16 Feb 1814

Jug. Util.

I. Sub. Rev

Ch.3. Sanction inefficient.

+ Quere (21 Aug 1815) ought not the inefficiency to good purposes be postponed to the efficiency to bad ones?

Potent as you say it is to do evil, how can it be thus impotent (it may be asked) to do good? +

The pains of hell if they suffice not to fill the whole expanse of life with perpetual bitterness viz. in the shape of pain of apprehension, still less will they suffice in any tolerable /considerable/ degree to the purpose of salutary restraint in the shape of deterrative punishment. To this latter purpose they can not operate with effect at any other time /conjunction/ than when the temptation to transgress is present and /acting/ operating. But this is exactly the time at which they experience a /find themselves opposed by/ counterforce which in the general heat /tenor/ of life is not present.

Future punishment will naturally be less efficient to the purpose of occasional and salutary restraint than to that of habitual and useless terror and misery.