date

21 Jan y. 1810 Parl y. Reform
21 Jan y. 1810

Parl y. Reform

Influence

Ch.2. Influence

7

If this mode of taking a view of a subject were not allowed of viz. viewing it by proxy as it were and through other eyes, it would not be very easy to say what part of the business of life, extraordinary or even ordinary would be able to go forward: and in what degree if in any the condition of the[?] human would be preferable to that of the quadruped race of the irrational part of the animal kingdom.

Not that this observation would of itself be sufficient to justify that part of the definition which is in question /the definition[?], which is the thing objected to/. But what applies directly to the objection is this: of the very matter in question in this case as well as the other a view is by the understanding in question taken: the only difference /difference/ is, that in the one case the view is direct and particular and direct; in the other general, indirect and /oblique [...?], and comparatively/ remote.

But in this case the main question /object of consideration/ is - not the sort of influence by which, in the case in question the man's conduct is determined, but the sort of influence by which it is not determined. To the fulfilment of the obligation in question - to the fulfilment of the condition in question to the due exercise of the trust in question what is necessary is that in the formation of the will by which the conduct is determined, no other will nor so much as any supposition concerning any other will should have had any part: and this condition is equally fulfilled whether of the judgment pronounced the ground was composed of a set of particular reasons or of no other particulars than a mass of authority - intellectual authority, as above described.
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  • Title: [21 Jan y. 1810 Parl y. Reform]
    Description: 21 Jan y. 1810

    Parl y. Reform

    Ch.2. Influence

    '.1

    6

    Objector. Do you admitt then that in the case in question a man's conduct may with propriety be determined by authority? - by intellectual authority, according to the explanation you have just been giving of it?

    Author. Most assuredly I do: and that by its being determined in this manner, not that I recommend this as the universally preferable mode the trust in question is not broken, nor the design of the institution counteracted.

    Objector. But how in this case is the description which you have above been giving /above given by you/ of the obligation attached to the trust conformed to? how in such case can it be said with true[?] that it is by the trustee's own understanding that any view of the matter has been taken?

    Author. {The conformity, you will see, is beyond dispute.} Yes: even in this case you will find that by the trustee's own understanding a view of the matter has even[?] in this case been taken: and that it is by that view, and the report made in consequence by his

    understanding that his will is determined.

    For is it not the work of understanding to form and pronounce a judgment on the strength of another man's? not to speak of that other judgment which to the one in question in many cases is so necessary an accompaniment viz. on the probity of the moral part of the same person's[?] frame[?] /mind/, and not merely of the general strength of the understanding but of the particular strength as applied to the particular subject in hand.
  • Title: [21 Jan y. 1810 Parl y. Reform]
    Description: 21 Jan y. 1810

    Parl y. Reform

    Influence

    Ch.2. Influence

    '.1.

    9

    9

    Of /To/ the influence of will over will any effectual exercise /submission/ /self-exposure/ is as hath been shewn altogether incompatible with the due exercise of this trust: altogether repugnant to the design[?] of its institution the purpose for which it was instituted.

    To any exercise /submission/ of the influence of understanding on understanding no such incompatibility no such repugnance can be objected /imputed/: the case /the only case/ in which any such incompatibility any such repugnance could with reason be imputed is the direct contrary case, viz. if on the occasion in question not to speak of other occasions the influence of understanding on understanding were excluded or endeavoured to be excluded.

    When on a question either of fact or law or fact arguments are heard by a Judge - of what does such hearing consist but this, viz. on the part of the Judge an exposure of his own understanding to whatsoever influence may come to be exercised on it by the understandings of the arguers? the suitors if they plead their own causes, the advocates if they employ advocates?

    So (to come nearer the mark) in the case of such debates as have place in a legislature or other political assembly. What is it that any speaker does in his speech what at any rate does he profess to do, but by the view he gives of the operations of his own understanding and all operations to exercise whatsoever influence it may be in his power to exercise over the understanding of his hearers?
  • Title: [21 Jan y. 1810 Parl y. Reform]
    Description: 21 Jan y. 1810

    Parl y. Reform

    Ch.2. Influence

    '.1.

    5

    5

    question, viz. the person by whose understanding the influence is in the case in question supposed to be exercised being regarded as a person endowed either with an ordinary /average/ degree of wisdom, or with a degree of wisdom ever so much above the average, one inference is /two inferences are/ thence drawn: viz. that this influencing person has reasons, and that those reasons are such as to afford a sufficient justification and warrant for the practical result: viz the course /act/ of conduct engaged in /done[?]/ {by him} or the opinion delivered by him.

    Where it is in the particular or special way that the influence of understanding is exerted on understanding the reasons stand particularized /are specified/ and expressed on the one part, and on the other part are known on the other: where it is only in the general way they are not /only in detail not/ known, but even their existence, i.e. the fact that in the instance /mind/ in question on the occasion in question any reasons whatever applicable to the subject were in existence is not known, is only presumed. In this latter case, one single word authority, stands on the representation of these presumed reasons whatsoever they may be: and it is by authority that the influenced exercised on the understanding in question is said to be exercised. (a)

    Not (a)

    (a) Authority is a term employed moreover in cases /the case/ where the influence exercised is the influence of will over /on/ will: in these cases it is synonymous to power. The authority which a judge exercises over a suitor or over another Judge in subordinate is the influence of will over will: the authority exercised by {over} on the same Judge either by a co-ordinate Judge or by a departed predecessor is the authority of understanding over understanding.