BOOK THE THIRD.
OF GENERAL CONDUCT.
3.1. CONDUCT FOLLOWS FROM BELIEF.
I hold that the broad direction of conduct follows necessarily from
belief. The believer does not require rewards and punishments to direct
him to the right. Motive and idea are not so separable. To believe truly
is to want to do right. To get salvation is to be unified by a
comprehending idea of a purpose and by a ruling motive.
The believer wants to do right, he naturally and necessarily seeks to do
right. If he fails to do right, if he finds he has done wrong instead of
right, he is not greatly distressed or terrified, he naturally and
cheerfully does his best to correct his error. He can be damned only by
the fading and loss of his belief. And naturally he recurs to and
refreshes his belief.
I write in phrases that the evangelical Christianity of my childhood
made familiar to me, because they are the most expressive phrases I have
ever met for the psychological facts with which I am dealing.
But faith, though it banishes fear and despair and brings with it a real
prevailing desire to know and do the Good, does not in itself determine
what is the Good or supply any simple guide to the choice between
alternatives. If it did, there would be nothing more to be said, this
book upon conduct would be unnecessary.
