Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/118

. But though these aspects differ, they are aspects of the one self. Suppose a man has an impulse to tell a "white lie," and suppose that he succeeds in restraining it. We may say that his conscience told him that the impulse was wrong, and his will prevented it issuing in action. But what has really happened is that he has brought the impulse into relation to his self as a whole. His self as reflective and judicial judges that the impulse is wrong, and his self as conative and active restrains it. In the former aspect the self functions as conscience, in the latter as will. But in both cases it is one and the same self.

We have already seen that the self sometimes seems divided against itself. A lower self may conflict with a higher. The business self may be discordant with the religious self. Now, in all cases of moral conflict between these different selves, the highest and best self is identified with will and conscience. This is the self which we like to regard as the true self. Thus, when we say, "My conscience pricked me when I told that lie," we would excuse ourselves by explaining, "I was not quite myself when I did it." The self which told the lie is not considered to be the true self. The conscience that pricked is the real self. Similarly, when we say, "His will was too weak to restrain him from gambling," we might apologise for him on the same grounds, "He was not quite himself when the sudden temptation came to him." His will is identified with his real self. But at the time his real self or will was not strong enough to overcome the sudden temptation. In every case where we commonly distinguish