CHAPTER XII SOME INSTRUCTORS OF CONSCIENCE: POETRY, NOVELS, ESSAYS             Poetry.— Poetry is, perhaps, the most searching and intimate of our teachers. To know about such a poet and his works may be interesting, as it is to know about repoussé work; but in the latter case we must know how to use the tools before we get joy and service out of the … Continue reading Ourselves Volume 4 Book II Chapter 12

CHAPTER XI THE INSTRUCTED CONSCIENCE             Sound Moral Judgment.—I do not say that the man with the instructed conscience is incapable of moral wrong. That is not the case. His advantage is that he can rarely do or think amiss without being aware of his offence; and the stability which this enlightenment gives to its possessor is a distinction. Emerson remarks upon the curious … Continue reading Ourselves Volume 4 Book II Chapter 11

CHAPTER X THE UNINSTRUCTED CONSCIENCE   THERE is no end to the vagaries of the uninstructed conscience. It is continually straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel. The most hardened criminal has his conscience; and he justifies that which he does by specious reasons. ‘Society is against’ him, he says; he ‘has never had a fair chance.’ Why should he ‘go about ragged and … Continue reading Ourselves Volume 4 Book II Chapter 10