5 July 1810 4 1

o

Fallacies Ch | | Jephtha's Vow

2

2. Exposure

The more flagrantly absurd any opinion is, the less need there is of punishments and penal laws to restrain men, from the /or the utterance or the/ adoption of it: but if on the question whether to attach or not to attach punishment to the act of uttering a given opinion eventual punishment in a view to the prevention of it /on the view of preventing it/ the only point proper to be considered were the mischeviousness of it supposing it generally entertained and acted upon and not the probability of its being so entertained received and acted upon the opinion that that which would otherwise be wrong could by any such ceremony be converted into right, or that which would otherwise be right converted into wrong would be o the number of those crimes for which the several punishments would require to be reserved.