JB/087/095/003

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3

Indirect Legislation

Knowledge §

1. First then the spread of knowledge is not
mischievous upon the whole.

Some writers indeed have thought or appeared
to think that knowledge in general is a
bad thing: that the less men knew of things in
general the better: for that the less they knew
of things in general the less they would know of
those things which are apt to serve as inducements
to committ, or as the means of committing,
crimes. That fanatics and
their leaders should
have thought so is of
course: there being
a strong and constant natural
rivalry between the
knowledge of things
carnal and the knowledge
of things spiritual:
between the knowledge of things
existing useful and intelligible
and the knowledge of
things unexisting, useless
or unintelligible. But
Even amongst the bulk of men
this way of thinking is, I believe, not very
uncommon. Qu. Postpone to the
examples what follows
Nor is it altogether to be wonder'd at:
for [the means of giving] a compleat detection
to the fallacy is hardly to be given without
a more compleat a truer and more exact precise method of estimating the mischief
of an offence than has been hitherto
brought to view.

That crimes of ingenuity should oftentimes be worse
looked upon than crimes of ignorance, that is
than crimes of brute force violence , is not I say, to be
wonder'd at. In general in judging of the magnitude of crimes it is the principle of
sympathy & antipathy rather than that of utility that is
the immediate foundation of men's judgments.
Now in forming any such judgment it is the apparent depravity of the disposition
that the antipathy looks to and nothing
else
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Identifier: | JB/087/095/003 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 87.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering	not numbered
Box	087	Main Headings	indirect legislation
Folio number	095	Info in main headings field	indirect legislation
Image	003	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f1 / f2 / f3 / f4
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]]
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	27620
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