'A voice within forbids, and summons us to refrain;
And if we bid it to be silent, it yet is not still: it is
not in our control,
It acts without our order, without our asking, against our will.
It is _in_ us, it belongs to us, but it is not _of_ us: it
is _above_ us.
It is moral, it is intelligent, it is not _we_, nor at our bidding;
It pervades mankind, as one life pervades the trees.'[21]
Whence then comes this law which is 'in us, yet not of us, but above
us,' which we did not create, and which circumstances do not fashion,
though they modify its action? Is it not the moral echo within of a
Voice louder and vaster without--a voice which legislates, and in its
sanctity commands, issuing imperial edicts for the entire universe of
moral agency? In one sense conscience is the viceroy or representative
of a higher power; in another it is the voice of one crying in the
wilderness of the human spirit, 'Prepare ye the way for the Law.' It
ever speaks 'as one having authority,' and yet its central
characteristic (as pointed out by a living teacher) is not that the
conscience _has_ authority, but that it is 'the consciousness _of_
authority.' It testifies to another: the implanted instinct bearing
witness to its Implanter; and through the hints and intimations of
this master-faculty thus throned amidst the other powers, we are able
to ascend intuitively and directly to God. We are 'constituted to
transcend ourselves,' and conscience becomes a ladder by which we
mount to the supernatural, as well as the voice inarticulate, yet
audible, which speaks to us of God. Thus, to quote the language of one
of the Cambridge Platonists of the 17th century (Dr. John Smith)--
'As Plotinus teaches us, "he who reflects upon himself
reflects upon his own _original_," God has so copied forth
himself into the whole life and energy of man's soul as
that the character of the divinity may be most easily seen
and read of all within themselves. And whenever we look
upon our souls in a right manner we shall find a _Urim_ and
a _Thummim_ there; and though the whole fabric of this
visible universe be whispering out the notion of a Deity,
yet we cannot understand it without _this interpreter
within_.'