[clx. 244]

1822 June 28

Constitut. Code

Securities for I Moral

Ch Factitious Dignity excl

On the other hand /But/ that which never has been disputed, nor seems likely to be in any direct way disputed is - that in each individual instance of the reward conferred the quantity ought to bear a correct proportion to the quantity of the service that is the quantity of happiness /felicity/ actually or probably produced by the service

Moreover that at any rate the reward ought to be a proportioned /in proportion/ between service and service: in so much as /that/ as between two services the one productive /pregnant/ of more good than the other, the reward given for that which is productive of least good ought not to be so great as the reward given for that which is productive of the greatest quantity of good: much less still greater

If there were a shape in which the collection of reward did not involve in it the imposition of tax in that shape the matter of reward might be given blindfold and in short ought so to be: it should be given not to this or that individual only or this or that aggregate of individuals but to all mankind without reserve. For who is the individual who by one being endowed with an ordinary store of benevolence would not on every occasion be made more happy if by the same operation no other were made less happy?

But there exists not /scarcely exists/ that shape or that occasion on which the matter of reward can be known to be conferred by the act of government without its involving in itself /its composition/ the evil of a tax: certainly if there be any such shape, factitious dignity is not that shape.