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1824. April 12
Constitutional Code.
Thus it is that beneficence to any amount may have place
without the smallest spark of benevolence. Without any such
feeling as that of benevolence, by the mere expenditure of his
means a man cannot fail to do to others good in a certain
quantity, so as no part of it is expended in hiring others
to do mischief: for to every vendor of whom he purchase anything
he does good: namely in a quantity equal to that of his the net profits
upon the sale: and so in the case of hired service. In so
far as benevolence operates in augmentation of alliance with the beneficence it is
by exercised by expenditure, it is by giving such proposed direction
to the expenditure as shall cause causes more good to be produced
by it than without it would have been produced.
Thus it is that the most benef benevolent of paupers
or day labourers was received or could have received a
part of the praise bestowed on the most malevolent cruel and powerful
of tyrants.
And so it is, in regard to all ranks subordinate to the
despot, and sharing with him the fruits of his despotism.
In regard to a Constitutional Code a consequence is –
that, at by the hands of all who look to receive good benefit from
opulence or power in proportion to its magnitude, proportioned in
a direct way to its aptitude as with relation to the good maximization
of public happiness will be the vituperation poured upon
it: because for the higher the degree in which it is conducive to
the happiness of the greater number the less is the quantity
of power and opulence of which the maintenance or obtainment
of which it will afford leave them a prospect.
A way, however, in which opulence is really conducive to
aptitude – to appropriate aptitude in every shape with reference to political situation
is – that in every shape that such aptitude naturally encreases with
the quantity of intellectual instruction: or at any rate at the least, that to
a certain degree of this aptitude a certain quantity of instruction
in an appropriate shape is if not indispensably necessary, at least
conducive at least if not strictly necessary⊞ ⊞ and that, to the obtainment of this instruction a certain degree of opulence is necessary: But even in this way case
encrease of aptitude does not keep pace with encrease of opulence
at a certain point on the scale, so far from encreasing it diminishes: the
effect of opulence being to
direct the mind from their
occupations by which instruction
with its labour and its pleasure
is afforded, to occupations
by which for the moment pleasure without labour is afforded.
Identifier: | JB/039/103/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 39.
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1824-04-12 |
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constitutional code |
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constitutional code |
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jeremy bentham |
j whatman turkey mill 1824 |
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jonathan blenman |
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1824 |
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12110 |
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