Stripes.--"He that knoweth his Lord's will, and doeth it not, shall
receive double stripes."--Who, then, gets the single ones? Not he,
surely, who knows not the will and does it not?--It follows, therefore,
that greater knowledge, not _aggravates_, but itself _creates_, moral
guilt; for in so far as I absolutely do not discern a moral obligation,
my offence against it is surely not less, but none at all.
I will be my own Academy of Sciences, and assign to myself the
following prize-question, which I will myself answer in a prize essay:
"Since only such actions are virtuous as proceed from love for
goodness, it follows that only those can be sinful which proceed from
mere love of evil, and reference to self-interest must lessen the
degree of a sin, as well as that of a virtue. But, on the other hand,
what could there be but self-interest in our nature, which should impel
us to what is bad? And if evil were done from a pure propensity to
evil, then there would be a second, although opposite, autonomy[235] of
the will."