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    man were a solitary individual on the earth , will not suffice for him , surrounded as he is by members of the same species , whose happiness is worth as much as his own , and must not be sacrificed by him in the pursuit of his own . May he not be under an obligation to relinquish attainable pleasures for the sake of others ?

    The answer to this question dives at once into the profoundest phenomena of human nature , without a careful attention to which it is scarcely possible not to feel the language in which it must be conveyed to be repulsive . That man , when placed amid his fellows , must abandon many enjoyments which in a solitary condition he would retain , is unquestionable ; but that he thug suffers

    a deduction from his felicity , is not true ; for his loss is far more than replaced by the exercise of those generous affections which his social position creates . It is not benevolence to be miserable in his efforts for others , to feel it a sacrifice and pain to act in their behalf , and think that it would have been pleasanter to have taken no concern in their interests ; but to accept their pleasures as his

    own best good , and loathe the misnamed ease which might be purchased by their sufferings . Disinterestedness does not consist in the annihilation of happiness , but in the acceptance of sympathetic in the place of individual enjoyment ; and if moralists were to call on a man to relinquish personal pleasures , for which no compensation presented itself in any possible satisfactions of internal benevolence or outward recompense , the call would infallibly be

    made in vain ; no case of obligation can be made out , no instrument exists for acting on the will . The social relations of a human being do not then introduce any alteration in our criterion ; they create many new virtues , but not any which is attended with preponderant pain ; they still leave all actions and qualities , which are accompanied by such a result , out of the pale of obligation , and in the list , of vices

    -But suppose that an agent ' s happiness is incompatible with the will of God , does his duty lie on the side of his own enjoyment , or of the Divine command ? The question supposes the Creator to be in hostility to the happiness of his creatures , and we mi ^ ht leave the answer to those who are afflicted by a belief in nis malevolence . It should , however , be observed , that with such

    notions of Deity , morality and religion become absolutely irreconcilable . If God commands a man to take to himself a quantity of misery , he will ask , ' Why should I obey V nor can any one find a reason for his obedience , except the fear of greater misery if he refuses . Remove this fear , attach a balance of enjoyot

    ment to the violation of a Divine direction , and every ground submission vanishes : morality becomes blasphemous , and says ' Pay no attention to God ; why should you put yourself into hands that will only make you wretched , when a happier part is in your power ? ' The devil , in apprehension of whom sontf Christians live , is neither more nor less than a god of this malig-

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    614 Bentham * * Deontology .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1834, page 614, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2637/page/10/