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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: Law

Elogia—Locke, Priestley, Beccaria, Johnson. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 10 (Memoirs Part I and Correspondence) [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 10.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

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Elogia—Locke, Priestley, Beccaria, Johnson.

“O Locke! first master of intellectual truth! without whom those who have taught me would have been as nothing! let thy blest spirit, if now it looketh down upon the affairs of men, acknowledge my obedience to the first great lesson of thy life, in the assertion of independence, and make its report in my favour to the Throne, the Judgment-seat above.

“Priestley was the first (unless it was Beccaria* ) who taught my lips to pronounce this sacred truth:—That the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.

“Johnson is the pompous vamper of commonplace morality—of phrases often trite without being true.

“Toureil measured out his academic periods in defence of torture.”

[* ] The expression is used by Beccaria in the Introduction to his Essay on Crimes and Punishments, where he condemns the laws made by passion and ignorance as not having—questo punto in vista, La massima felicità divisa nel maggior numero (this end in view,—The greatest happiness divided among the greatest number.)—The italics are the author’s.