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6 July 1802 2
N. S. Wales
laws. As much violently as ever dead Nature was thought to
abhor the idea of a vacuum, living Nature abhors
the absence of all law. Reason revolts from the thing
itself: imagination repells recoilsrefuses to entertain recoils from the very idea of it. To
conceive space absolutely without matter, the abstractive
powers even of a Newton were insufficient. Imagination created an aether for him to supply the plan
of it. Imagination, the chief and only constant
guide of the man of law the man of Common Law
in this fabrication weaving spinning out of that species of law which has been
so aptly defined "a the competition of opposite analogies"
(I say the only constant guide — for the principle of ability
is but the occasional — is to have the constant guide of the legislator legitimate legislator is to his
bastard relative but the occasional one) imagination
repells the idea if any the inconvenient fashion of governable
space, unfilled by law.
Thus it is that wherever a void opens in law
belongs displays itself, lawyers are [so] ready supply fill the
vacuum by denying its existence. Thus it is that
wherever there is a an ab a want a negation an absence
of genuine law, (the work of expression of the will of
a real legislator or set of legislators to whose will
in the behalf in question the bulk of the community
are by the requisite habits and opinions prepared to
pay obedience) lawyers of all classes are so ready
to agree in forging one. Hence the Law of Nature
Law of Nations, Common Law and so forth.
In
Identifier: | JB/116/196/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 116.
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1802-07-06 |
6* continued |
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116 |
panopticon versus new south wales |
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196 |
n. s. wales |
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001 |
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text sheet |
1 |
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recto |
d2 / f39* |
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jeremy bentham |
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37729 |
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