Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/343

342 s. COIT : illusions. But the habit of attempting to picture abstract conceptions before the imagination until they seem real cannot properly be called introspection. It is indeed sub- jective, but it is only one kind of subjective thought. Prac- tically it is the very opposite, in its effects, of observing and tracing the connexions of actual inner experience. There could be no better way of preventing the former than by practising the latter, that is, by observing emotions and tracing them to their causes. For this practice would reveal what was illusion and what was not, and any emotion seen to have been based 011 illusion would cease to exist. Now this healthy kind of introspection is the subjective turn of thought which the inner moral sanction, when made the end of conduct, would induce. For men could not then fail to see the natural, causal connexion between devotion to the right and the joy which accompanies it ; and seeing this connexion, they could no longer regard " the rapture of self- renunciation," " the peace that passeth understanding," as a sign out of some metaphysical, extra-temporal world. It would no longer be a testimony of some mysterious "higher order of being " to which we belong, but simply of a higher order of conduct to which the human heart responds, a more blessed way of living. And recognising, simply as a fact, that peace does come of devotion to the right, men would rest there. It is safe to say that they would find their "moral need of metaphysics" satisfied without metaphysics. They would no longer need a substance or a being for their support in the hour of trial and tribulation. The metaphy- sical need is simply the need of something to rest in, some- thing eternal, unchangeable, and at the same time strong and tender. Just such a support can be found in the fact of universal moral experience, that peace against all the woes of life attends complete devotion to the right. Now the recognition of this fact would follow inevitably from reflec- tion upon one's own conduct ; and a predisposition to reflec- tion upon one's own conduct would follow from making the inner moral sanction the final aim of conduct, since reflection is the very condition on which the sanction is attainable. Therefore, making the inner sanction the final aim of con- duct, by turning men's attention to the simple sequences of the moral consciousness, would tend to dispel all fantastical and metaphysical illusions which have gathered about the deeper experiences of the moral life. And especially in the present crisis in religious and moral thought throughout Christendom is there an urgent need of more exact moral introspection. Wherever Christianity has