30 April 1805

Evidence

Introd

Ch. 10 x Capricious Ends

 This to Ch. Capricious Ends Yes Enforced[?] with- Ch. False Ends in general

' Subordinate ends - Compliance with arbitrary maxims the propriety of which being imaginary /undemonstrable/ is gratuitously assumed.

As the legitimate end has its subordinate ends - as the general /[...?]/ propositions expressive /[...?]/ of the general end, include in their embrace the particular propositions expressive of the several particular /correspondent/ ends: - so has the sinister general end /so is it with the sinister end/

The sinister end has for its immediate subordinates, the several particular ends /objects/ consisting in the observance of a countless multitude of maxims, which after having been made by the hands, are the /so many/ objects of the idolatry of the man of law.

/Of/ These maxims had they any real value had they any worth in them when weighed in the scale of utility, the value would consist in this - viz: that the arrangements presented /recommended/ by them were in some assignable way or other, subservient to the ends of justice - But when examined in that view[?] no such subserviency in them can be found. What then is to be done? What is wanting to them in the way of support in point of reason and utility must be made up in prejudice. Accordingly their excellency is to be assumed: and being assumed boldly is to be trumpeted /proclaimed/ clamorously upon all favourable occasions. All attempts - the very idea of enquiring into their intrinsic worth - of bringing them to the test of reason and utility is by every imaginable contrivance to be discountenanced. They exist /are current? therefore they are good: they have been current for a length of time: therefore they are still better: the age in which they began to be current was in comparison of the present a dark[?] and barbarous age: - be it so: they are /they are but/ so much the fitter for setting the law to present times[?]. By any standing /age/, falshood ripens if not into truth, into something better: nonsense ripens, if not into sense, into something more useful and respectable.

The science of ipse[?] dixits[?].