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Untitled Article
thkt i £ tevil in individual or private conduct , in legislative enactment , in the measures of government , in the totality of human action . ' When the perception of this principle , in all its clearness and brightness * first beamed upon his mind , he was yet a young man ; he saw , though not fully , the extension of which it was capable ;
he saw , though not with the distinctness which after meditation afforded , the consequences that would result from its application $ and the transport , the exultation of heart with which he exclaimed , ' Eureka ! " was as much greater than that of the philosopher who first uttered that word * as the objects to which his discovery relates are nobler and ' more beneficent . With a singleness of purpose
rarely paralleled , he immediately devoted himself to the develop- * ment and application of an instrument which he soon discovered to be destined to produce a mighty change in legislation and morals . Trying by this test every sensation , every volition , and every action , which it is right that the human being should indulge and cherish , or which , on the contrary , it is right that he should control and counteract , he resolved to endeavour to construct , on
the basis thus afforded him , an all-comprehensive system of morals , an all-comprehensive code of law , of procedure , and of sanction , that is , of reward and punishment ; he determined to devote his life to the effort to " rear the fabric of felicity by the hands of reason and of law . " It may be interesting and instructive to view , in an example or two , the manner in which he has proceeded in relation to each of these subjects . And first in regard to the subject of morals .
•| The object of morality , says this philosopher , is to promote human happiness , —the happiness of every man ; nay , to extend the dominion of happiness wherever there is a being susceptible of its impressions . The chain of virtue will be found to girdle the whole of the sensitive creation ; the happiness we can communicate to animals we call inferior , is intimately associated with that of the human race , —and that of the human race is closely allied to our own .
' Happiness is the possession of pleasure with the exemption from pain , —it is great in proportion to the aggregate of pleasure enjoyed and pains averted . And what is virtue ?—It is that which most contributes to happiness—that which maximizes pleasures and minimizes pains . Vice , on the contrary , is that which contributes to u ^ ihappiness ; that which maximizes pain and minimizes pleasure . Every pleasure is in itself good , and ought to be pursued . Every pain is in itself evil , and ought to be avoided . 4
The fact that , after experience of its enjoyments , a man pur « sues a pleasure , is in itself evidence of its goodness . * Every act whereby pleasure is reaped is , aU consequences apart , good . Every act by which pleasure is reaped , without any result of pain , ia pure gain to happiness , —every act whose results of pain
Untitled Article
the late feretoy Bent ham * 45 $
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 453, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/21/
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