Unconscientiousness is not want of
conscience, but the propensity not to heed its judgement. But when a
man is conscious of having acted according to his conscience, then, as
far as regards guilt or innocence, nothing more can be required of
him, only he is bound to enlighten his understanding as to what is
duty or not; but when it comes or has come to action, then
conscience speaks involuntarily and inevitably. To act conscientiously
can, therefore, not be a duty, since otherwise it would be necessary
to have a second conscience, in order to be conscious of the act of
the first.
The duty here is only to cultivate our con. science, to quicken
our attention to the voice of the internal judge, and to use all means
to secure obedience to it, and is thus our indirect duty.
C. OF LOVE TO MEN
Love is a matter of feeling, not of will or volition, and I cannot
love because I will to do so, still less because I ought (I cannot
be necessitated to love); hence there is no such thing as a duty to
love. Benevolence, however (amor benevolentiae), as a mode of
action, may be subject to a law of duty. Disinterested benevolence
is often called (though very improperly) love; even where the
happiness of the other is not concerned, but the complete and free
surrender of all one's own ends to the ends of another (even a
superhuman) being, love is spoken of as being also our duty.
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