JB/014/394/001

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1829. June 9. Article on Utilitarianism.

78.
"Despise pleasures:
pleasure (says Horace)
bought with pain is
noxious" - silliness of
this exposed.
J.F.C.

Sperum voluptates (says Horace); vocet empta
dolore voluptare. Despise pleasures; pleasure bought with
pain is noxious. Silly enough all this : but, sound, when
with a small admixture of good sense it is styled poetry, is
by general consent, received as made to pass for an equivalent for pure
sense : [as in the small money of France, base metal
with a small alloy of silver is received as an equivalent
for silver with a small alloy of the base metal.]
If pleasure is a proper object of contempt, what is it
that is the proper object of esteem? Pain or apathy?
Pleasure paid for by pain is a bad bargain; says the
philosopher in his fool's cap scratching his head for jingle:
just as if, at a party, a man you know nothing of
were to come & say, "Sir, you pay too dear for your sugar",
not knowing what you pay for your sugar, any
more than where you buy it. In this one verse, may be
seen the ascetic principle & the grt. happiness prine.
breathed out come out with the same breath. 79.
- has at bottom
a spice of Utilitarianism.
Horace no ascetic.
J.F.C. "Despise pleasure" is
asceticism pure you may call it whether it is
a Frenchman you are speaking to or an Englishman : pleasure paid for
in pain is noxious, has at bottom a spice of utilitarianism, though
made by stale water made up into this mawkish
draught. Not that in his own compositn. Horace had
anything of asceticism, any more than any of his
friends he speaks of : asceticism is one of the last
sins he will be accused of by any one who has
any acquaintance with his works. 80.
In J.B's memoriter
verses elements of
value in pains
& pleasures given.
JFC. Mr. Bentham when
in his memoriter verses he gives the elements or
dimensions or elements of virtue in pains & pleasures a pain or a please.,
goes on to ascribe to them the attributes of purity &
fecundity. This serves as a help to memory  : but
it stands in need of an observation to preserve it
from throwing a cloud overperconception :
pleasure is followed by pain when after pleasure a pain is
produced, what it is produced by, is not, properly speaking,
the pleasure, but the some act whatever it be, by whh.
one after the other, they are, both of them produced.produced. Speaking
of a mixture of pleasure as giving impurity to pain,
as well as a mixture of pain as giving impurity to
pleasure Mr. Bentham exposed himself to the
charge of paradox : purity not being commonly used in

any

Identifier: | JB/014/394/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 14.
Date_1	1829-06-09	Marginal Summary Numbering	78-80
Box	014	Main Headings	deontology
Folio number	394	Info in main headings field	article on utilitarianism
Image	001	Titles
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	c1 / e1 / f37
Penner	john flowerdew colls	Watermarks
Marginals	john flowerdew colls	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	5157
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