[lxxxiv. 88]

1822 Jany 14

Codification Proposal

?5 Admission Universal

The task ungracious

Under these circumstances so ungracious is this part of the the task, that but for one resource it might have been abandoned as hopeless. The inaptitude which you see charged, it is not for the purpose of the argument necessary that you should admitt it to have place in your own individual instance. For the purpose of the argument, what is quite sufficient is © that in a sufficient degree sufficient to warrant the adoption of the proposed measure you admitt the probability of it on the part of the majority /greater number/ of those by whom the situation in which you are placed is filled.

Of this exposure sinister interest and the sure predominance of it to a greater or less degree in his breast and conduct, be the man who he may, scarcely can he be expected to confess the existence of it in himself, even even to himself: much less in the face of the public