to all thoughtful people: we first try to eliminate all personal desire
from the consideration of the subject on which decision is needed, so
that the mental atmosphere may not be rendered a distorting medium by
the mists of personal pleasure or pain; next, we place before us all the
circumstances, giving each its due weight; then, we decide; the next
step depends on whether we believe in Higher Powers or not; if we do, we
sit down quietly and alone; we place our decision before us; we suspend
_all_ thought, but remain mentally alert--all mental ear, as it
were; we ask for help from God, from our Teacher, from our own Higher
Self; into that silence comes the decision. We obey it, without further
consideration, and then we watch the result, and judge by that of the
value of the decision, for it may have come from the higher or from
the lower Self. But, as we did our very best, we feel no trouble, even
if the decision should be wrong and bring us pain. We have gained an
experience, and will do better next time. The trouble, the pain, we have
brought on ourselves by our ignorance, we note, as showing that we have
disregarded a law, and we profit by the additional knowledge in the
future.

Thus understanding conscience, we shall not take it as a basis of
morality, but as our best available individual light. We shall judge
our conscience, educate it, evolve it by mental effort, by careful
observation. As we learn more, our conscience will develop; as we act
up to the highest we can see, our vision will become ever clearer, and
our ear more sensitive. As muscles develop by exercise, so conscience
develops by activity, and as we use our lamp it burns the more brightly.
But let it ever be remembered that it is a man's own experience that
must guide him, and his own conscience that must decide. To overrule the
conscience of another is to induce in him moral paralysis, and to seek
to dominate the will of another is a crime.