nd [wm 1813]

Government 1 Monarchy

Ch 1 Probity -

1

1

§ 1.

In the article of appropriate probity the deficiency essentially attached to this situation will be sufficiently manifest. But the cause of it is to be looked for - not so much in the strength of the sinister interests as in the strength of the situation by which in the pursuit of the correspondent gratifications a man stands exempted in so great a degree from all those checks which apply to inferior situations.

In this situation, as in every other, a man has two sorts of interest - one peculiar to himself, the other which belongs to him in common with all the other members of the community whatever it be: his private interest, & his share in universal d o. His private interest he can not pursue & promote in such sort as to obtain for himself a share in the good things /the matter of felicity/ of this world greater than the average share, otherwise than at the expence of the universal interest: - lessening thereby the average share of every other member.

He has therefore an interest which coincides with the universal {interest} and he has an interest which acts in opposition to, and leads him to make sacrifice of the universal interest.