JB/035/178/001

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28 May 1808 11

2. The intellectual mischief may be thus described

But to a conservative mind, and especially to a
mind impressed in any degree with those apprehensions in
which it is the province of religion to inspire, the habitual
of view, and especially of of certain of th vices which have find no
pleasure to mask their bitterness, is a situation too irksome
to be borne endured by a man without his looking out
for relief. But relief is no otherwise to be obtained
than by framing a partial sort of system of morality adapted
to the purpose: a system which laying hold of the vague
and ambiguous import of the term necessity, finds in it
a sufficient warrant for yielding to the suggestions of
present
era.

To a man to a posture which his censurer
condemns as an opinion as immoral an or to an opinion which his judgment
condemns as false, than is but one course, but that
unhappily is effectual as it is simple: and this is to turn
and form an exclude from out of his reflection
all considerations that plead against the practice to
which it is deemed necessary he should be reconnected,
fastening at the same time the attention to whatever
considerations can be found that present the slightest
hope of their being made to plead in favour of it.

Of this sort is - and in this way is exercised -
the power which men have over their conscience and
their judgment: and so efficacious is this power, that
as on the one hand there is no wickedness so enormous but
that,
what if present immediate punishment be not in prospect, man in
general will turn this to practice without remorse, so there
is no absurdity so glaring and palpable but that
this profession of belief, not only the rational and but even belief itself may thus
be brought about by it.

Identifier: | JB/035/178/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 35.
Date_1	1808-05-28	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	035	Main Headings	constitutional code; evidence; procedure code
Folio number	178	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	d11 / e2
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	10771
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