JB/015/264/001

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114

Every man's necessary impulse is towards the economy of happiness.
If he made a sacrifice of his own happiness, to the happiness of others
it could by possibility be for in no other interest than that of economy
– for unless in some shape or other he derived more pleasure from
the pain sacrifice than he expected to derive from in abstaining
from making the sacrifice – he would not, – he could not make it.
Suppose other pleasures equal – that is, the pleasures sacrificed
& the pleasures conferred – suppose nothing is lost in the transfer
– then come the pleasures of sympathy, pleasures which form
as large a portion of a man's happiness as any merely self-regarding
pleasure. They turn the scale, – & of their magnitude the man
who seeks them is most competent, – not to say the only
judge.

His miscalculation does not alter the question. The
province of Deontology is to teach him a proper arithmetic
– is to lay before him a fit estimate of pain & pleasure –
a budget of receipt & disbursement out of every operation of
which he is to draw a balance of good.

And here be it remarked by the way that
the Deontological teacher whether engaged in discourse or
in writing is himself an example of the application of
the principle of positive effective benevolence. Let his
exertions be encouraged by the thought that he is perhaps creating producing
more happiness at less expense than could be produced by
any other means. At a cost of a few well timed words
is he not expanding the domains of happiness. Are not
the truths, which he circulates at the waste of a little breath –
or at the trouble of recording them on the permanent tablets
of the press – are they not liable likely to extend the
dominions of felicity into regions bounded only by
that portion of infirmity which must hang about the
destinies of mortal man? It is a positive act of effective
benevolence to sow seeds of useful fruits, – or beautiful flowers –
where none were ever sown before – but how much more
efficiently benevolent is he who sows those seeds out of which
happiness directly springs – happiness prolific – multiform –
permanent.

Identifier: | JB/015/264/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 15.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	015	Main Headings	deontology
Folio number	264	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	linking material	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f114
Penner	sir john bowring	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	5480
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