JB/015/339/001

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the moderns. Useless & delusive phrases – well fitted to keep the
mind & the affections from their true safest & most judicious direction.
Then again refining upon refinement – dividing the indivisible
comes a class of virtues – which are not quite virtues – called
sem half-virtues – or semi virtutes. Examine them closely–
take pain exhaust them of the prudence & the benevolent
beneficence that are in them – the rest is worthlessness – & the
parade of it foppery & folly.

The omnipresence of the self regarding affection
and its intimate union with the social – are the bases of al
genuine morality. That in the human character certain
dissocial affections should exist – so far from being injurious
to the interests of virtue is one of the greatest securities for virtue.
The social affections are the instruments of by which pleasure is communicated
to others – the dissocial are those by which the social are kept in check when a greater sacrifice
is proposed to be made to beneficence than prudence warrants, – that in other
words when less happiness is to be gained by others than is lost by
ourselves. But with the term dissocial let no idea of
antipathy be connected. Hatred, indignation – or any such
passions will rather bewilder & blind than serve the moralist
in his investigations into the causes of vices, – or their appropriate
cures. The Lawgiver should be no more impassioned than
the Geometrician. They are both solving problems by
sober calculation. The Deontologist is but an Arithmetician
whose cyphers are pains & pleasures – his busi science is
that of Addition – Subtraction – Multiplication & Division.
And certainly the result of his labors will onlybe far more facilitated
by the quiet influence of composed thought – than by
imaginative wanderings, – or passionate sallies.

Identifier: | JB/015/339/001 "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	339	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	linking material	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f14
Penner	sir john bowring	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	5555
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