Principles of Morals and

Principles of Morals and Legislation/53
of intellectual powers, and firmness of mind, she is commonly inferior:
moral, religious, sympathetic, and antipathetic sensibility are commonly
stronger in her than in the male. The quality of her knowledge, and the
bent of her inclinations, are commonly in many respects different. Her
moral biases are also, in certain respects, remarkably different: chastity,
modesty, and delicacy, for instance, are prized more than courage in a
woman: courage, more than any of those qualities, in a man. The reli-
gious biases in the two sexes are not apt to be remarkably different;
except that the female is rather more inclined than the male to supersti-
tion; that is, to observances not dictated by the principle of utility; a
difference that may be pretty well accounted for by some of the before-
mentioned circumstances. Her sympathetic biases are in many respects
different; for her own offspring all their lives long, and for children in
general while young, her affection is commonly stronger than that of the
male. Her affections are apt to be less enlarged: seldom expanding them-
selves so much as to take in the welfare of her country in general, much
less that of mankind, or the whole sensitive creation: seldom embracing
any extensive class or division, even of her own countrymen, unless it
be in virtue of her sympathy for some particular individuals that belong
to it. In general, her antipathetic, as well as sympathetic biases are apt
to be less conformable to the principle of utility than those of the male;
owing chiefly to some deficiency in point of knowledge, discernment,
and comprehension. Her habitual occupations of the amusing kind are
apt to be in many respects different from those of the male. With regard
to her connexions in the way of sympathy, there can be no difference. In
point of pecuniary circumstances, according to the customs of perhaps
all countries, she is in general less independent.
XXXVI. 26. Age is of course divided into divers periods, of which
the number and limits are by no means uniformly ascertained. One might
distinguish it, for the present purpose, into, 1. Infancy. 2. Adolescence.
3. Youth. 4. Maturity. 5. Decline. 6. Decrepitude. It were lost time to
stop on the present occasion to examine it at each period, and to observe
the indications it gives, with respect to the several primary circumstances
just reviewed. Infancy and decrepitude are commonly inferior to the
other periods, in point of health, strength, hardiness, and so forth. In
infancy, on the part of the female, the imperfections of that sex are
enhanced: on the part of the male, imperfections take place mostly simi-
lar in quality, but greater in quantity, to those attending the states of
adolescence, youth, and maturity in the female. In the stage of decrepi-

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54/Jeremy Bentham
tude both sexes relapse into many of the imperfections of infancy. The
generality of these observations may easily be corrected upon a particu-
lar review.
XXXVII. 27. Station, or rank in life, is a circumstance, that, among
a civilized people, will commonly undergo a multiplicity of variations.
Cæteris Paribus, the quantum of sensibility appears to be greater in the
higher ranks of men than in the lower. The primary circumstances in
respect of which this secondary circumstance is apt to induce or indi-
cate a difference, seem principally to be as follows: 1. Quantity and
Quality of knowledge. 2. Strength of mind. 3. Bent of inclination. 4.
Moral sensibility. 5. Moral biases. 6. Religious sensibility. 7. Religious
biases. 8. Sympathetic sensibility. 9. Sympathetic biases. 10. Antipa-
thetic sensibility. 11. Antipathetic biases. 12. Habitual occupations. 13.
Nature and productiveness of a man’s means of livelihood. 14.
Connexions importing profit. 15. Habit of expense. 16. Connexions
importing burthen. A man of a certain rank will frequently have a num-
ber of dependents besides those whose dependency is the result of natu-
ral relationship. As to health, strength, and hardiness, if rank has any
influence on these circumstances, it is but in a remote way chiefly by the
influence it may have on its habitual occupations.
XXXVIII. 28. The influence of education is still more extensive.
Education stands upon a footing somewhat different from that of the
circumstances of age, sex, and rank. These words, though the influence
of the circumstances they respectively denote exerts itself principally, if
not entirely, through the medium of certain of the primary circumstances
before mentioned, present, however, each of them a circumstance which
has a separate existence of itself. This is not the case with the word
education: which means nothing any farther than as it serves to call up
to view some one or more of those primary circumstances. Education
may be distinguished into physical and mental; the education of the
body and that of the mind: mental, again, into intellectual and moral; the
culture of the understanding, and the culture of the affections. The edu-
cation a man receives, is given to him partly by others, partly by him-
self. By education then nothing more can be expressed than the condi-
tion a man is in in respect of those primary circumstances, as resulting
partly from the management and contrivance of others, principally of
those who in the early periods of his life have had dominion over him,
partly from his own. To the physical part of his education, belong the
circumstances of health, strength, and hardiness: sometimes, by acci-

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