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Happiness is man's end: Law is an instrument
he has for compassing it. It is
one of the three main instruments, as we
have observed, which are regulated the application
of all the others. are left in use
We have examined the nature of our
end: we have analyzed it and resolved
it into it's parts which we have delineated:
It remains that we do the same by this
our instrument: the instrument the application
of which it is the particular
purpose object of this treatise to consider
This instrument, like any other, must
have certain properties to make it answer
its destination design: but like any other
it must also first have certain characteristics
to make it what it is: certain
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parts, and those of such and such a nature
description; which having it is recognized to
be entitled to it's name, whether it does,
or does not answer it's intention.
In a word before we if we would hereafter proceed to enquire
whether such and such a Law is a good
one, we must settle with ourselves what [a]
a Law is: if we are to speak of one
part of a Law in contradistinction to
another, we must settle with ourselves what
parts they are which it consists of. If
we are in danger of having our way blocked
up by errors which men have run into
by taking that for a Law which is no
such thing, it thence becomes necessary to
settle it's distinctive character.
The attention requisite necessary to be paid to a
the errors of a writer, is proportioned not to the importance
of what he says, that is in a
question of a given importance, or the truth
proximity of what he says to truth: but
to the degree of and it he is at the time
of writing. Whatever therefore is said
for this purpose is of a nature merely
temporary, and may be struck out of it
when it has had it's effect.
For not the errors that are come nearest to truth
that are most necessary to be insisted upon,
but those which at the time of writing
happen to be most in vogue: which
when once detected, may appear to be so
palpably at variance to with truth, as never
to be in danger of rising again. Those
Whatever therefore
INTROD. A Law what Beginning.
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Those are the details, which however vapid
they may be at first to make a book
answer it's ends for certain fill it up
add to it's bulk[+] [+]and to the apparent labour of making possessing oneself master of the truths instruction it contains and if they remain in it, make it less
fit for it's purpose after a time.
If an author has the same satisfaction
of seeing [truths of his declaring] them triumph in
his lifetime, it then becomes him to strike
out whatever concerned was spent merely in the subversion
of the opposi errors that opposed stood in
his way: him: if not, to it belongs to those who cherish
his works to do it for him. When
the enemy is forgotten and gone, it is a
task as bootless as it is tedious to follow
him while he deals his blows about in
the air.
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Identifier: | JB/070/002/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 70.
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070 |
of laws in general |
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002 |
introd. a law what beginning |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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