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The common notions of Justice will scarce permit
another man to think he ought to has a right to
do it in my life time — according to The common
presumption that in smaller a man may be able
to make+ + as much of the most of his own works as
well at least as another man [there should
be no occasion for it] seems to speak against
the use [necessity [for it] of his doing so].
But should the book happen to survive me
should it chance to answer the expectations++
++ optimistic hopes that a writer may be supposed to entertain
from a work of years, to which he has dedicated his life be it known by
these presents I give him to anyone my free
leave and license. Let him add anything
useful of his own be it ever so little, so that he leave
out nothing that has# # has any use in it is useful of use: let him tell the
world as much — let him stand up boldly
and tell the world public explicitly that this book can be of no
use — that it has done its office — that
the message point of it is restricted, that what remains
is a caput mortuum — that it is a nuisance
let him advertise them to throw it aside, & meddle with
it no more.
to drop it quickly into the gulph of oblivion.
PREFAT. [V]
---page break---
How unfavorable the judgment of the public
may be to it, it will not be without a
confession of its justice in my own breast
in my own confession
I see a thousand bad things in it, which I can
make no better: and which I could never have
excused myself for obtruding on the public if
they had not been connected with some other
things that I thought hoped might make amends.
The didactic form in which a great part of it
is deliver'd gives the book an air of stiffness,
and to the author writer [an air] of self-sufficiency,
which in him perhaps of all
men is unbecoming. It is a fault — I know
it — I He have not remedied it. Why?
because I He was not able. With the degree
of anxiety that I had He had to make myself him
understood at any price intelligible at any price, I have
not the dexterity to prevent its being
perceived.
Mean time This blemish of what consequence so ever it may
be to the Author is of very little to the public,
provided he adheres to his resolution of
taking counsel with equal thankfulness from we
that offer it: from the unfledged Academic to the spectacled
Professor: from the just-articled practitioner
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Identifier: | JB/027/006/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 27.
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comment on the commentaries |
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006 |
prefat. v |
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1 |
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recto |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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9096 |
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