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INTRODUCTION. Principle of Utility. Prejudices against
The truth of the matter seems to be, that
when by the time the Idea term is arrived to this pitch of
abstraction, it loses as it were its figure signification in the mind
hence it is bandied about from speaker to
speaker, till coming to those some one who not being more attending
or perhaps never having recognized it's genealogy
(from whence the significance of the word expressing it is derived) learns
to imagine that it has some [the word has no significance]
or at least that it may once might have had is so far
lost evaporated, as not to be recoverable for the
purposes of being applied to particular cases particular application.+ + Example IV D'Alembert 131 It is a spectacle not a little surprizing to observe a writer the 1st perhaps of the age for the extent & precision of his knowledge regard the notion of utility under the confused aspect here described.
Another obstacle to the reception of this [standard]
is a certain impotence of mind, wherby
a person is unable to hold an object keep a moral object suspended in a
light that is disagreable to him, tho' it be
[ever so] necessary for the examination of it's nature
An action which, being generally disapproved,
or even really prejudicial, he is in the habit
of condemning or underrating, he will not
bear to see tho' for a moment exposed exhibited in
that side point of view on which it is really beneficial,
and which if it were it's only one would
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denominate constitute it beneficial altogether.
There are those who swell themselves up with
high sounding notions words notions of the dignity purity of human nature,
& a sublime contempt for every thing that
partakes of senses
A person if th Hear will bear of utility perhaps, with
a tolerable degree of complacency, His applepie, like the Irishman's is not to have any apples in it, but to be all of quinces. & that for
the very reason that for which the preceding class would reject
it, because having been pushed [as remote
it can be from sense which is the
basis of it] as far from above sense which is the basis of
it, as it can be, it lost has lost in their
eyes it's connection with sense, & along with
it, it's meaning.
Talk to such an one of the physical pleasure
of love, of a portion of utility accruing
from the perception of that pleasure, [he will
detest] such grossness is not to be born. He will
not allow it for a pleasure, as if he should
find it difficult to avoid to allow it for such in compliance
with common speech, his happiness
however shall have no such pleasures in it. some ancient past Orator, or pretended Philosopher He has read from Cicero, or some other such solemn confounder of Ideas languages, that pleasure is the only thing in the world for destroying happiness, & that pain is just as ill calculated for augmenting [promoting] misery.
If you come to the pleasure of eating, the
affair is still worse which has nothing connected with
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to it, like the other to improve and cover it,
the affair is still worse — on happiness
composed made up of eating! the idea is not to be born
And thus fares it with every pleasure of sense
in it's turn — it must be all sentiment & nothing
else that will go down with him. As will
admitt of utility & of happiness with an exception
against any every thing of which it can be
composed. This apple pye Tis like the Irishman's
is to be all of quinces not to have any apples
in it but applepye that was to be all of Quinces.
His Quinces when they came to be enquired
after generally turn not to be the pure
pleasures enjoyment of connubial love, and the still
purer pleasures enjoyment of friendship. He will
not see that these firstmentioned pleasures
are nothing more than that same pleasure
that he has been so vehement against, disembarassed
from the circumstances productive
of future pain, which as well in in a precise
and intelligible sense of the word, as well as in his
vague one, detracted from it's purity.
He does not consider & he cannot see that the pleasures of
friendship, when existing in any degree &
from any cause [manifested in any action] which
---page break---
gives them an eclát, are very thinly scatter'd
in the track of every man's life, scarce found at all
in that of many men, & that if a man
were to wait for them in the composing his
bouquet wreath of happiness, he would at any
rate lie idle every moment of his life but
one out of a thousand. And he cannot
perhaps see, that f these pleasures, more
estimable because more permanent, than
those others, exist not but by those others
notwithstanding. He cannot see, that that if there were no pleasure in eating fowls, nor in going to a concert, nor in drinkingthere wine, [& so forth] there would be none in friendship.
INTROD. Pr. of Utility. Prejuges against [BR][ ]
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