Page:Divine Selection or The Survival of the Useful.djvu/108

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much as thought of. The intuition by which we know that we could have no sense of cold if there were not heat, no sense of light if there were not darkness, no sense of joy if there were not sadness, no sense of harmony if there were not discord, equally assures us that we could have no knowledge of even relative virtue if there were not absolute virtue.

Right and wrong, therefore, do not have their origin in the social relation, though they appear there by contrast, but in God and in the relation of man to Him.

In ascertaining what right and wrong are, it is necessary to carefully distinguish the meaning of some words, for these terms in their essence are not so loose as is their use. From the shifting, varying use of these words one may become confused, and think that goodness and truth are no more fixed than are the words that give them names.