A lecture delivered over the remains of Jeremy Bentham, Esq / [Southwood Smith].

  • Thomas Southwood Smith
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture delivered over the remains of Jeremy Bentham, Esq / [Southwood Smith]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    state and illustrate the principle to which I have alluded—that great principle, by the application of which he has obtained results that have justly caused him to be regarded as the foremost among the bene¬ factors of the human race with which the world has ever yet been blessed. Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, Pain and Pleasure : these two masters govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think. It is for these sovereign mas¬ ters to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. This their authority is secured in and by our very nature as sentient beings. Sentient beings are impelled to action either by their sensations, or by the copies of their sensations, termed ideas. Sentient beings do and must prefer the state of pleasurable sensation, and the presence of plea¬ surable ideas, to the state of painful sensations and the presence of painful ideas. Sentient beings seek, as the ultimate object and end of all their actions, the attainment of the former and the avoidance of the latter. Man is governed by the same law as all other sentient creatures. The only actual, as well as the only right and proper end of action, in every indi¬ vidual man, is the ultimate attainment of his own greatest happiness: the all-comprehensive, as well as the only right and proper end of the social union, or i
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