Principles of Morals and

30/Jeremy Bentham
find abundant proofs in the sequel of this work. It behoves him, there-
fore, to have them continually before his eyes; and that under such a
name as exhibits the relation they bear to his own purposes and designs.

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Chapter IV: Value of a Lot of Pleasure or Pain,
How to be Measured
I. Pleasures then, and the avoidance of pains, are the ends that the legis-
lator has in view; it behoves him therefore to understand their value.
Pleasures and pains are the instruments he has to work with: it behoves
him therefore to understand their force, which is again, in other words,
their value.
II. To a person considered by himself, the value of a pleasure or
pain considered by itself, will be greater or less, according to the four
following circumstances:
1. Its intensity.
2. Its duration.
3. Its certainty or uncertainty.
4. Its propinquity or remoteness.
III. These are the circumstances which are to be considered in esti-
mating a pleasure or a pain considered each of them by itself. But when
the value of any pleasure or pain is considered for the purpose of esti-
mating the tendency of any act by which it is produced, there are two
other circumstances to be taken into the account; these are,
5. Its fecundity, or the chance it has of being followed by sensations
of the same kind: that is, pleasures, if it be a pleasure: pains, if it be a
pain.
6. Its purity, or the chance it has of not being followed by sensations
of the opposite kind: that is, pains, if it be a pleasure: pleasures, if it be
a pain.
These two last, however, are in strictness scarcely to be deemed
properties of the pleasure or the pain itself; they are not, therefore, in

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32/Jeremy Bentham
strictness to be taken into the account of the value of that pleasure or
that pain. They are in strictness to be deemed properties only of the act,
or other event, by which such pleasure or pain has been produced; and
accordingly are only to be taken into the account of the tendency of such
act or such event.
IV. To a number of persons, with reference to each of whom to the
value of a pleasure or a pain is considered, it will be greater or less,
according to seven circumstances: to wit, the six preceding ones; viz.,
1. Its intensity.
2. Its duration.
3. Its certainty or uncertainty.
4. Its propinquity or remoteness.
5. Its fecundity.
6. Its purity.
And one other; to wit:
7. Its extent; that is, the number of persons to whom it extends; or
(in other words) who are affected by it.
V. To take an exact account then of the general tendency of any act,
by which the interests of a community are affected, proceed as follows.
Begin with any one person of those whose interests seem most immedi-
ately to be affected by it: and take an account,
1. Of the value of each distinguishable pleasure which appears to
be produced by it in the first instance.
2. Of the value of each pain which appears to be produced by it in
the first instance.
3. Of the value of each pleasure which appears to be produced by it
after the first. This constitutes the fecundity of the first pleasure and the
impurity of the first pain.
4. Of the value of each pain which appears to be produced by it
after the first. This constitutes the fecundity of the first pain, and the
impurity of the first pleasure.
5. Sum up all the values of all the pleasures on the one side, and
those of all the pains on the other. The balance, if it be on the side of
pleasure, will give the good tendency of the act upon the whole, with
respect to the interests of that individual person; if on the side of pain,
the bad tendency of it upon the whole.
6. Take an account of the number of persons whose interests appear
to be concerned; and repeat the above process with respect to each. Sum
up the numbers expressive of the degrees of good tendency, which the

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Principles of Morals and Legislation/33
act has, with respect to each individual, in regard to whom the tendency
of it is good upon the whole: do this again with respect to each indi-
vidual, in regard to whom the tendency of it is good upon the whole: do
this again with respect to each individual, in regard to whom the ten-
dency of it is bad upon the whole. Take the balance which if on the side
of pleasure, will give the general good tendency of the act, with respect
to the total number or community of individuals concerned; if on the
side of pain,the general evil tendency, with respect to the same commu-
nity.
VI. It is not to be expected that this process should be strictly pur-
sued previously to every moral judgment, or to every legislative or judi-
cial operation. It may, however, be always kept in view: and as near as
the process actually pursued on these occasions approaches to it, so
near will such process approach to the character of an exact one.
VII. The same process is alike applicable to pleasure and pain, in
whatever shape they appear: and by whatever denomination they are
distinguished: to pleasure, whether it be called good (which is properly
the cause or instrument of pleasure) or profit (which is distant pleasure,
or the cause or instrument of, distant pleasure,) or convenience, or ad-
vantage, benefit, emolument, happiness, and so forth: to pain, whether
it be called evil, (which corresponds to good) or mischief, or inconve-
nience. or disadvantage, or loss, or unhappiness, and so forth.
VIII. Nor is this a novel and unwarranted, any more than it is a
useless theory. In all this there is nothing but what the practice of man-
kind, wheresoever they have a clear view of their own interest, is per-
fectly conformable to. An article of property, an estate in land, for in-
stance, is valuable, on what account? On account of the pleasures of all
kinds which it enables a man to produce, and what comes to the same
thing the pains of all kinds which it enables him to avert. But the value
of such an article of property is universally understood to rise or fall
according to the length or shortness of the time which a man has in it:
the certainty or uncertainty of its coming into possession: and the near-
ness or remoteness of the time at which, if at all, it is to come into
possession. As to the intensity of the pleasures which a man may derive
from it, this is never thought of, because it depends upon the use which
each particular person may come to make of it; which cannot be esti-
mated till the particular pleasures he may come to derive from it, or the
particular pains he may come to exclude by means of it, are brought to
view. For the same reason, neither does he think of the fecundity or

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