JB_126_034.xml

Title: [25 Sep. 1809 Parl y Reform]

Description: 25 Sep. 1809

Parl y Reform

B.I. Necessity

'. Soil[?] how prepared

Tests

11

So far then as he succeeds in any such endeavour so to debilitate and deprave his own understanding, in so far is his understanding at the command of his will - in so far has he it in his power to believe any thing that he pleases. And that to no inconsiderable degree the exertions made in this lure of self-deception and self-depravation are successful is a point on which unfortunately there can be no room for doubt.

But, be the opinion what it may /if/, if it be not of the number of those which are self-evident to all mankind, a result, producible with much more certainty as well as with much more care than the /a man's/ really entertaining it, is: the /his/ professing to entertain it: the professing to entertain /declaration made of his entertaining/ /a declaration made that he entertains/ it made, for example, by the repetition /pronuntiation/ or signature of a formulary drawn up for that purpose.

JB_126_033.xml

Title: [24 Sep. 1809 Parl y Reform]

Description: 24 Sep. 1809

Parl y Reform

B.I. Necessity

'. Soil[?] how prepared

Tests

10

Whatever may have been the design of it, the effect of this declaration in its /the/ professed character of a test, may be set down as next to nothing.

{{two /Certain/ other shapes may be mentioned in which the effect of it is but too incontestable.}

1. As a security for an conclusive evidence of his really entertaining the opinion in question it amounts to next to nothing.

What is made his interest is to profess to entertain it.

What is or is not made his interest is - really to entertain it.}

As to the entertainment of this or that opinion, if it could /can/ be made, and really were made, his interest to entertain it /such opinion/, in what respect would he be the nearer to the entertaining it? Would it be in his power? Has a man, any man, has he it in his power to believe any thing he pleases? The understanding is it thus completely and instantaneously at the command of the will?

Yes and No: - two things, and two only can he do towards bringing to the purpose /with reference to the great[?] opinion/ in question his understanding into the state desired by his will. One is, to glue /rivet/ /point and fix/ his attention to /upon/ every consideration tending to represent the alledged fact in question as true: the other is, to keep the door of his conception shut - inexorably shut - against every consideration the tendency of which is seen to be to represent the fact as improbable or not true.

But in proportion as he habituates /succeeds in habituating/ himself to such a mode of dealing, in that same proportion he succeeds in debilitating and depraving that part of his mental frame: he habituates himself to the operation of partial judgment, of wilful error, or habit which so far as a man's conduct towards himself is influenced by it is folly; in so far as conduct towards others is influenced by it is injustice.

JB_126_048.xml

Title: [27 Sep. 1809 Parl y Reform]

Description: 27 Sep. 1809

Parl y Reform

B.I. Necessity

'. Soil how prepared

Tests

' Tests imperito[?] and press enslavement

after 12

1

1

'. Parallel Relation between the exaction /imposition/ of tests and the enslavement of the press.

This tyranny /Tyranny in this shape/ (this force upon consciences) is exactly of a piece with that which aims at the instrument of the press.

It is subservient to the same ends: the prevention of intellectual improvement, the prevention of moral improvement: the securing upon the largest scale the sacrifice of the interest of the many to the interest of the few, by the hands and for the benefit of the few: the suppression of all useful truth, the propagation of all pernicious falshood: the exercise /extension and duration[?] taken into the account/ of self-profitable, self-serving wickedness upon the largest possible and imaginable scale; the propitiation of the maximum of imbicillity with its consequences, and the maximum of moral depravity among the greatest possible number, for the greatest possible length of time, for the benefit of the few, in the shape of undue emolument if possible, and to the greatest extent /amount/ possible, in the shape of undue reputation at any rate, and of undue and misexercised /misemployed/ power.

It is exercised as far as occasion serves by the same hands: and the same frame of mind which disposes a man to exercise /for the exercise of/ tyranny in the one shape disposes him for the exercise of it in the other shape. The same man /mind/ whose delight would be in the robes /habit/ of a lawyer /judge/ to return or punish to destruction every man who should presume to call in question the fitness of any person placed by whatever hand in a high situation, would in the habit of a priest or with the soul of a priest in his bosom find congenial delight in forcing into men's mouths the /the sort of/ drinking[??] horn invented for administering tests. Happen what will the tyrant has not lost[?] his labour. The poison is it rejected? a man of virtue is punished, excluded from his share in the common benefit of society vitious[?] man[?] exempted from the pressure of his controuling hand, and society itself excluded from /deprived of/ the benefit of his health[?]-inspiring influence