JB/149/363/001

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U End of Action

If the balance of pleasure be really the intense, constant, and
sole object of pursuit — if it must always continue to be so from the
very constitution of our natures — if there is no occasion on which
it ceases to be so, — for what object, it may be asked, for what end
is this or any other discourse on the subject of Ethics? Why urge
a man to pursue that which he is always occupied in pursuing?

But the position is denied — for where, if the position be true,
where, cries an objector, — where is sympathy? Where is benevolence?
Where is beneficence? Answer, exactly where they were?

To deny the existence of the social affections would be to deny
the evidence of all experience. Scarcely in the most brutal
savage would they be found altogether wanting.

But the pleasure & feel in bestowing pleasure on my friend,
whose pleasure is it but mine? The pain I feel at seeing my
friend oppressed by pain, whose pain is it but mine? And if I
felt no pleasure, or felt no pain — where, where would be my
sympathy? Why, it is asked again, waste time in enforcing conduct
which every man on every occasion adopts for himself — namely,
the pursuit of good.

Because consideration will enable him to move correctly to
estimate what conduct will leave the greatest results of good; for
tho' under the immediate impressions he might be disposed to pursue
a particular course for the purpose of securing his well-being,
a — or more comprehensive — view ought to might show
him that the course would not on the whole be the best and
wisest; because he would sometimes discover that the nearer
good would be outweighed by the remoter but associated
evil — or that a greater pleasure might be obtained in time
to come for a lesser pleasure abandoned now.

Because it might happen that the act which promised
the present pleasure might prove prejudicial to others in
the society to which you belong — and they, having sustained injury
at your hand would, were it prompted by self-preservation alone,
seek to avenge themselves by the infliction of pain equal or greater
in amount than the pleasure enjoyed.

And again, the act under contemplation might possibly be
productive of displeasure in the breasts of the community at large, and the
loss of their good opinion consequent on the account weigh in value the
pleasure it produced. Yet

Identifier: | JB/149/363/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 149.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	149	Main Headings
Folio number	363	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles	u / end of action
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering
Penner		Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	50217
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