34 CONSERVATIVES AND CONSCIENCE

understood, means "tenderness," not simply "relief.") It

has always taught the strong, the wise, the industrious,

the provident, the fortunate, the swift, the handsome, the

inheritor of wealth, to assist from the charity of their

hearts, and to the full extent of their ability, our fellow

men and women who are weak or unfortunate or sick or

old or bewildered. In this sense, conscience always has

been "social." The conservative does not need any new

dispensation to inform him of his charitable duties. But

he is convinced that the way to a good conscience is

through personal charity, personal relationships, and

private dutiesnot, ordinarily, through the mechanical

and impersonal functioning of some grandiose state de-

sign. He wants to keep conscience, like charity, close to

home; because once conscience ceases to be personal, it

ceases to be conscience at all, being transformed into

nothing better than enlightened selfishness or positive

law. He recognizes that, in some matters and in cases of

emergency, private conscience must work collectively,

through public agencies. But, understanding the nature

of conscience, he tries to keep, to the fullest extent pos-

sible, the operation of conscience as a personal and pri-

vate matter.

When the conservative engages in charity, for instance,

he first endeavors to do all that he can personally and

privately. When that will not sufficewhen self-help

and family cooperation are not enoughhe turns to pri-

vate voluntary agencies. When these, in their turn, do

not seem sufficient, he resorts to municipal and local and

state action. If all these resources somehow fail, then he

turns to charity on a national scale. But he is inclined to

believe that all the ordinary problems of society, except

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