This, however, is only true, for the most part, of men advanced in years, in whom habits of virtue have grown strong, and whose age, position, and circumstances secure them from strong temptation.

To see the real work of positive thought we must go to younger men, whose characters are less formed, whose careers are still before them, and on whom temptation of all kinds has stronger hold.

We shall find such men with the sense of virtue equally vivid in them, and the desire to practise it probably far more passionate; but the effect of positive thought on them we shall see to be very different.
Now, the positive school itself will say that such men have all they need.

They confessedly have conscience left to them--the supernatural moral judgment, that is, as applied to themselves--which has been analysed, but not destroyed; and the position of which, we are told, has been changed only by its being set on a foundation of fact, instead of a foundation of superstition.

Mill said that having learnt what the sunset clouds were made of, he still found that he admired them as much as ever; '_therefore_,' he said, '_I saw at once that there was nothing to be feared from analysis_.' And this is exactly what the positive school say of conscience.