Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/42

 upon his 'gregariousness' ; personal responsibility draws out his manliness.

The three stages are not perforce mutually exclusive — in time or in operation. The essential distinction between them lies not in their when but in their whence and whither, and not in the acts they approve of but in the ends they point to. The external aspect and the outward trend may seem to agree; judged by what they appear to be, two lives may look much alike. Yet the laws they obey, the methods they employ and the aims they pursue may be radically different, according as the main spring is the desire to 'follow the king,' to suit the times, or to be loyal to the 'royal' within oneself. Hence the product of legislation is the law-abiding man, of public opinion the well-conducted man, of personal conviction the conscientious man; each good in his own degree — the first as he is kept from harm, the second as he is pliant to the prevailing custom, the third as he honours his conscience as his king.