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Untitled Article
to the study of which most who now hear me are devoted , and id the advancement of which all of ius have the deepest interest ? - ~* Because when the great and benignant mind that animated this now lifeless body was in its full vigour , such was the appropriation of it calmly , deliberately , and solemnly determined upon by that mind itself ; and the circumstances which render the
disposal of the body remarkable are the extraordinary eminence of the individual , and the extraordinary degree in which this act harmonizes with the peculiar character of his mind and the entire conduct of his life . By this act he carries by his own personal example , to the utmost extent to which it is possible for a human being to carry his example , the great practical principle , for the development and enforcement of which he has raised to himself an immortal name .
'To give you a distinct and accurate conception of the number of dark spots , on the great field of knowledge , on which he has shed a clear and steady light , it would be necessary to enter into a minuteness of detail altogether incompatible with the time allowed to this discourse , and not in harmony with the feelings excited by the melancholy event which has occasioned it . A much easier task , and one far more in accordance with my own feelings , and I think
with yours also , will be to state and illustrate that great principle which he has announced , as forming the basis of all that he has achieved , or aimed at achieving , in morals and legislation , and for the elucidation and application of which he is regarded , by every one whose intellectual and moral attainments qualify them for appreciating that principle , as the foremost among the benefactors of the human race , with which the world has ever yet been blessed .
* That nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters , pain and pleasure , —that these two masters govern us in all we do , in all we say , in all we think , —that every effort we make to throw off our subjection to them will onl y serve to demonstrate and confirm it , —is as certain as the consequence is inevitable ;— .-namely , that it is for these sovereign powers alone to point out what we ought to do , as well as to determine what we
shall do ; that the only actual as well as the only right and proper end of action in every sensitive being , and of course in every individual man , is his own greatest happiness ; that in like manner the only comprehensive and only right and proper end of the social union , or of that aggregate of individual men which constitutes a community , is the greatest happiness of all the members of that community , —the greatest happiness of all of them without exception in as far as possible ; and on every occasion , in which the nature of the case renders the provision of an equal quantity of happiness for every one of them impossible , the greatest happiness of the greatest number of them . This is the great principle which this great philosopher assumed , as the true
Untitled Article
Character ami , Philosophy pf < tike late Jefemff 1 Be nth am . 451
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 451, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/19/
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