13. THE DOGMATISM OF THE NATURAL MAN.--In morals and in politics it
seems natural for man to be dogmatic, to take a position without
hesitation, to defend it vehemently, to maintain that others are in the
wrong.

This is not surprising. We are born into a moral environment as into an
all-embracing atmosphere. From the cradle to the grave, we walk with our
heads in a cloud of exhortations and prohibitions. From our earliest
years we have been urged to make decisions and to act, and we have been
furnished with general maxims to guide our action. When, therefore, we
approach the solution of a moral problem, we do not, as a rule, acutely
feel our fitness to solve it, even though we may be judged quite unfit by
others.

This unruffled confidence in one's possession of an adequate supply of
indubitable moral truth may be found in men who differ widely in their
degree of intelligence and in the extent of their information. Some
individuals seem born to it. We may come upon it in the ethical
philosopher; we may meet it in the man of science, who knows that it has
taken him a quarter of a century to fit himself to be an authority in
matters chemical or physical, but who wanders in his hours of leisure
into the field of ethics and has no hesitation in proposing radical
reforms. But it is more natural to look for the unwavering confidence
which knows no questionings among persons of restricted outlook, who have
been brought into contact with but one set of opinions. It is
characteristic of the child, of the uncultivated classes in all
communities, of whole communities primitive in their culture and
relatively unenlightened.

14. THE AWAKENING.--Manifestly, even the beginnings of ethical science