For example, we may be pulled up sharply from a
course of self-indulgence by a conscious realization of the harm we
are doing to others thereby; this bridling state of mind, whether chiefly
emotional or more intellectual, we may call sympathy, or an altruistic
instinct, or love. But when we feel the pressure from these same
mental states incipiently aroused, when our motor-mechanism half
automatically steers us away from the selfish act, without our
consciously formulating a specific name for the new impulse or
recognizing any articulate motive, we are apt to give this mental
push the more general name of conscience. So if we consciously
reckon up, balance advantages, and decide on the less inviting
act in recognition of its really greater worth to us, we say we act
from prudence or insight, we are reasonable about it; while if
the grumbling of the prudential motives remain subterranean,
subconscious, they play the role of conscience. Conscience is,
on such occasions, but inarticulate common sense. Usually,
however, prudential and altruistic motives would both be
discovered if the dumb driving of conscience were to be
made articulate. The reverberation of parental teachings,
of sermons heard and books read, of the opinions and
emotions of our fellows, might be found, all bent and
fused into a combined "suggestion," a mental push,
a "must" or "ought," from whose influence we find it
difficult to escape.
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