★ Keep up to date with the latest news - subscribe to the Transcribe Bentham newsletter; Find a new page to transcribe in our list of Untranscribed Manuscripts
PREFAT.
The department province of letters, so extensive as time & a
happy concurrence of circumstances has render'd it
in this country abounds with active & X enlightened & penetrating geniuses spirits
who wait for nothing but a proper impulse: it is
a treasure, which governments Legislators are too little in the habit
of turning to the account of their own Science,
It is in this, as in so many other subjects, that the main
difficulties of the tasks rest upon the first beginnings. steps Commencements approaches
The force of public [intelligence] genius once roused
into activity action will go grow on in an increasing
ratio to the burthen. I might have garnished my discourse with the unintelligible sublimities of the Divine
Plato
Had it been my place to
My path was plain and easy
I might have consulted: Indexes — I might have
filled garnished my pages with erudition — I might have proved
from Horace that there were more less eat and drink which they could get before they made Laws, and from Lucretius, that Laws were introduced to prevent injustice.
BEGINNING of B.L. after INTROD.
I now once more reassure the Architect, after having
been for some time first exercising myself and
the a A painful but necessary employ, to
him who is studious above all things, to place
his edifice in a conspicuous point of view. to give a perspective over [prospect of] his edifice.
I am out of all expectation of
"Judge not that ye be not judged —
says the divine author of our religion I judge
that I may be judged.
Tis an excellent advice precept in the prose which it was given
---page break---
present the public with the fruits product of some years labour I present now offer to the public the labour of some years product of some years
labour upon a subject the most neglected least cultivated perhaps of all these in comparison of it's importance of all temporal ones the most interesting
and [perhaps] the most neglected What I am sure certain of is that it is new —
what I hope is, that it is may be useful...
I shall be as ready to blot out, as to put in
Bound neither by any thing I have learnt to choose to think can call my interests
nor by engagement I think it my duty to adhere hear to
to attack what is establishment or to defend it. I...
The 1st is what a duty is due from every man to the
public: to make sure of had it been but always observed the Science
were it always would have been somewhat more advanced forwarder [than it
is at present in it's advances progress to perfection.]
to our account and satisfactory to array themselves At least I hope that what is here attempted, may
serve as a basis for whoever the speculations
as matters the most trifling as a twig or a straw or a grain of sand will
serve for the basis of+ give whose lustre we admire these the most brilliant crystallizations whose
dazzle with their lustre
Begin not My aim is the discovery of truth and utility
I care not on which side it shew itself so is let it
de but shew itself to me I care not on which side.
For Truth If I do not very much deceive myself it would as little would it
cost me as little to write sayone theory now, as to learn
and another 2 [thing] yesterday.
PREFAT
---page break---
There seems little reason to We would not apprehend that the general fund
of intelligence in the profession, will should now ever
run into a decline
But there are those both on the one and and on the in both assemblies to which
it so happens belongs such an enterprise belongs other house, [whom I could name if it were
either decent or necessary] whose departure, whenever the country shall suffer that calamity, will have such a gap [who to that share
of the common stock which may be expected
in the stations which they occupy, some of whom approach to that period of life at which the faculties of other men are at the decline. add those
singular talents, the gifts of nature to her
choicest favourites one of which
the public can not be too eager speedy while there is yet time, do in making
it's profit advantage. while they yet last - endure - continue
Who these are the Public so well knows, that it
is as unnecessary, as, after what has been said, it
would be indelicate, to mention. To preside over & direct the operations of those to whom will be warranted the task of original preparation.
...For nothing could make me happier, than
in any thing that I have [thought myself obliged
to say said to the prejudice of the Law, to be utterly find
myself mistaken.
---page break---
I know not whether it be good for any thing or no for no man knows that of his own work. but
this I know, that I could not make it any better.
I have never lost sight of that maxim of
Boileau's the a French Critic's so well observed by the Philosopher
from whom I take it.
Et mon vers bien ou mal dit toujours
quelque chose
A maxim to which if one I might be permitted
to borrow the sententious language of antiquity the Latins
I would make a small addition, & say
Dic aliquid — atque illud tuum++ v. Ms 4to 145.
Say something — & be that your own.
Author Obscure The attempt here offer'd [to the public] was has been made
under numerous disadvantages - with scarce any
requisites but assiduity and zeal
Therefore impartial Tis under these circumstances that the profession
of Tacitus, since become the profession of so many
other public men, sine ira aut studio, quorum
causas procul habeo, stands the most best chance
for being sincere.
It will be neither ... nor ...
if the obscurity of this author, the source to balance of so
many disadvantages it must have cast upon
subjected the work, should have given him this one
advantage. [
PREFAT. I
---page break---
|
Identifier: | JB/027/001/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 27.
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
not numbered |
|||
|
027 |
comment on the commentaries |
||
|
001 |
prefat. i |
||
|
001 |
|||
|
text sheet |
2 |
||
|
recto |
|||
|
jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::[gr with crown motif] [motif] [lion with vryheyt motif]]] |
||
|
9091 |
|||
<iframe></iframe>
