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Untitled Article
He had matured a system of prison discipline , with a view to make punishment corrective , an exposition of which Was given in his work called ' Panopticon . ' In 1792 he presented his plan of management to Mr Pitt , and it was adopted by him with enthusiasm . Notwithstanding , after years spent in delery ,
it was abandoned . A secret influence , at that time inexplicable , but now well known to have been the hostility of George III , defeated the object . The writer of the able article on Bentham , in the ' Penny Cyclopcedia / states , that this prison , for regularly containing * 1 , 000 prisoners , would have cost the public between 20 , 000 / . and 30 , 000 / . : while the present wretched Millbank Penitentiary , arranged for 600 , has
already cost at least ten times that sum . In his work called ' Deontology / he applied his principle to the science of morals . Mr Bentham was among the rare instances of vigour of intellect following a precocious childhood . We aTe told that he read Rapin ' s ' History of England' for his amusement when he
was three years old ; as a child he commenced the study of music , and at five years of age had attained some proficiency on that difficult instrument , the violin ; singularly enough , at the sanje age , he had acquired the name of ' the Philosopher ' among the members of his family , from his gravity of manner and accurate powers of observation . He distinguished himself both at Westminster School and at Oxford , and took his
Masters degree at the age of twenty . He suffered great scruples about signing the 39 Articles , necessary to be done before taking the degree . He eventually yielded to authority , solely from considerations of his father . The record he has left of this passage of his life is deeply affecting ; it ends with the following memorable words : " I signed ;—but by the view I found myself forced to take of the whole business , such an iiripression was made as will never depart from me but with
life . " On becoming possessed of a competency at the death of his father , he fixed his residence in Queen ' s Square Place , London , auid his mode of living continued to be uniform until the
period of his death . He carefully avoided engaging in any personal controversy , ajnd never read any of the attacks made upon himself ; at the same time he surrounded himself only with persons whose sympathies were like his own . Some excellent remarks on the probable influence of such a course on the cjh ^ rabti&r of his mind , are contained in the article of the
* W $ ) Ck $ y Cyclopaedia , ' which we have quoted above . Some of his pec ^ u li airities , which to a certain degree lessened his usefuliji&ffii itiay be traced to this source ; amongst others , the singuffifjfty : of his style , which grew upon him as he advanced in life . His mariners were playful arid childlike . He was fond of en-
Untitled Article
20 Memoranda of JBentham .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1837, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1827/page/22/
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