CHAPTER III.
THE MORAL FACULTY.
1.

The chief question in the Psychology of Ethics is whether the Moral Faculty, or Conscience, be a simple or a complex fact of the mind.
Practically, it would seem of little importance in what way the moral faculty originated, except with a view to teach us how it may be best strengthened when it happens to be weak.

Still, a very great importance has been attached to the view, that it is simple and innate; the supposition being that a higher authority thereby belongs to it.

If it arises from mere education, it depends on the teacher for the time being; if it exists prior to all education, it seems to be the voice of universal nature or of God.
2.

In favour of the simple and intuitive character of Moral Sentiment, it is argued:-- First, That our judgments of right and wrong are immediate and instantaneous.
On almost all occasions, we are ready at once to pronounce an action right or wrong.