The Singing Bone

A surprising amount of nonsense has been talked about conscience. On the one hand remorse (or the ldquo;again-bite,rdquo; as certain scholars of ultra-Teutonic leanings would prefer to call it); on the other hand ldquo;an easy consciencerdquo;: these have been accepted as the determining factors of happiness or the reverse. Of course there is an element of truth in the ldquo;easy consciencerdquo; view, but it begs the whole question. A particularly hardy conscience may be quite easy under the most unfavourable conditions conditions in which the more feeble conscience might be severely afflicted with the ldquo;again-bite.rdquo; d, then, it seems to be the fact that some fortunate persons have no conscience at all; a negative gift that raises them above the mental vicissitudes of the common herd of humanity.