The Sun.
London, England, 1834-01-20 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

BENTHAM'S DEONTOLY. Br BowBINO.
2 VOLS. SVO. LONGMAN AND CO.

" No man is a prophet in his own country !"
Never was this truth more applicable than to
Bentham. Whilst his works, translated into
French, Spanish, and German, were in high
repute and extensive circulation in France, Bel-
gium, Spain, and Germany—whilst their learned
and amiable author was reverenced by the Libe-
rals of the European Continent, who applied to
him for constitutions, or codes of laws, and
even absolute sovereigns corresponded with him
for the purpose of obtaining information as to
the possibility of reconciling the reforms de-
manded by the spirit of the age with their own
ideas of authority, Bentham was comparatively
unknown in his own country. Nor was this
from any false modesty on his part ; for he
wrote, and, having a good fortune, published
al his own expense ; but his books sold slowly,
and it never became the fashion with his coun-
trymen during his life-time to regard him as a
sage and a philosopher. The few who knew
Bentham thoroughly, respected and loved him ;
they admired the profundity of his intellect, and
forgot, in the excellence of his heart and the
amiableness of his deportment, the eccentricity
which, in some degree, kept up an estrangement
between him and the world. Among those
who knew and admired Bentham was the
present Lord Chancellor. That illustrious man
passed many evenings with the utilitarian at his
house in Queen-square, where after dining to-
gether in the library, Bentham on one side,
and Brougham, with his bottle of Burgundy
on the other, one of Bentham's secretaries at
the head of the table and another at the foot,
if there can be said to be head and foot to a
perfect square, the table and the chairs of the
persons dining raised on a platform almost
above the head of the neatly dressed female—
for Bentham had no male servant—who waited,
with an organ in one part of the room, on which
our friend D—,l3entham's secretary, invariably
played an air, ere the party sat down to dinner—
where, as we were saying, they discoursed on phi-
losophy, on law, and on the means of bettering
the general condition of man. It can hardly be
necessary to say, that Bentham was a great man
when we inform the reader that the greatest man
of the age now breathing—the Chancellor
Brougham—loved and admired him. Lord
Brougham saw what a mine of intellectual
wealth was before him, and he never left it
without adding to his own vast stores. Lord
Brougham called the old man father, and was
proud to be considered his disciple and son.
Need we say more ? Bentham must indeed
have been a truly great man.
It is pretty well known, we believe, that Ben-
tham, who lived to be more than an octogena-
rian without growing feeble in intellect—the
productions of his pen until within a few clays of
his death being as vigorous as those which he
had written twenty years hefore—left a provision
in his will for the publication of his works by
his valued friend Dr. Bowring, who closed the
eyes of the good philosopher, and who is well
calculated to superintend and direct the means
of keeping alive his fame. The work now
before us is the first, or one of the first,
of the unpublished works of Bentham which
Dr. Bowring has prepared for the press. It
is called "Deontology" for the reasons stated
by the author in one of the extracts which
we subjoin, and is divided into two parts
—the first treating of the theory and
the second of the practice of the social princi-
ples. From the nature of the work it would be
difficult to offer an analysis of it in this article,
and we trust such a labour is unnecessary, as
most persons will be disposed to purchase a
work, the object of which is to instruct men in
the art of doing good to others, and insuring
the peace of their own minds. The style is rather
quaint, but not disagreeably so, and there is this
advantage in it, that those who knew not Ben-
tham when living, may learn from his works
what he was. He wrote as he spoke, without
preparation—without effort, for although every
line is a maxim, he aimed not at being a
maxim writer. Those who knew Bentham have
only to read his works, and they will look up
expecting to behold the man. Dr. Bowring, in
a beautiful preface to the " Deontology" says :
" This work was in the course of preparation for the
press when its great Author's earthly labours were sud-
denly closed. He had, up to the latest period of his exist-
ence, been accustomed to record the desultory thoughts
which occurred to his mind 9n the must important subject
of which the volume treats ; and I bad the advantage, in
my intimate communion with him, of seeking such quid•
ance from him as was necessary for the understanding and
arrangement of the mass of undigested fragments which be
from time to time placed in my hands. It was a happy
and an interesting task to follow him through those inves-
tigations in which benevolence and wisdom were mutual
handmaids,—and emphatic indeed was the ins•ruction
which was so beautifully exemplified in every thought, and
word, and action of the Instructor. I took up my pen with
alacrity—l pursued my task with ever-new delight—l ended
it with feelings of gloom, for which I can find no adequate
expression. The charm is gone—the voice is silenced
which conducted and gladdened me on my way. These
pages as I turn them over seem to have the solemnity of a
sepulchral echo. I shall find a fitter occasion for speaking,
of him who suggested them, who was himself the vir-
tuous man he drew,'—and I deliver them to the world,—
keeping
1 first offering in discharge of those duties which have
friend and
and to my care."
devolved upon me as the legatee of those literary treasures
" The extreme master, has confi led to my
In the introducton the Doctor says :
ntrast that to what is denominated indifference of their extraordinary author
minent literary fame, stands out in pro.
tated to expreea anxiety which he has never hest-
! thait his opinions might go careering
of digging out and through the world
will forget itsgb"enar
e has always been rather desirous
with his own refininginla the ore than of stamping it
him who must and will exercise futurity superscription.' Not that
.tor, or fail in honour due to
condition. Of Bentharn's a mighty influence on its
which Milton proclaimed writings,
on that may fitly be said
volumes, that it numbered hi lie, of his almost forgotten
doctrnes have strongly rnovedg the
timeaning downwards
Our author's
their scoutse is rapidly opening and ;,"!ly"so.phic few, and
who
yhtahive insulted
among the improving many. Scoffers
him in his progress, but where is the sage
or who having listened has been wanting °r as scorned,
gratitude to the man who first made legislationevaerseel'ecne an;tl,
We shall conclude with a few extracts frome.e
the work.
" DEONTOLOGY EXPLAINED.— Deontology is derived from
the Greek words, '7O OE', (that which is proper) and
IVY/La, knowledge—meaning the knowledge of what is
,ight or proper; and it is here specially applied to the
subject of morals, or that part of the field of action which