date

1817 Aug. 26 Sextus Ch. Sexual
1817 Aug. 26

Sextus

Ch. Sexual, best

Ch. І І

JB notes at top of page: ‘1. Gratification more intense. Value in respect of

intensity: in respect of some part of the gratification more lasting: in

respect of the most intense, frequently reported[?]: value in magnitude.

‘2. The only one obtainable without expence: thus, the most pure. Value in

respect of purity

‘3. The only one therefore that can be enjoyed by the most indigent, and

thence by the greatest number - Value in extent.

‘4. With the purity of the pleasure compare the impurity of drunkenness.

‘5. The superiority in value the cause of the superior intensity of the

opposition made to it.’

The sexual appetite more conducive to happiness than any other sensual

appetite / than any other /.

At the hands of the two classes of false / ascetic / moralists distinguished by

Bentham - viz. the religious and the philosophical the pleasures of the sexual

appetite have experienced a more vehement opposition / hostility / than has been

opposed to any other pleasures / class / / to any other source of happiness /. Why?

Even for this very reason / cause /: that of this class / species / of pleasure

derived from the source the value has been found greater than

that derived from any one other source.

To / In the eyes / the religious ascetic, whose object is the barter of present

pleasure / welfare / for future welfare in a life to come, this being the greatest of

all pleasures the sacrifice of it is the greatest of all sacrifices: in the species

of traffic in question this commodity will go further than any other: greater

quantity of celestial pleasure, exemption from a greater quantity of infernal torture

is to be purchased by it, than by any other article which man has at command and

capable of being employed for this purpose / in this branch of trade /.

So likewise In the eyes of the philosophical ascetic, whose object is or rather was

- for the race can scarcely now be said to have any existence the gratification of

the passions of pride and vanity, the pleasures of the popular or moral or popular

sanction: carried to an extraordinary degree of intensity. The means by / through /

which he aspires to this enjoyment are the display of a force of mind superior to any

which any other person is capable of displaying. The American savage, whose pride is

gratified by the ability to preserve an appearance of insensibility under an

intensity of torture under which any other would sink, is the ascetic philosopher of

modern times.
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  • Title: [1817 Aug. 26. Sextus Ch. Sexual]
    Description: 1817 Aug. 26.

    Sextus

    Ch. Sexual best

    The order in which on the present occasion, for the purpose of the present comparison

    and trial the universal elements of value will most commodiously be brought to view

    is the reverse of that in which for the purpose of explanation and instruction the

    case required them to be presented to view by that philosopher / instructor of

    mankind /. For there it is that the relative value will be presented to view in a /

    the plainest / manner the plainest manner in a manner / point of view / the clearest

    and freest from dispute.

    The elements in question are those of extent and purity: purity and extent: for

    there do those elements require to be brought to view together / in company /, the

    one in the character of an effect, the other in the character of its cause. It is

    because in the only appropriate and intelligible sense of the word pure when applied to such a subject the pleasure of the sexual appetite is

    of all pleasures of the sensual appetite the most pure that it is of all pleasures

    the most extensive. Aeque pauperibus prodest, locupletibus

    aequé. Horace, Epistulae I. i. 25. It is equally within

    the reach of rich and poor: and in the account of pleasures of the sensual appetite

    it is the only item that is so of which this equality can be predicated.

    To every other modification of sensual pleasure belongs an appropriate instrument

    without which it can not be reaped. Of this instrument the procurement is necessarily

    attended with expence. But expence is privation: and that privation pain: and in this

    pain may be seen the action in proportion to the magnitude and value of which the

    pleasure which can not be purchased but by means of that expence, is proportionably

    impure. Such is obviously the case with the pleasures of the board and those of the

    bottle.
  • Title: [1817 Aug. 26 Sextus Ch. Sexual]
    Description: 1817 Aug. 26

    Sextus

    Ch. Sexual best

    To Bentham it is that we are indebted for an accurate and the only accurate mode of

    taking measure / measure / of the value of the elements of happiness / of value in

    the case / account / of pain and pleasure / - of the value of a mode / modification /

    of pleasure and of a mode of pain and thence of the advantage of being exempt from it. By this means objects till now / hitherto /

    regarded as unmeasurable - as unsusceptible of mensuration may be measured with a

    degree of precision and correctness approaching to mechanical.

    Intensity, duration (making together magnitude) certainty, propinquity, fecundity,

    purity extent - in these as applied to pleasure and pain may be seen the elements and

    all the elements of the value capable of being justly ascribed to any one lot of

    pleasure or pain as designated by any one appellation, and considered in respect of

    the utmost extent it is capable of occupying in the field of human society.

    In these may be seen all the possible elements / elementary parts / of value as

    applied to any one species or […?] of pain or pleasure: in the aggregate of these may

    accordingly be seen a common standard of reference - a common standard / a standard

    of comparative value / by means of which a measure may be taken of the value of the

    value of each to the value of every other.
  • Title: [31 Aug 1811 1 Sept Jug. Util]
    Description: 31 Aug 1811 1 Sept

    Jug. Util

    B.II Ch. 5[6?] +

    1

    Ch. 5. Mischief 4 Tolling pleasure

    I. Forcing man from innoxious into noxious gratification. 1. [...?] 2. Adultery. 3. [...?] and improvident marriage.

    II. Antipathy to sexual irregularity [...?] by [...?].

    Ch.5 [6?] Mischief the 3 rd /or 4 th./ Depriving men of pleasure.

    There are two ways of doing a man mischief; diminishing /taking from/ the sum of his pleasure, adding to the sum of his pains.

    If in the one way /shape/ that which is done to a man is not mischief, neither is it in the other.

    Pleasure it is true is not susceptible of so great an intensity or duration as pain is—and therefore by diminishing the sum of his pleasure the greatest mischief capable of being done to him is not so great as the greatest that is capable of being done to him by adding to the sum of his pains. But pleasures are not wanting for the /a/ bare chance of which a man is content not only to exercise himself, to the chance of, but immediately and to a certainty to take upon him very acute pains. The passion[?] that breaks through iron when in bars, fears not to encounter it when sharpened into swords.

    If no mischief can be done to a man by depriving him of pleasure neither /can/ mischief be done to him by depriving him of money. If no mischief be done by depriving him of a pleasure, neither /can/ is mischief /be/ done to him by depriving him of the money with which he was about to purchase it. Marginal summaries copied at 29,807 fo.199.

    1.fuller2013-08-27T16:15:00

    Mischief 3. Tolling pleasure. If there be not pleasure, neither is there pain.

    2.

    Conceditur pleasure not susceptible of so much intensity or duration as pain. Thence by tolling pleasure greatest quantity of mischief producable is not equal to d o by producing pain. Yet there are pleasures greater than great pains for but the chance of the pleasures men take upon them the pain (iron bars—swords).

    3.

    No mischief done by depriving a man of pleasure, neither d o by d o of the money viz. by which he could have bought the pleasure.