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Composition.
(1
nothing to call off the thought of that of those accessory considerations which lead to the ..... of the composer has little and occasion to say to the reader, "think of me".
The best stile for of Legislation would be that, in which all
thought in the reader of the composer was lost should be in attention to the subjects
The to practisers of the modern art of composition, by the
continual torture in which they keep the apprehension, to are
sufficient means to give advertisement of his existence
takes care not to be forgotten.
Nothing whereby the attention to the work should be interrupted
by any consideration of the author.
PERSPICUITY
(2
Perspicuity is as it were a branch of Notoriety: for it
is not the being acquainted with the sounds that
renders the law known, but the being possessed of the
Ideas which those sounds are meant to represent.
However as these 2 sorts of knowledge are in themselves
distinct, & [attainable by different means] are require a
quite different set of expedients to communicate them, it
will be proper enough and even necessary to give them
a separate consideration.
The first is compassable by a set of expedients, which
by contrast in comparison with the others more requisite for may be termed mechanical.
(3
Hind vox docta x aliud technica.
The4 case5 is3 very1 different2 between a word, which is
obscure by reason of it's technicality, and which an illiterate man
must go to a Lawyer to [have] explained: know the meaning of and one which is
so & only on account of it's having a Greek or Latin origin,
& which the Parson Clergyman of his Parish, or any other person
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of tolerable education can explain.
(4
Testimonial words are unknown to be learned themselves. As Cortionari A term An expression is (in point of its familiarity) unfit for use, inversely as the number of persons by whom it is understood
They must count their words as well as weigh them;
in short they must learn to remember on all occasions,
that Brevity is an excellence, [which are to study as the 1st ornament of their compositions and prolixity
a taste one of it's last disgraces.
These sentiments must govern their resolutions: resolves
the rules above deliver'd will serve to guide their
practise.[+] [+] They offer to the recollection a list which either is or in abler hands may without much difficulty be made to be a compleat list of [They contain or with a little addition
may be made to contain the proscription of]
all those classes of redundancy in the avoidance
of which the brevity to be endeavoured at, consists
They are, or I much deceive myself, simple
familiar, apprehensible: There is nothing absolute
in the conception of them; nothing arduous in
the practise: how should there? when the that but Frenchdesign please scope
of them is nothing more than to bring confine men back
to that tenor pitch of thus ordinary discourse from which
it is impossible for them men to depart without efforts as
troublesome as they are vain.
(3
Indeed, in some men's notions, it could not on any account
be less within the people's reach even in those
hands that it is at present.
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(5
If questions were formed, the answers to presenting the several
topics alternatives + + that have been at any time adopted together with such others as might be the subject will admitt adopted upon the several topics which
occur frequently for consideration in the law, such
a work I have good reason to think would come within a much smaller
compass than at first glance might be imagined
and nothing would more contribute || || to the case relief of the composer nor to the giving
an amplitude and consistency to the whole System Law. [itself]
6
Every thing that occurrs seems obvious: he thinks,
& continues to think unless he tries, that he could
have done written the same himself — his eye travels
with case over the whole. He infers From the facility of
composition from the facility of apprehension when
composed ... He reads it, & [already & fancied
himself a Legislator.
(1
In the common stile of composition, the composer
takes sufficient care not seems resolved not to be forgotten: a constant quest in &c He pourtrays himself in the reader's imagination: & it is in the character of &c throughout the
whole he takes care to keep up in the mind imagination of
the reader the idea of a man sweating and
---page break---
toiling & mouthing, with a tongue voice too big for his
mouth, utterance pushing out before it a whole volley shew of
words jostling & striving with quarrelling with each other for utterance.
By sympathy this ferment communicates itself to the
reader
(7
One Another cause of voluminousness is, the premature overflowing
extravasations of the projector's eloquence Rhetoric overflowing diffusing itself
before the upon the paper instead of the his speech; improve the itself instead of the speech that should introduce it: wandering from the line of fact into that of argument. with to
good a purpose as much effect as the ...pathies moving pathetic strains which the
Equity draughtsmen manufactures Reseiges to touch the heart
of the a Chancellor who never sees it. knows will never [ knows
nothing about the matter.] see a word of it
who amidst all his ....wits is not destined to so
severe a task as ever to hear a word of it.
Petulant & blustering garrulity for the ear of .. is not so hard-fated
(3
A word borrowd from a foreign language, if that
language be Latin Greek or French is more better
proper than preferable to a word coined by Lawyers: because
there are more persons in the Kingdom Nation [who] understand
Latin Greek or French or English, than [who] understand
Law; [meaning by Law that groangribber + + which separates it as gives it the character of a Science peculiar
to Lawyers which conceals from all men what all
men ought to know] Even Hebrew (were Jews as much dispersed
as Lawyers) would be preferable to Law; because
there are more persons in the nation who understand
even Hebrew than in this sence understand Law. nor even in those hands would it perhaps be much less within the people's reach than it is at present. It would be injustice to that fragile to oppose the practice of their knowledge would be
COMPOS. 1 & 6 Gen. Idea. 2. Perspicuity. 3 Vax docta )( technica. 4. Consol. Perorat. 5 [LII] Enchiridian Question. 7. VOLUMIN. in Preambles. Cause of.
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Identifier: | JB/070/060/001 "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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060 |
composition general idea of the legislve style |
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001 |
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text sheet |
2 |
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recto |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [lion with vryheyt motif]]] |
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23175 |
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