1821 July 10

Codification Offer

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2 Factitious mischievous

III. Factitious Dignity

In the case /situation/ of him by whom the dignity is conferred - in a word in the case of the Patron of the Dignity - it is in this case that its mischievousness is at the highest pitch. On the dignitary himself it conferrs, if not strictly speaking power at any rate the equivalent of power - a means of influencing will, the good enjoyment of which is independent on good behaviour, and which as shewn in the case of power and opulence in excess is thereby /as such/ affords encouragement and incitement to ill-behaviour exempting a man from the restraint and consequently the suffering attached in a greater or less degree to the exercise of official benevolence in its two opposite aspects positive and negative. On the Patron of the Dignity it conferrs in like manner actual power in possession the enjoyment of which is as above an encouragement to ill behaviour and thence not only as in the other case mischievous, but in a prodigiously higher degree: for in his power is included the sum of all the portions of power possessed by all the several dignitaries possessors of the dignity of which he is patron: and in that same proportion does it give encrease to /magnify/ the power and thence the inclination to pursue personal happiness at the expence of the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

Factitious Dignity is the factitious cause or productive instrument of factious respect.