Even in religion where undoubtedly everyone has to derive his rule of conduct from himself, seeing that he himself remains responsible for it, and, when he goes wrong, cannot shift the blame upon others as teachers or leaders general precepts learned at the feet either of priests or philosophers, or even drawn from one's own resources, are never so efficacious as an example of virtue or holiness, which, historically portrayed, does not dispense with the autonomy of virtue drawn from the spontaneous and original idea of morality (a priori), or convert this into a mechanical process of imitation.