusts of   
the body1 grows mad with the exuberance 
of its own descriptive powers4          

,,footnotes3  #da ,the principal checks 
to population enumerated by ,malthus    
were normally3 vice1 misery and celibacy
 or moral restraint1 and such occasional
 resorts of nature to repress a too     
redundant population 7an evil aggravated
 considerably in countries where        
population is forced to the limits of   
its means of subsistence by poor-laws   
and grants in aid of families71 as wars 
and famine4  #db ,the unfit denotes the 
diseased1 criminals1 paupers and        
lunatics4 ,see ,the ,fertility of the   
,unfit1 by ,w4 ,a4 ,chapple1 for an able
 exposition of the economic causes      
underlying the alarming increase in the 
unfit population4  #dc ,e4 ,haeckel1    
,riddle of the ,universe4  #dd ,the     
,false ,alarm1 a pamphlet on the        
,middlesex election of #aggj4  #de ,the 
,purpose of ,education 7#aiae71 by ,st4 
,george ,lane ,fox-,pitt4  #df ,psychic 
,phenomena1 by ,i4 ,j4 ,hudson1 p4 #bi4 
#dg ,ibid4  #dh ,instinct in its more   
technical use denotes any inherited     

tendency to perform a specific action in
 a specific way when the appropriate    
situation occurs4 ,in this use instinct 
should be discriminated from impulse1   
which may be 7#a7 the sensation or      
feeling which prompts an instinctive    
action1 7#b7 a similar prompting to an  
action which is not instinctive in the  
narrower sense1 or which is             
characteristic of an individual only and
 not of a group4--,webster's            
,dictionary4  #di ,principles of        
,psychology1 vol4 i1 p4 #cgg4  #ej ,ex  
,essay on ,milton4  #ea ,the theory was 
developed by ,professor ,r4 ,semon of   
,munich1 in #aijh1 who used the word    
engrams for organic memories2 quoted by 
,professor ,j4 ,ward in a lecture on the
 mnemic theory1 entitled ,heredity and  
,memory1 delivered at ,cambridge in     
#aiab and subsequently published4       
,professor ,ward considers that greater 
emphasis should be laid upon the psychic
 than upon the physical impressions     
recorded by the mind-stuff4  #eb        

,hudson's ,psychic ,phenomena1 p4 #cj4  
#ec ,op4 cit41 p4 #abi4  #ed ,vide      
,bramwell's ,hypnotism1 #crd edition1 p4
 #ccd4  #ee ,suggestive ,therapeutics4  
#ef ,op4 cit41 p4 #dd4  #eg ,mnchener   
,medizinische ,wochenschrift1 ,june #ae1
 #aiae4  #eh ,principles of ,psychology1
 p4 #fdc4  #ei ,ibid41 vol4 i1 p4 #fed4 
#fj ,principles of ,psychology1 vol4 i1 
p4 #fhb4  #fa ,ed4 #ahdg1 vol4 i1 p4    
#aag2 also quoted in ,carpenter's       
,mental ,physiology1 chap1 x1 in        
illustration of his theory of           
unconscious cerebrations4  #fb ,hudson's
 ,psychic ,phenomena1 p4 #dd1 and       
,james's ,principles of ,psychology1    
vol4 i1 p4 #fha4  #fc ,the ,sanity of   
,art1 by ,george ,bernard ,shaw4        
,,vi  ,,valuer ,,and ,,valuation        
,value implies a valuer2 however        
universal or established a value may be1
 the term is meaningless unless it bears
 relation to people who value4 ,no      
definition of value is possible1 or at  
any rate satisfactory1 that does not    

imply the judgment1 choice1 or assertion
 of a valuer in the act of valuing4 ,the
 universality of a value does not make  
it objective or independent of valuers1 
but merely widens the applicability of  
that value with regard to any imaginable
 valuer4 ,if this can be admitted1 it   
follows that value cannot be made       
independent of the factors that         
determine or have determined the mental 
attitude of the valuer4 ,for this reason
 ,i will attempt to give an account of  
some of the factors which bear directly 
upon man1 the valuer1 and less directly 
upon values in general and moral values 
in particular4 ,the discussion will be  
under four headings3 7#a7 ,instinct and 
,heredity2 7#b7 ,emotion2 7#c7 ,judgment
 of ,ends2 7#d7 ,environment and ,cosmic
 ,suggestion4   7#a7 ,,instinct ,,and   
,,heredity  ,we have already alluded to 
the part played by instinct in          
determining the initial character of the
 ego4 ,instincts are here distinguished 
from the emotions to which they give    

rise4 ,without unduly stretching the    
meaning of the word suggestion1 in the  
sense of a prompting to action not      
specifically in hypnotism1 instinct may 
perhaps be looked upon as the innate    
suggestion of heredity4 ,the two primary
 factors held to be fundamental in      
shaping and influencing the character of
 the individual are environment and     
heredity4 ,the question of the          
predominance of the one influence or the
 other is the subject of keen           
controversy1 and coincides with the     
contingent problem of the relative      
importance of inherent and acquired     
characters4  ,it is now becoming        
increasingly evident that the problem of
 heredity is nearer a solution if viewed
 rather from the psychical than from the
 purely biological or material aspect4  
,so we seek the solution of the secret  
in psychology4 ,the vital factor in     
organism is psychic from protozoan to   
man1 whether we identify it with        
psychoplasm1 soul1 ego1 or subjective   

mind4  ,those who put forward memory as 
the basis of heredity show that         
evolution implies the retention by      
organisms of their experiences in       
accommodating themselves to their       
gradually changing environment4         
,constant and reiterated striving in    
certain directions in this process of   
accommodation1 until actions become     
automatic--free of effort--produces     
habit4 ,in the words of ,professor      
,ward3 ,this law of habit we may        
reasonably regard as exemplified in the 
life of every individual in the long    
line of genealogical ascent that        
connects us with our humblest ancestors1
 in so far as every permanent advance in
 the scale of life implies a basis of   
habit embodied in a structure which has 
been perfected by practice4#fd          
,laborious observations have been       
recorded of minute unicellular creatures
 to show that they succeed as we do1    
only by way of trial and error4 ,thus we
 are led to the conclusion that the     

acquisition of habits by the individual 
during his efforts to adapt himself to  
his environment1 and transmitted down a 
long line of genealogical descent1 is   
the method of heredity2 and further1    
that man1 in common with other animals1 
inherits all these racial and individual
 acquirements from his parents4         
,instinct1 we have said1 may be termed  
the ,suggestion of ,heredity1 which     
again is race memory1 or the            
evolutionary product of habits acquired 
during the process of man's adaptability
 to his environment4 ,this1 then1 is the
 primary and fundamental determinant of 
the character and quality of            
personality4 ,it is the quality which is
 inherent in a man from the moment he   
begins his individual existence1 that   
is1 from the moment the sexual cells of 
both parents coalesce in the process of 
conception and form a new stem-cell4    
,haeckel divides the instincts into two 
chief classes3 the primary1 which can be
 traced to the commencement of organic  

life--the common lower impulses inherent
 in the psychoplasm4 ,the chief are     
impulses to self-preservation 7by       
defence and maintenance7 and the        
preservation of the species 7by         
generation and the care of the young74  
,these two1 hunger and reproduction1 are
 universally recognized as fundamental4 
,the secondary were due to intelligent  
adaption2 translated into habit1 they   
gradually become automatic and innate in
 subsequent generations4 ,the earlier   
these habits are acquired and ingrained 
in the life history of the race1 the    
more invariable and immutable will be   
their transmission2 the habits of a few 
generations are easily modified or      
effaced by conflicting tendencies or    
conditions4 ,the life history of every  
new individual1 in its initial stages1  
is a 7more or less complete#fe7         
recapitulation of the life history of   
the race4 ,the earlier ancestral        
acquisitions have been transformed into 
habit and have become secondarily       

automatic1 the less are they liable to  
variation1 and the more inexorable and  
unfailing will be their transmission4   
,thus ,darwin showed the greater        
immutability of generic characters over 
later acquired specific characters4     
,this applies to psychic as well as to  
physical characters4 ,in the same way   
the earlier1 during the course of his   
life1 a man assimilates a strong        
suggestion1 the greater will be its     
effect and the longer its influence will
 last4  ,let us now consider instinct in
 relation to moral conceptions4 ,dr4    
,mc,dougall gives prominence in his     
,social ,psychology to the following    
instincts1 which1 together with the     
emotional excitements which accompany   
them1 play the foremost part in the     
evolution of moral ideas3 7#a7 ,the     
reproductive1 parental and erotic       
instincts1 responsible for the earliest 
form of social feeling2 7#b7 the        
instinct of pugnacity1 with which are   
connected the emotions of resentment and

 revenge1 which give rise1 when         
complicated with other instincts1 to    
indignation at anti-social conduct2 7#c7
 the gregarious instinct1 which inclines
 animals to gather together in          
aggregations of their own species--this 
impulse has an important bearing upon   
the sympathetic emotions and is at the  
root of tribal loyalty2 7#d7 the        
instincts of acquisition and            
construction1 which have been developed 
with the idea of property1 and the moral
 judgments connected therewith2 7#e7 the
 instincts of self-abasement 7or        
subjection7 and of self-assertion 7or   
self-display71 with which are connected 
the emotions of depression and          
elation--the former instinct gives rise 
to feelings of respect towards          
superiors1 divine or human1 and the     
latter is the basis of self-respect4#ff 
,other writers lay greater emphasis on a
 distinct instinct of ,imitation4 ,it is
 undoubted that imitation1 both when it 
is spontaneous and when it is           

deliberate--the distinction between the 
two forms should be carefully           
observed--plays a great part in the     
formation of moral judgments4           
,theological and ethical writers are    
fond of saying that the sense of moral  
obligation arises from the consciousness
 of approval1 and consequent imitation1 
of an ideal or a standard which is      
submitted to our judgment2 this implies 
deliberate imitation4 ,the imitative    
tendency 7purely spontaneous7 is        
strongly marked in every child in its   
first efforts at vocalization1 which are
 pure ,echolalia1 i4e4 incessant        
repetition of the sounds it hears2 in   
fact1 imitation marks every step of a   
child's growing consciousness4          
,practically all phenomena1 however1    
attributed to the imitative instinct is 
in reality a manifestation of response  
to extrinsic suggestion4 ,james speaks  
of the imitative tendency which shows   
itself in large masses of men1 and      
produces panics1 and orgies and frenzies

 of violence1 and which only the rarest 
individuals can actively withstand4444  
,certain mesmerized subjects must       
automatically imitate whatever motion   
their operator makes before their       
eyes4#fg  ,to ascribe this tendency to a
 special instinct would be to disclose a
 faulty appreciation of mob psychology  
and the ,laws of ,suggestion4 ,these    
panics1 orgies and frenzies of violence1
 and similar vindictive or enthusiastic 
mob tendencies1 are simply the natural  
response to mass or cosmic suggestion1  
as we shall see later4  ,the final and  
precipitate cause of these outbreaks is 
frequently the personal magnetism1 or   
more correctly the suggestion1 of one   
man4 ,the qualities necessary for the   
exercise of this power--the secret of   
successful demagogy--are not1 as might  
be supposed1 the possession of a        
dominant will and a constructive1       
purposive or tenacious intellect4 ,it   
may be1 indeed1 that a great man of     
action1 a ,napoleon or ,csar1 arises1   

and by these sterling qualities         
dominates the masses and their attendant
 sycophants and demagogues2 but more    
usually the essentials are a gift for   
facile and frenzied oratory and the     
power of evoking emotional              
presentations1 qualities possessed1 par 
excellence1 by madmen and fanatics1 the 
,kerenskys1 ,lenins and visionaries of  
all times4 ,their powers are the more   
irresistible1 it is true1 if combined   
with a shrewd knowledge of correct      
methods of propaganda and lavish        
adulation1 for the obvious reason that1 
as we have seen1 the strongest          
suggestion is the one that is most      
acceptable to the subject and most in   
accord with his predilections4 ,nothing 
would be truer than to say that only the
 rarest individuals can actively        
withstand the onslaught of cosmic       
suggestion4 ,it is significant that the 
greatest human type1 the true genius1   
who appears most often in the great     
philosopher1 less often in the great    

artist1 and who possesses a             
superabundance of dominant will-power   
and constructiveness1 is far less       
powerful than the great conqueror or    
politician2 for he commands intellect   
rather than emotion1 and the world is   
governed by emotion4  ,it is not        
sufficiently realized that many         
so-called geniuses1 imaginative1        
histrionic and poetical1 can never      
deserve the highest place1 for they are 
the sounding-boards of the world2 their 
superlative quality is receptivity2 they
 are instruments1 not players2 they     
voice the great masses1 and they share  
with publicists and politicians a desire
 to be incriminated in the movement of  
their surroundings4 ,wieninger1 in his  
,sex and ,character1 emphasizes the     
dependence of publicists and tribunes of
 the people upon the masses they would  
lead4 ,the politician1 like the         
prostitute1 has to court the populace2  
she is a woman of the streets--he is a  
man of the streets4 ,for this reason he 

denies to the great politician and the  
man of action the quality of true       
greatness4 ,the man of action shares    
with the epileptic the desire to be in  
criminal relation to everything around  
him1 to make them appanages of his petty
 self4 ,the great man feels himself     
defined and separate from the world1 a  
nomad amongst nomads1 and as a true     
microcosm he feels the world already    
within him4  ,the really great men1 the 
,kants1 the ,descartes1 ,leibnizs or    
,spencers1 and the greatest artists are 
wholly creative1 purposive1 dynamic2    
they owe no allegiance to the masses1   
for they are greater than the masses2   
they realize all without reflecting all2
 they seek nourishment where they will1 
and they spew out what they will2 this  
perfect freedom is necessary for the    
attainment of truth4 ,truthfulness is a 
necessary attribute of genius1 but not  
of statecraft or government1 or of      
poetical effusions of the imagination4  
,while we are dealing with the subject  

of instincts it may not seem out of     
place to refer to the widely held belief
 that maternal impressions during       
pregnancy have a direct influence on the
 temperament of the child1 and are often
 responsible for inducing definite      
tendencies of aversion and attraction   
and even physical resemblances4         
,although such acquired tendencies1     
admitting their existence1 cannot       
strictly be classed with the instincts  
or tendencies inherited from former     
generations1 since they are acquired    
after the inception of1 and by1 the new 
individual2 yet they have a resemblance 
in that they are both pre-natal         
acquirements1 and are manifested in the 
same way4 ,writers on heredity and      
biology are apt to dismiss the subject  
as unworthy of serious consideration1   
and to account for any instances of the 
sort attributed to this cause as based  
on pure coincidence4 ,it is1 however1   
significant that the great majority of  
mothers who have given the matter any   

thought are1 as a rule1 firmly convinced
 of the reality of pre-natal influences4
 ,when the principles of suggestion are 
applied to the case1 it will be seen    
that the conditions of pre-natal        
existence are favourable for the        
reception by an unborn child of strong  
telepathic suggestions from its mother4 
,the embryo mind is entirely receptive2 
any violent psychic disturbance in the  
mother must react upon the child4 ,most 
people know of some instance which      
points to the impression theory1 and    
which it would be impossible to account 
for in any other way4  ,there appear to 
be no reasonable grounds for denying    
that maternal impressions may sometimes 
be held accountable for temperamental   
tendencies1 not easily attributable to  
heredity1 although it would1 of course1 
be absurd to attempt to account for all 
abnormalities in the same way4 ,the     
naturally greater receptivity and       
suggestibility of women1 shown by their 
quick response to emotional suggestion1 

their credulousness1 and the fact that  
women are the best mediums1#fh becomes  
very much more marked during pregnancy4 
,at such times some women1 normally     
distinguished by their vigour and       
initiative1 become conspicuously        
impressionable2 they become1 in fact1   
ready conductors of suggestion4 ,it     
follows that the influences that bear   
strongest upon them also bear upon the  
child4  ,greater importance should not  
be attached to the psychic environment  
of a child than to its inherent         
hereditary qualities1 which irrevocably 
determine its native tendencies and the 
limits of its ultimate possibilities4   
,environment may modify or enhance a    
child's inherent characteristics in an  
infinite variety of ways1 but cannot    
nullify them or transcend by one iota   
the limit of its potential development4 
,in a previous chapter we discussed the 
view of those who regard moral judgment 
as an emotion or intuition of the good  
and the right1 and who find             

justification for our rules of conduct  
by referring them to the ,divine ,will1 
which is supposed to inspire them by    
means of the moral organ or conscience4 
,we believe that a correct appreciation 
of psychology makes it abundantly clear 
that although there are many impulsive1 
instinctive and emotional factors       
totally unconnected with any rational or
 intellectual process which do1 indeed1 
affect our moral judgments and give rise
 to ethical conventions1 these factors  
can give no validity to moral codes2 and
 that1 stripped of the sentiments and   
emotions with which they are obscured1  
moral systems must be judged by         
principles of utility1 while they are   
enforceable according to the            
universality with which they are        
desired4 ,it is1 moreover1 equally      
absurd to look upon moral values as     
ultimate and irreducible categories of  
good and evil1 irrevocably codified by  
an omniscient ,deity for the conduct of 
humanity for all time1 and supposedly   

accessible to the intelligence of all   
who consult their conscience4 ,this     
latter position1 which is maintained by 
,theistic ,rationalists1 leads to       
precisely the same conclusion as the    
arguments of the ,intuitionalists1 the  
only difference between them being that 
the conscience of the ,rationalists is a
 thinking and intellectual organ1 while 
the conscience of the ,intuitionalists  
is an emotional and instinctive organ4  
,but this amicable convergence is not   
accidental but a sine qua non1 since in 
either case the object aimed at is      
identically the same1 that object being 
the establishment of conscience1        
dependent on morality1 on a pinnacle of 
ethical omniscience and infallibility1  
where its authority shall be            
unquestionable and absolute4 ,they may  
well be left to their quarrel1 which in 
reality amounts to little more than     
verbal quibbling4  ,instinct1 as we have
 seen1 must inevitably play a very large
 part in the evolution of public        

morality and the moral impulse of every 
individual4 ,careful statistics have    
shown that criminal tendencies make     
their appearance with unfailing         
persistency in selected degenerate      
families4 ,the genealogical record of   
one family may show a murderer in every 
generation2 pauperism1 prostitution and 
drunkenness are characteristics of      
another1 and so on4 ,heredity will      
primarily determine a man's inherent    
characteristics--his instincts1         
temperament1 disposition and1 eo facto1 
his conscience4 ,other factors1 above   
all his immediate psychic environment1  
may1 indeed1 modify these tendencies for
 better or worse1 but under the most    
favourable conditions ,cosmic           
,suggestion1 in its aspect of public    
conscience1 can never altogether        
supplant strong inherent tendencies4    
,those who believe in the conscience    
myth sometimes object that the voice of 
conscience always calls in the right    
direction1 but that a man may1          

throughout a long life of crime1 stifle 
and inhibit that still small voice1 yet 
in the end 7perhaps when faced with the 
extreme penalty of the law7 the wretched
 sinner will exhibit the symptoms of the
 most genuine and heartfelt remorse and 
express the greatest horror of his evil 
deeds4 ,this type of explanation shows a
 total failure to interpret             
psychological processes4 ,it may1       
indeed1 be a common occurrence for a    
condemned criminal1 brought suddenly    
face to face with the prospect of       
plenary punishment1 to experience real  
sorrow and shame at his conduct4 ,the   
emotion will probably be perfectly      
genuine4 ,the prisoner1 with little hope
 of enjoying the fruits of his felony   
and removed from the direct             
counter-influence of a criminal         
environment1 will be in the best        
possible frame of mind to respond to the
 right cosmic suggestion--universal     
horror and detestation of his deed4     
,such a suggestion1 reacting upon the   

instinct of self-preservation1 will     
readily kindle emotions of remorse1     
self-horror and sorrow4 ,penitence need 
have nothing to do with any true ethical
 appreciation of the action of which it 
is supposed to be the object4 ,many     
cases have been recorded of miserable   
old women accused of witchcraft1 who1   
learning for the first time at their    
trial of the crimes they were supposed  
to have committed1 have become convinced
 of their guilt1 and suffering the      
keenest pangs of remorse have died with 
penitence and resignation4  ,fear is the
 chief element of remorse3 fear of our  
fellow-men1 vague fears for the future1 
or in the most literal sense the fear of
 ,divine retribution or ,god4 ,racine   
dramatizes this emotion in the famous   
confession of ,athalie3 filled with     
dread at the words of warning uttered by
 the ghost of her mother ,jezebel1 she  
recalls her vision3          ,tremble1  
m'a-t-elle dit1      fille digne de moi2
        ,le cruel ,dieu des ,juifs      

l'emporte aussi sur toi4        ,je te  
plains de tomber      dans ses mains    
redoutables1        ,ma fille4   7#b7   
,,the ,,factor ,,of ,,emotion           
,unfortunately for the attainment of    
truth1 nothing has a greater influence  
on the formation of human opinion and   
character1 and is therefore more        
inextricably bound up with all questions
 of politics1 religion1 morality and    
art1 than the complex mental state we   
call emotion4 ,nothing affects the      
well-being1 health and happiness of     
mankind more directly4  ,emotion may    
perhaps be defined as a continuity of   
complex presentations manifested in     
organic sensation4 ,in a sense1 emotion 
is feeling1 which is the wider term2 it 
is an effect1 which therefore cannot    
exist without its cause1 though the same
 cause under different circumstances may
 produce many varied emotions1 both in  
quality and degree4  ,the visible       
manifestation of emotional disturbance  
need bear no relation to its intensity4 

,people of the greatest nervous         
sensibility1 in whom emotional          
excitements are most deeply and acutely 
felt1 often keep their emotions best    
under control4 ,they are not1 of course1
 able to inhibit the involuntary or     
visceral processes which are affected by
 emotion3 heart1 pulse1 salivary glands 
and respiratory system may indeed tell  
the tale2 but the will may prevent the  
contagion spreading further3 the        
intellect may remain calm1 thought and  
action slow and deliberate1 demeanour   
outwardly cool and collected4#fi ,the   
lower the level of will-power and       
intellectual development1 the more      
closely dependent will all cerebral     
processes be upon emotional states and  
reactions2 at the same time1 the        
emotions become cruder1 less complex and
 subtle and even less deeply felt4      
,children and savages are almost        
entirely emotional1 in the sense that   
they think emotionally and have no power
 of intellectual detachment4  ,professor

 ,ward describes the effect of emotion  
on thought very clearly as follows3     
,emotional excitement--and at the outset
 the natural man does not think much in 
cold blood--quickens the flow of        
ideas4444 ,familiar associations hurry  
attention away from the proper topic1   
and thought becomes not only discursive 
but wandering2 in place of concepts of  
fixed and crystalline completeness1 such
 as logic describes1 we may find a      
congeries of ideas but imperfectly      
compacted into one generic idea1 subject
 to continual transformation1 and       
implicating much that is irrelevant and 
confusing4#gj  ,there are few people    
indeed whose views on religion1         
politics1 art1 and the rights and       
relations of the sexes are not chiefly  
emotional values4 ,we may think that our
 convictions are based on logical       
reasonings1 but the force of childish   
impressions and associations1 and the   
unresisted bias of passions and         
interests1 are the processes by which   

they have been cultivated1 and rational 
thought has been devoted to the task of 
finding reasons for the convictions that
 are ready made4  ,emotion1 as we have  
said1 is a continuity of complex        
presentations whose elements are        
manifold2 it is a state of feeling      
subject to constant modification and    
expansion while experience develops4    
,first among the causal factors which   
influence emotion are the instincts1    
others may be intellectual concepts1    
many more come from the substrata of    
consciousness1 and of these many are    
strictly physiological in character2 for
 instance1 there may be disturbances of 
the genital1 vasomotor or digestive     
systems1 cerebellar disturbances or     
latent molecular or biochemical nervous 
conditions1 during which the mind       
responds to stimuli ignored under other 
or healthier circumstances2 but over all
 it is the inherent disposition of the  
immaterial psychic or subjective mind   
which gives the whole its tone and      

tendency4 ,we must1 indeed1 admit with  
,james that a disembodied human emotion 
is a sheer nonentity4  ,with the        
psycho-physical problem as to whether   
sensory excitation is antecedent to     
emotional expression1 or emotion gives  
rise to bodily expression1 we are not   
here directly concerned4 ,since emotion 
is a continuous condition of experience1
 it may reasonably be supposed that     
organic disturbance is both a           
contributory cause and the reactionary  
result of emotion4#ga ,most people admit
 that each emotion is a resultant of a  
sum of elements1 and that some of those 
elements are functional and organic1    
without admitting the contention of     
,professor ,james and those who insist  
with him that emotion is but a sum of   
organic sensations4#gb  ,emotional      
disturbances lead directly to the       
overthrow of the mental balance1 which  
divides the normal man from the madman  
and the neurasthenic4 ,modern           
psychiatrists lay stress on the         

emotional character of the latter       
affection4 ,the underlying features of  
functional neurosis reveal themselves in
 symptoms denoting the clash of         
emotional elements within1 together with
 a corresponding lack of adaptability to
 outer environment1 and are             
characterized by instability and        
exaggeration of emotion rather than     
impaired intellect4#gc  ,the cultivation
 of the sthetic1 pleasurable and        
benevolent emotions on the one hand1 and
 the elimination of violent emotional   
excitements or discordant and morbid    
emotions on the other1 are conditions as
 essential for the physical health as   
for the happiness of the individual4    
,emotional sensibility is a condition   
necessary for the full appreciation and 
enjoyment of art1 and of all that is    
pleasurable and beautiful1 but when     
emotion is allowed to colour reason1 the
 mind is closed to truth1 knowledge and 
logic4  ,art gratifies the emotions as  
truth should gratify the intellect4 ,it 

is not always fully realized how large a
 part emotional elements1 which may     
embrace every form of sensory and erotic
 excitation1 as well as the whole tone  
of the subjective mind1 play in the most
 intellectual criticism of an artistic  
achievement4 ,of these elements some may
 be irrelevant as well as irrational1   
and by no means realized by the critic  
at the time of writing his appreciation4
 ,elliot ,smith and ,pear illustrate    
this point in a way few people would    
want to dispute4 ,let us suppose that a 
musical critic1 after hearing a new     
symphony by an unconventional composer1 
immediately writes a lengthy            
appreciation of the performance4 ,it is 
clear that nobody would expect him to be
 able to give off-hand an account of his
 reasons for every sentence of the      
criticism4 ,but it is obvious that a    
single phrase in this account may be but
 the apex of a whole pyramid of memories
 emanating from the critic's technical  
training1 his attitude towards the new  

departure1 experiences highly coloured  
with emotion which a few notes of music 
may have evoked1 and his mental         
condition at the time he heard the      
performance4 ,nobody denies that these  
may have shaped or even determined his  
criticism4 ,but who believes either that
 they were all conscious at the time of 
writing the article1 or that he could   
resuscitate them without much time and  
trouble and perhaps the help of a       
cross-examiner8  ,in addition to the    
causal1 largely emotional1 elements     
might be added a prime determinant in   
artistic appreciation1 namely1 cosmic   
suggestion4 ,in the case of a leading   
critic1 overwhelmingly self-confident   
and secure of his position1 the mere    
knowledge of the consensus of informed  
and uninformed opinion being favourable 
or otherwise might conceivably arouse an
 equally illogical desire to be esoteric
 and different at all costs4 ,an        
antagonistic autosuggestion of this sort
 unconsciously underlying a critic's    

attitude would more than negative any   
body of opinion in one direction4#gd    
,but if such artificial and diverse     
influences can affect the most highly   
trained and most honest critic1 how much
 more will they affect the credulous and
 untrained8 ,far greater will be the    
power of authoritative opinion in       
influencing those whose emotional       
sensibility is blunt and untrained1 who 
gape in unresponsive perplexity at some 
artist's canvas1 waiting to have the    
emotions they do not feel suggested to  
them1 and who1 when given the lead1     
infuse by the power of association into 
the meaningless daub or the subtlest    
motif alike the same spirit of          
satisfaction they derive from the garish
 crudities which alone1 unaided1 find a 
responsive echo in their breasts4 ,it is
 well known that the less tutored the   
intellect the more real1 as a rule1 are 
the creatures of the imagination4       
,children and savages have a wonderful  
faculty for believing in the reality of 

their illusions4 ,does not this account 
for the fact that the less clearly a    
thing is understood the greater is the  
power of the imagination in supplying a 
meaning4 ,a certain dimness and mystery 
or quality of incomprehensibility       
invariably adds to the respect and awe  
paid to works of art and their creators1
 officially labelled as great4          
,sometimes mere age or distance produces
 the requisite dimness4 ,racine         
considered this atmosphere of distance a
 necessary device of stagecraft for the 
proper presentation of a hero4 ,on peut 
dire que le respect que l'on a pour les 
hros augmente  mesure qu'ils s'loignent 
de nous4#ge ,in the same way the        
intensity of horror bestowed upon the   
arch-villain of the piece is increased  
in proportion to the distance away from 
which he is regarded2 in other words1   
the less you know about him4 ,but this  
does not hold good for the heroes of the
 histrionic stage more truly than for   
the heroes and arch-villains of the     

wider stage of the world4 ,the principle
 can be applied equally to the heroes of
 art1 religion1 politics or war4 ,it is 
not1 of course1 the dimness or distance 
per se which magnifies the object of    
appreciation2 unaided that would merely 
have the opposite effect4 ,the factor of
 dimness1 by placing the object further 
from the grasp of reason1 enables the   
playwright1 politician1 or critic1 as   
the case may be1 to play with greater   
ease and certainty upon the emotions of 
his audience1 and by force of suggestion
 to endue his puppet more completely    
with the symbolic quality he wishes to  
present4 ,in spite of ,medici prints1   
oleographic processes and the extension 
of culture which renders any one liable 
to receive choice samples of the        
,italian ,masters free with a packet of 
cigarettes1 what ,william ,hazlitt said 
with reference to ,michael ,angelo is   
still literally true4 ,we know1 he      
writes1 nothing of him but his name4 ,it
 is an abstraction of fame and          

greatness4 ,our admiration of him       
supports itself1 and our idea of his    
superiority seems self-evident1 because 
it is attached to his name only4        
,convention is a very real and wellnigh 
irresistible power4 ,not a few of our   
most cherished valuations--artistic1    
religious1 political and social--are    
conventional fetishes which have been   
slowly evolved in the course of a great 
number of years as the result of        
determining factors1 for the most part  
accidental and forgotten1 and probably  
called into existence for totally       
different and unconnected reasons4 ,yet 
the appropriate emotional reaction1     
evoked by the association of an object  
with such a conventional valuation or   
sentiment1 may be just as keenly and    
genuinely felt as though it resulted    
from the awakening of some instinctive  
or innate law of our nature4            
,impressionability is not a quality to  
be despised1 but on the contrary to be  
carefully guarded from contamination4   

,it is by means of emotion that all     
pleasure and pain1 all aversion and     
attraction1 and all sense of the sthetic
 is recorded by the senses4 ,emotional  
sensibility may be compared to an       
instrument that may be so finely made   
that it is capable of registering the   
most delicate and exact vibrations so   
that any harsh sound will injure it1    
while1 on the other hand1 it may be made
 of a texture so coarse that it will    
respond instantly and indiscriminately  
to any loud and crude noise4 ,this      
instrument has an inherent quality of   
excellence with a potentiality of       
exactness that may be developed in a    
great variety of directions4  ,the many 
factors which play a part in sthetic    
appreciation have been abundantly       
explored by psychological writers4#gf   
,they have traced the great variety of  
ways in which art can be the means of   
evoking sympathetic emotions by         
connecting its subject with the         
inexhaustible interest in personality4  

,they have cited the part played in     
inducing pleasurable sensations in music
 by the association of range1 depth of  
tone and pitch with the expression of   
human passions2 and in pictorial art1   
the appeal to muscular sensibility by   
suggested associations with movement and
 form1 or the effect of straight lines  
and rounded forms in inducing sensations
 of vigour and repose4 ,more obvious are
 the appeals to the sexual instincts4   
,there are also associations that give  
beauty to colours1 pleasurableness to   
those tints that suggest youth1 health1 
vigour and feminine charm4  ,it is easy 
to understand the agreeableness of      
symbols of strength and solidity2 the   
restfulness of economy in presentation1 
the pleasing effect of contrast and     
symmetry1 variety and unity1 of balance 
and the laws of proportion and musical  
ratios1 or of harmony and regularity4   
,the laws of relativity or comparison   
and of familiarity and strangeness are  
factors which play a part in all        

appreciation4 ,finally1 there is a more 
exclusively intellectual pleasure in the
 process of analytical valuation of     
artistic production4  ,we cannot acquire
 truth by means of the emotions1 which  
can but be the means of informing us of 
our personal relation towards our       
environment4 ,they may reveal us to     
ourselves1 or may register the          
reflection of our environment within us2
 but the consequences of emotion cannot 
be regarded as ephemeral1 for all       
emotional excitation must have a        
permanent residual effect upon the tone 
of the subjective mind4   7#c7          
,,judgment ,,of ,,ends  ,without        
attempting to catalogue or enumerate the
 various intellectual and mental        
processes1 consigning them to           
interminable classes and subdivisions of
 volitional1 cognitive1 affective and   
cogitative states or acts1 labelled like
 so many distinct specimens in a        
collector's museum1 it may yet be       
possible to detach certain features     

involved in the process of moral        
judgment which are distinguishable from 
the essentially instinctive1 emotional  
and suggested elements we have been     
considering4 ,the danger involved in    
reducing psychological processes to     
their constituent elements and treating 
of each element as though it were static
 and dissociated1 is that it is apt to  
obscure a true appreciation of the      
actual manifestations of personality    
which result from complex and           
interactionary elements in continuous   
motion1 forming one integral whole in   
constant process of influencing and     
being influenced by its environment4    
,the whole is always more and something 
different from the sum of its parts4    
,the factors here specially referred to 
which may determine in greater or lesser
 degree the nature and direction of     
moral valuation are deliberative1       
critical and analytic4 ,these are       
essentially the intellectual and        
objective#gg processes exercised to the 

best advantage when freed to the        
greatest possible extent from           
instinctive and emotional complications4
 ,judgments formed under such conditions
 involve the realization of the ends and
 effects of conduct1 and an assignment  
of desirableness to those ends4 ,it is  
clear that an intellectual judgment of  
this nature1 assigning value to the ends
 of conduct1 must take into account     
those inherent characteristics and      
instincts which underlie all motives and
 interests4 ,thus1 we recognize the fact
 of the instinct of self-preservation1  
and are right in assigning the          
qualification good to life as denoting  
its desirableness2 similarly the        
instinct of acquisition is general and  
fundamental in the human species1#gh we 
accordingly assign the qualification    
good to property and wealth1 and to its 
destruction1 evil2 the abstract value of
 the end of this instinct is intensified
 and held in greater respect the more it
 is realized to have been the means by  

which the surplus energy of mankind has 
been utilized to accumulate the capital 
essential to the development of         
civilization4 ,the desirableness of both
 life and wealth is also considerably   
increased or modified by collateral     
associations1 by the pleasures they     
enable us to experience4  ,there is in  
all judgment of the morality of an      
action a perception of the end or       
consequence of that action4 ,the        
clearness or dimness of the perception  
will depend upon the habits of thought  
and the organization of motives--or lack
 of it--which result from the native    
tendencies and development of the       
subjective mind4 ,the norm of valuation 
which we apply to moral conduct is      
conditioned by many conscious and       
unconscious factors which determine our 
idea of desirableness1 and the standard 
will approximate to the conventional and
 common standard of the community in so 
far as we are influenced by our         
environment--or in proportion to our    

amenability to cosmic suggestion4 ,it is
 on account of the obvious desire for   
pleasure and for avoidance of pain that 
,utilitarians are justified in making   
use of that general fact as a standard  
of utility4 ,this in no way implies that
 the motives of all conduct are efforts 
to obtain pleasurable sensation or to   
avoid pain4 ,the mistake of this        
discredited doctrine of psychological   
hedonism lay in confusing the motive or 
impulse to action with the valuation of 
conduct4 ,it is an unfortunate but      
undeniable fact that conduct is least   
often determined by valuation4          
,realization or anticipation of the end 
of action is not the necessary stimulus 
of action1 neither does it conform to   
volition or striving2 but realization of
 consequences frequently inhibits the   
fulfilment of volition4 ,both conduct   
and volition are determined by the      
relation of subject to object1 and by   
the constitution of the ego1            
conditioned1 as it is1 by the           

innumerable factors of heredity and     
environment4   7#d7 ,,cosmic            
,,suggestion  ,public opinion is often  
spoken of as something mysterious and   
powerful1 to be recognized and submitted
 to1 but not to be explained4 ,napoleon 
is credited with having said3 ,public   
opinion is a power invisible1           
mysterious1 and irresistible4 ,some     
writers1 failing to appreciate the true 
significance and nature of this dynamic 
factor in the formation of public       
sentiment1 are content to fall back on  
the convenient subterfuge of ,divine    
agency as full and sufficient           
explanation4 ,thus they speak of a      
common consciousness which is the       
arbiter of the morals and faiths of men1
 a consciousness which is subject to    
evolutionary progress1 and yet owes its 
existence to ,divine revelation4        
,however inadequately1 the attempt has  
nevertheless been made in these pages to
 present a wider and1 at the same time1 
a more precise definition of those      

psychic and vital forces1 included in   
the term environment1 which play so     
great a part in the formation and growth
 of human beliefs1 opinions and         
sentiments1 in binding together nations1
 communities and groups1 and no less a  
part in setting them against one        
another4 ,for lack of a better1 the     
designation cosmic suggestion has been  
used as a generic term to describe the  
force resulting from the accumulative   
suggestions or impulsions of            
aggregations of individual agents1      
between whom and the subjects or        
recipients a state of rapport is more or
 less established4 ,it is an aspect1 or 
perhaps more accurately a product1 of   
the vital energy of the cosmos4 ,in a   
community or a mass of men moved by     
common emotions and ideas1 each         
individual plays the double rle of      
operator and affected object or         
recipient4  ,the communication of a     
proposition by suggestion is            
distinguished from1 though often        

accompanied by1 other means by which    
ideas are communicated through the      
senses1 involving rational processes    
which produce conviction4 ,emotional    
suggestions are either rejected or      
accepted unquestioningly in the absence 
of any logical reason4 ,the supreme     
importance and general applicability in 
normal waking life of this wider aspect 
of hypnotic suggestion is seldom        
adequately appreciated by students of   
social development4 ,that the faiths and
 convictions of men do not depend upon  
their appeal to man's reasoning         
faculties is1 however1 usually admitted4
 ,lecky frequently dwells on this fact1 
as in the following passage3 ,in most   
men the love of truth is so languid1 and
 their reluctance to encounter mental   
prejudices is so great1 that they yield 
their judgments without an effort to the
 current1 withdraw their minds from all 
opinions or arguments opposed to their  
own1 and thus speedily convince         
themselves of the truth of what they    

wish to believe4  ,dr4 ,mc,dougall      
recognizes1 as do most modern           
psychologists1 the great social         
importance of this current of which     
,lecky speaks2 he terms it              
mass-suggestion4 ,children1 he says1    
largely in virtue of their              
suggestibility1 rapidly absorb the      
knowledge1 beliefs1 and especially the  
sentiments of their social environment4 
,but most adults also remain            
suggestible1 especially towards         
mass-suggestion1 and towards the        
propositions which they know to be      
supported by the whole weight of        
society1 or by long tradition4#gi ,this 
also he calls prestige suggestion4      
,individual suggestibility1 he          
considers1 is conditioned by native     
disposition and character1 and dependent
 upon the relative strengths of the two 
instincts of self-assertion and         
subjection4 ,he does not1 however1      
appear to assign to this factor of      
suggestion any conspicuous part in the  

excitation of such emotions as1 for     
instance1 anger1 moral indignation1     
shame and remorse4 ,but the simultaneous
 excitation of the same emotion in      
crowds is attributed to the action of   
the gregarious instinct which is        
accountable for the sympathetic         
induction of emotion4 ,the explanation  
given of the fact that the instinctive  
behaviour of one animal directly excites
 similar behaviour on the part of his   
fellows1 consists in the assumption that
 among gregarious animals each of the   
principal instincts has a special       
perceptual inlet that is adapted to     
receive the sense-impressions made by   
the expressions of the same instinct in 
other animals of the same species3 thus1
 for example1 the fear instinct1 inter  
alia1 has a special perceptual inlet    
that renders it excitable by the sound  
of the cry of fear2 the instinct of     
pugnacity is similarly excited through a
 perceptual inlet by the sound of the   
roar of anger1 and so on4 ,whatever the 

value of this assumption it is clear    
that the emotional excitement of an     
aggregation of individuals reacts with  
cumulative intensity upon each member of
 it4 ,it is sufficient1 however1 to say 
that there exists in the human species a
 fundamental impulse of gregarious      
attraction1 analogous in the physical   
world to the law of gravitation1 which  
tends to produce aggregations of men and
 to intensify their suggestibility in   
relation to sheer weight of numbers and 
proximity4 ,if we accept the view that  
the subjective mind is liable to be     
directly influenced by other subjective 
minds with which it is en rapport1 the  
hypothesis of special perceptual inlets1
 designed for each instinct to receive  
only the corresponding sense-impressions
 derived from the efferent action of the
 same instinct in other individuals1    
becomes of secondary importance4 ,any   
cause which simultaneously provokes     
emotional excitement in a large body of 
people tends to bring them into rapport1

 thence onwards a community of feeling  
has been established1 like elements     
coalesce1 foreign elements are          
dissipated or repulsed1 the mass will   
think1 feel and act as a collective     
whole1 the impulse or emotion of one    
will re-echo in all1 as when a certain  
note is struck all the chords in the    
instrument which are attuned to it are  
set vibrating4 ,a skilful orator who can
 once succeed in evoking strong         
emotional response in his audience is in
 the most favourable position for       
transmitting any proposition by         
suggestion2 any assertion is then likely
 to be received unquestioningly and with
 the strength of conviction1 any        
suggestion to be resolved into action4  
,an orator of the ecstatic and fanatical
 type will endeavour1 by working himself
 into a frenzy of excitement1 to throw  
himself into the subjective state1 for  
thus he is in closest rapport with his  
environment4 ,this is the secret of the 
power of demagogues and of other        

worthless and otherwise insignificant   
individuals4 ,it is said to have been   
the method of one of the most           
extraordinary characters of modern      
times--,rasputin1 or ,grigori           
,yefimovitsch1 a gross1 illiterate1     
debauched and fanatical ,siberian monk1 
who1 up to the time of his murder in    
,december #aiaf1 had the reputation of  
being the most powerful man in ,russia4 
,according to the few reliable accounts 
of him that are obtainable1 the         
influence of this man's personality and 
the religio-erotic frenzies which       
characterized his ministrations were    
such that women of the highest culture  
and refinement would prostitute         
themselves1 body and soul1 in obedience 
to his suggestion1 ministers and high   
state officials habitually sought his   
favours1 and among the masses he was a  
constant object of idolatry4  ,does any 
one suppose that if ,mark ,antony could 
have circulated his famous speech on the
 death of ,csar in pamphlet form1 or    

could have published his appeal in a    
leading daily1 he would have chosen that
 method8 ,or if he had done so that he  
would have attained as striking a result
 as by the fire of his oratory8 ,this   
brings us to a consideration of the     
difference between written propaganda   
and that which is spoken or acted and   
accompanied by emotional suggestion4    
,the mere written or printed proposition
 is assimilated by autosuggestion2 its  
aim is to awaken what is already in the 
reader's mind1 whether of fear or       
courage1 love or hate1 admiration or    
contempt1 to make articulate what before
 was vague and undefined1 to associate  
these qualities in the reader to certain
 objects or symbols1 in this way        
gradually building up sentiments and    
ideals4 ,but cosmic suggestion or       
psychic environment is a vital          
influence1 capable of overcoming        
resistance and of kindling human        
passions and emotions4 ,it is often     
asserted that the ,press accurately     

voices public opinion2 this1 however1 as
 all pressmen know1 is not true4 ,the   
,press to a certain extent approximates 
certain sections of public opinion1 or  
more accurately adapts itself to it1 but
 all it can truthfully be said to       
represent is the newspaper proprietors1 
and in a lesser degree the host of hired
 scribblers whom they employ4 ,at the   
same time it would be foolish to        
minimize the enormous and               
ever-increasing power it wields--a power
 that increases pari passu with the     
growing power of the masses and         
corresponding decrease in responsibility
 and intelligence of their chosen       
rulers4 ,the ,press1 no longer confining
 itself to its legitimate rle of        
conveying news1 tends more and more to  
present the appearance of organized     
concerns for the dissemination of lies  
and counter-lies1 and the propagation of
 hate1 envy and humbug1 each organ      
shouting its particular claptrap and    
catchwords with the frenzied persistence

 of bucket-shop touts4 ,mr4 ,hilaire    
,belloc draws a subtle distinction      
between what he calls the ,capitalist   
,press1 or those organs run for mere    
profit1 and a ,free ,press1 or organs   
produced for the sole motive of         
influencing public opinion1 i4e4 for    
propaganda4#hj ,the former is vicious   
and untruthful1 the latter is virtuous  
and bears witness to the truth4 ,having 
once consigned all the existing press   
organs to their respective categories as
 ,capitalist or ,free by this simple    
test of motive1 the vice of the one and 
the virtue of the other are at once     
apparent3 anything meriting the label   
,capitalist is naturally bad and        
depraved1 while sufficient guarantee of 
the integrity and virtue of the ,free   
,press may be found in the fact that    
,mr4 ,belloc himself writes for the     
,free ,press1 and testifies to the fact 
that it does not pay4 ,while so         
arbitrary a distinction must necessarily
 appear captious and fanciful1 and      

absurd when applied as a test of        
veracity1 we may yet perhaps roughly    
distinguish between those organs which  
are designed primarily to sell at a     
maximum profit and those which are sold 
primarily to propagate a cause1 even at 
a loss4 ,at the risk of appearing       
cynical1 we might say that the chief    
difference between the two lies in the  
fact that the former is designed to     
pander to the foibles of its readers1   
and the latter is the expression of the 
fanaticism of its writers4 ,as a matter 
of fact1 such a hard and fast           
distinction can seldom be made between  
the two1 since both motives are usually 
operative in the same enterprise1 though
 in varying proportions4 ,but surely it 
is absurd to claim for either an        
inherent predisposition to speak the    
truth4 ,the failure of the ,free        
,press--the carping rags that imagine   
themselves independent--would appear to 
lie in the very fact of their eagerness 
to convert4 ,the natural resentment of  

the man who discerns an attempt to      
convert him was well expressed in a     
witty speech in the ,house of ,commons  
during a debate on the relations between
 ,press and ,government4 ,what had      
always attracted him most about ,lord   
,northcliffe1 said the ,hon4 ,member for
 ,stockport1 was that he had never      
pretended to be a philanthropist4 ,he   
was not one of those pestilent people   
who pretended to run newspapers in order
 that they might leave the world a      
little better than they found it4#ha    
,tradition and the building up of       
sentiments and ideals1 together with the
 symbols by which they are known and    
familiarized1 are very largely1 if not  
exclusively1 the work of the written    
word4 ,but ,literature and the ,press   
are themselves governed by their past   
history1 and by traditions and          
conventions that have been gradually    
built up from a few fundamental ideas1  
however diversified they may eventually 
have become2 and these ideas1 in their  

turn1 owe their origin to the passions  
and sentiments of the race as a whole4  
,even the work of genius has its roots  
in the ideas of the past4 ,are we sure1 
asks a ,french author1 that the ideas   
which flow from great men of genius are 
exclusively their own work8 ,no doubt   
they always spring from the wealth of   
individual souls1 but the myriads of    
grains of dust which form the alluvion  
where those ideas have generated are    
surely formed by the soul of the        
nation8#hb  ,we have seen that it is a  
fundamental principle that the strongest
 suggestion must prevail2 mass tells    
against single individuals1 overwhelming
 quantity against quality1 when the     
strength of either is measured against  
the resistance to be overcome4 ,cosmic  
suggestion is conditioned by various    
circumstances which affect its          
influence4 ,it is a commonplace to say  
that like attracts like2 this fact is   
but another attribute of gregarious     
attraction and tends towards            

establishing the homogeneity of         
aggregations1 and slightly modifies the 
attraction of mere numbers4 ,it results 
in a diversity of centres of attraction2
 but these centres of attraction are apt
 to converge and coalesce if for any    
reason they are simultaneously affected 
by related or identical sentiments4     
,frequency and persistency1 as is well  
known1 also modify the force of mere    
numbers4 ,the loudest and most          
frequently repeated affirmations carry  
the most weight4 ,in this way small     
bands of fanatics1 by dint of           
reiteration1 have had their catchwords  
and shibboleths accepted                
unquestioningly4  ,so far from weakening
 the respect and awe with which mere    
symbols are regarded1 their very        
obscurity and lack of meaning will      
ensure their position and inviolability4
 ,the vogue for mysticism in poetry1    
art1 and religion reflects this love of 
symbolism4 ,men1 from the very indolence
 of their minds1 love to set up symbols 

and to worship them1 without verifying  
the truths they are supposed to         
represent1 for symbols are easily       
acquired and easily perceived1 and      
dispense with the arduous necessity of  
probing reality and the mental          
discipline without which truth cannot be
 reached4  ,the power of words and      
symbols is entirely independent of their
 real meaning4 ,as we have already      
shown1 the most meaningless and the most
 obscure phrases are1 as a rule1 for    
that very reason the most potent4 ,such 
terms as liberty1 equality1 democracy1  
socialism1 etc41 whose meanings are so  
vague that whole libraries do not       
exhaust their possible interpretations1 
are solemnly uttered as though they were
 magic spells1 at the very sound of     
which all problems disappear4 ,symbolism
 and mysticism form the fanatic's       
charter of licence4 ,they revel in the  
dim obscurity which intensifies the     
false brightness of their symbols4 ,they
 welcome the emotional domination of    

their minds that they may abandon       
themselves to passions and feelings1 and
 by developing their subjective#hc      
powers1 infect the masses with their    
madness4 ,a true metaphysics1 it is well
 to remember1 is the very antithesis of 
mysticism1 for it aims at the           
elimination of symbols2 its method is to
 co-ordinate and synthesize1 and by     
means of the systematization of materia 
to penetrate through and beyond1 towards
 a realization of direction and of      
value2 it tests the highest powers of   
the intellect4  ,bergson defines        
metaphysics as the science which claims 
to dispense with symbols4 ,a symbol1 at 
best1 can only stand for an aspect of   
the truth1 a mere sign-post pointing    
somewhere in its direction4 ,symbols    
have no part in intuition1 yet          
linguistic symbols are necessary for    
conveying thoughts and ideals to others4
 ,the generality of men1 however1 can   
only think in symbols1 and can only be  
influenced by them2 lies and illusions  

are propagated and perpetrated in the   
form of images1 yet images perform      
necessary service in establishing goals 
of endeavour for securing co-ordination 
and moral direction4 ,symbololatry is a 
common trait of humanity1 and few men   
analyse the symbols they worship2 for   
this reason it is necessary that the    
ideals and symbols of the good should be
 forged by the few and the wise1 not by 
the force of the greatest number1 that  
is1 they must come from above1 not from 
below4 ,thus we see that in past history
 religion has performed a necessary     
function1 and that in spite of the gross
 unreality of its symbols it constituted
 the only instrument of consolidation at
 the disposal of primitive man4 ,without
 this force1 born of man's fear of the  
unknown1 his ignorance and false        
appreciation of causality1 together with
 a vague realization of his dependence  
on his fellows1 the imposition of rough 
and arbitrary values1 which first       
constituted moral conduct1 would have   

been impossible4 ,for this reason any   
advancement and progress in the         
direction of civilization would have    
been impossible without religion4 ,the  
conservative spirit of religion is seen 
to have been the means of securing the  
consolidation and stability of society  
which was necessary for the well-being  
and strength of every community2 without
 this it could not have survived4 ,as   
long as men are dazzled by symbols and  
governed by emotions1 and there is at   
present no sign of change in this       
respect1 a strong hierarchy capable of  
evoking respect for its values alone can
 save a state from disintegration1      
anarchy and social decay2 but only if   
that hierarchy is composed of the       
highest1 noblest and most enlightened in
 the race can those values be the best  
possible1 and can they continue to      
improve pari passu with advancing       
civilization4 ,the alternative1 the     
increasing despotism of the many1       
articulating through the voice of       

demagogues1 resulting in the gradual    
extermination of the few and the        
highest1 and in the imposition of values
 growing ever more false1 points the way
 to decadence and barbarism4 ,evolution 
implies decline no less than            
advancement1 and the survival of the    
fittest in the former case means the    
survival of the lowest and the most     
degraded4  ,a child's moral conduct1    
like primitive man's1 is at first       
absolutely dependent upon his           
environment1 but with the development of
 self-consciousness and with the growth 
of an ideal of self1 his values and his 
conduct become progressively freer from 
his present environment1 and in a       
greater degree determined by the        
direction of past habits and the force  
of early impressions4#hd ,there is      
hardly anything1 said ,mill1 so absurd  
or so mischievous that it may not by the
 use of external sanctions and the force
 of early impressions be made to act on 
the human mind with all the authority of

 conscience4  ,the attainment of        
character through the development of an 
ideal of self and the systematization of
 habits and motives is a slow and       
gradual process1 and only rarely is     
complete independence of judgment       
attained1 which alone renders the       
highest form of moral conduct possible1 
when all conduct is determined by will  
with regard to the realization of ends4 
,,footnotes3  #fd ,heredity and ,memory1
 p4 #ae4  #fe ,processes known          
technically as palingenesis and         
cenogenesis1 the former term denoting   
the more complete epitomized            
development4  #ff ,dean ,rashdall1 who  
thus summarizes his position1 is candid 
enough to admit the strength of         
,mc,dougall's psychological analysis1   
which1 however1 he fails to see         
undermines his own position4  #fg       
,principles of ,psychology1 vol4 ii1 p4 
#djh4  #fh ,many authorities deny that  
women are more easily hypnotized than   
men4 ,it should1 however1 be remembered 

that emotional suggestibility does not  
correspond with susceptibility to       
hypnotic influence4 ,the neurotic1      
weak-brained and hysterical1 who are    
usually most susceptible to emotional   
suggestions in normal life1 are         
invariably the most difficult to        
hypnotize1 and on the other hand1 as    
,dr4 ,bramwell points out1 ,subjects who
 readily respond to suggestions when    
hypnotized are frequently the very ones 
who have for years resisted suggestion  
in the waking condition1 even when this 
has been associated with emotional      
states4 ,it is not1 therefore1 in       
hypnotic phenomena that evidence of the 
greater suggestibility of women is      
found4  #fi ,cf4 the following passage  
by ,elliot ,smith and ,pear3 ,it must be
 understood that this suppression of the
 external manifestations of an emotion  
such as fear is but a partial dominance 
of the bodily concomitants of that      
emotion4 ,the only changes which can    
usually be controlled by the will are   

those of the voluntary or skeletal      
muscular system1 not those of the       
involuntary or visceral mechanism4444   
,men may feel intense emotions1         
obviously not of fear alone1 for a long 
time without displaying any signs of    
them4 ,but suppression of emotion is a  
very exhausting process4 ,as ,bacon     
says3 ',we know diseases of stoppings   
and suffocations are the most dangerous 
in the body3 and it is not otherwise in 
the mind4'  #gj ,article on ,psychology1
 ,encyclopdia ,britannica1 #ajth        
edition4  #ga ,for example1 ereutophobia
 7fear of blushing7 and tremophobia     
7fear of tremor7 are abnormal           
psychoneurotic conditions which         
illustrate the reaction and interaction 
between psychical state and physical    
manifestation4 ,blushing and spontaneous
 tremor are reflex manifestations of the
 emotional condition1 which in these    
cases increase in proportion to the fear
 of blushing or of tremor respectively4 
,the physical phenomenon produces the   

obsession which1 in its turn1 increases 
the somatic reaction2 the exaggeration  
of the latter again reacts on the mental
 disorder4 ,such psycho-physical        
reactions operate in varying degree in  
all states of emotional excitement4     
7,roussy and ,lhermitte47  #gb          
,principles of ,psychology1 vol4 ii1    
chap4 xxv4  #gc ,conflict and repression
 are the terms in current usage by      
psychiatrists of the ,freudian school to
 explain the mechanism of psychoneurotic
 disturbance4  #gd ,it should be noted  
that this is an inverted form of cosmic 
suggestion which exerts a considerable  
influence over certain dispositions2    
very often this bias is confined to one 
or two subjects only in which an        
individual is particularly interested1  
and in connexion with which a           
permanently repellent autosuggestion is 
developed4 ,some writers have spoken of 
this as contra-suggestion4 ,on these    
subjects any suggestion conveyed by word
 or sign provokes an immediate and      

unthinking contradiction or an          
unreasoning hostile attitude or         
tendency4  #ge ,prface  ,bajazet4  #gf  
,the sthetic emotions are dealt with at 
length by ,dr4 ,bain in ,the ,emotions  
and the ,will1 chap4 xiv4  #gg ,i4e4    
processes of the conscious or objective 
mind4  #gh ,there are a few notable     
exceptions where this instinct appears  
to be deficient among primitive and     
nomadic tribes4 ,mc,dougall instances   
the ,punaris of ,borneo4  #gi ,social   
,psychology1 p4 #ajj4  #hj ,the ,free   
,press1 #aiah4  #ha ,mr4 ,hughes1 ,march
 #aa1 #aiah4  #hb ,gustave ,le ,bon4    
#hc ,i4e4 powers of the subjective mind4
  #hd ,thus ,mr4 ,jevons says3 ,the     
consciousness of the child reproduces   
the consciousness of the community to   
which he belongs4--,the ,idea of ,god in
 ,early ,religions4   ,,printed ,,at    
,,the ,,complete ,,press ,,west         
,,norwood ,,london1 ,s4,e4