Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/395

 THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIENCE 379

There had been a surrender on the part of the man in him, on the part of that something in his nature which lifted him above the animal kingdom, by a superior endowment making him one of a spiritual kingdom.

If we are able to trace the entire origin of conscience to what has been going on in the animal kingdom, and to see it as the compounding of instincts which have proved useful in binding creatures together in societies, then why is it that enlightenment and intelligence should not extirpate conscience, as a burden or a bore ? The very man who believes all this, and has accepted it theoretically as a philosopher, may nevertheless find himself writhing under the pangs of remorse, which he cannot extirpate. It would imply that there was something in him which his doctrine had not accounted for.

As I conceive it, when our inner, spiritual life has reached a certain stage, when the soul has come to a certain degree of its high development, the gnawings of conscience because one has been guilty of theft, or a lie, or murder, may not be because one has been guilty of a breach of fellow-feeling, or done an injury to some other person, but because one has broken a law of one's own nature. As we should express it in common language, he has gone back on himself. And in such cases conscience would be the voice holding the man up to his level as a man, as a member of the kingdom of men, rather than as a member of the animal kingdom.

The kingdom of souls is not the same as the kingdom of physical nature. In every living human creature there is a potential element which cuts him off from the whole brute king- dom. We can never carry development beyond a certain point with the animal creature. At a certain stage we reach a condition of arrested development. All the effort we may make will not help us any further with that creature. With the human being we are not prepared to accept the doctrine of a neces- sarily arrested development. The potentiality there we look upon as unlimited. If there is mystery at this point, it is only the mystery we must face, and should be proud to recognize or accept, in believing in our superiority to the brute kingdom. The