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lire less than the results df pleasure , is good to thd extent of thfe balance in favour of happiness . And happiness and duty are not contraries : in the largest and truest sense they are coincident . All laws—all laws which have for their end the happiness of those concerned * endeavour to make * and in the degree in which they are wise and effective , actually make that for a man ' s happiness which they proclaim to be his duty . That a man ought to sacrifice his happiness to his duty , is a common position , —that such or such a man has sacrificed his happiness to his duty , is a common assertion , arid made the groundwork of admiration . ^ But when happiness and duty are considered in their broadest sense , it will be seen that , in the general tenor of life , the sacrifice of happiness to duty is neither possible nor desirable , —that it cannot have place , —and that if it could , the interests of mankind would not be promoted by it .
* Sacrifice ! sacrifice ! is the demand of the every-day moralist , and sacrifice , taken by itself , is mischievous—and mischievous is the influence that connects morality with sufFering . Morality is the more effective when the least painful . Its associations are cheerfulness and joy—^ -not gloom and misery . The less of happiness is sacrificed , the more of happiness remains . Let it be obtained gratis where it can— -where it cannot be had without sacrifice , let the sacrifice be as small as possible- Where the sacrifice will be great s let it be ascertained that the happiness will be greater . This is the true economy of pleasure—this is the prolific cultivation of virtue .
* In treating of morals it has been the invariable practice hitherto to speak of a man's duty , and nothing more . Yet unless it can be shown that a particular action or course of conduct is for a man ' s happiness , the attempt to prove to him that it is his duty is but a waste of words . Yet with such waste of words has the field of ethics been filled . A man , a moralist , gets into an elbow chair , and pours forth pompous dogmas about duty and duties . Why is he not listened to ? Because every man is thinking about interests . It is a part of his very nature to think first about interests . It is not always that he takes a correct view of his interests . Did he always do that , he would obtain the greatest posstble portion of felicity ; and were every man acting with a correct view to his own interest , to obtain the maximum of attainable happiness , mankind would have reached the millennium of accessible bliss , and the end of morality , the general happiness , would be accomplished . To prove that an immoral action is a miscalculation of self-interest—* to show how erroneous an estimate the vicious man makes of pains and pleasures- —this is the purpose of the sound and intelligent moralist * Unless he can do this , he does nothing ; for that a man should not pursue what he deems conducive to his happiness is in the very nature of things impossible , , - - * There in the like coincidence between selfishness and beijevo *
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461 On the Character and Philosophy of
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 454, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/22/
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