Theory of Legislation (Classic Reprint)

Vli degrees, and what a vast career I have run through, I regret that the labour had not fallen into abler hands; yet I am encouraged to applaud my perseverance, convinced as I am that other wise these manuscripts would for a long time have remained buried in their own bulk, and that the author, always rushing forward, would never have found the leisure nor the courage to give himself up to the ungrateful labour of a general revision. This ardour to produce, and this indifference to publication; this perseverance in the severest labours ;and this disposition to abandon his work at the moment of completion, presents a singularity which needs to be explained. As soon as Bentham had discovered the great divisions, the great classifications of laws, he embraced legislation as a whole, and formed the vast project of treating it in all its parts. He considered it not as composed of detached works, but as forming a single work. He had before his eyes the general chart of the science, and after that model he framed particular charts of all its departments. Hence it follows that the most striking peculiarity of his writings is their perfect correspondence. I have found the earlier ones full of references to works which were merely projected, but of which the divisions, the forms, the principal ideas, existed already in separate tables. It is thus that, having subjected all his materials to a general plan, each branch of legislation occupies its appropriate place, and none is to be found under two divisions. This order necessarily supposes an author who has for a long time considered his subject in all its relations; who masters the whole of it; and who is not influenced by a puerile impatience for renown. I have seen him suspend a work almost finished, and com pose a new one, only to assure himself of the truth of a single proposition which seemed to be doubtful. A p
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)