Principles of Morals and

Principles of Morals and Legislation/55
dent, that of bodily imperfection; as where by intemperance or negli-
gence an irreparable mischief happens to his person. To the intellectual
part, those of quantity and quality of knowledge, and in some measure
perhaps those of firmness of mind and steadiness. To the moral part, the
bent of his inclinations, the quantity and quality of his moral, religious,
sympathetic, and antipathetic sensibility: to all three branches indis-
criminately, but under the superior control of external occurrences, his
habitual recreations, his property, his means of livelihood, his connexions
in the way of profit and of burthen, and his habits of expense. With
respect indeed to all these points, the influence of education is modified,
in a manner more or less apparent, by that of exterior occurrences; and
in a manner scarcely at all apparent, and altogether out of the reach of
calculation, by the original texture and constitution as well of his body
as of his mind.
XXXIX. 29. Among the external circumstances by which the influ-
ence of education is modified, the principal are those which come under
the head of climate. This circumstance places itself in front, and de-
mands a separate denomination, not merely on account of the magni-
tude of its influence, but also on account of its being conspicuous to
every body, and of its applying indiscriminately to great numbers at a
time. This circumstance depends for its essence upon the situation of
that part of the earth which is in question, with respect to the course
taken by the whole planet in its revolution round the sun: but for its
influence it depends upon the condition of the bodies which compose the
earth’s surface at that part, principally upon the quantities of sensible
heat at different periods, and upon the density, and purity, and dryness
or moisture of the circumambient air. Of the so often mentioned primary
circumstances, there are few of which the production is not influenced
by this secondary one; partly by its manifest effects upon the body;
partly by its less perceptible effects upon the mind. In hot climates men’s
health is apt to be more precarious than in cold: their strength and har-
diness less: their vigour, firmness, and steadiness of mind less: and thence
indirectly their quantity of knowledge: the bent of their inclinations dif-
ferent: most remarkably so in respect of their superior propensity to
sexual enjoyments, and in respect of the earliness of the period at which
that propensity begins to manifest itself: their sensibilities of all kinds
more intense: their habitual occupations savouring more of sloth than of
activity: their radical frame of body less strong, probably, and less hardy:
their radical frame of mind less vigorous, less firm, less steady.

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56/Jeremy Bentham
XL. 30. Another article in the catalogue of secondary circumstances,
is that of race or lineage: the national race or lineage a man issues from.
This circumstance, independently of that of climate, will commonly make
some difference in point of radical frame of mind and body. A man of
negro race, born in France or England, is a very different being, in many
respects, from a man of French or English race. A man of Spanish race,
born in Mexico or Peru, is at the hour of his birth a different sort of
being, in many respects, from a man of the original Mexican or Peru-
vian race. This circumstance, as far as it is distinct from climate, rank,
and education, and from the two just mentioned, operates chiefly through
the medium of moral, religious, sympathetic, and antipathetic biases.
XLI. 31. The last circumstance but one, is that of government: the
government a man lives under at the time in question; or rather that
under which he has been accustomed most to live. This circumstance
operates principally through the medium of education: the magistrate
operating in the character of a tutor upon all the members of the state,
by the direction he gives to their hopes and to their fears. Indeed under a
solicitous and attentive government, the ordinary preceptor, nay even
the parent himself, is but a deputy, as it were, to the magistrate: whose
controlling influence, different in this respect from that of the ordinary
preceptor, dwells with a man to his life’s end. The effects of the peculiar
power of the magistrate are seen more particularly in the influence it
exerts over the quantum and bias of men’s moral, religious, sympa-
thetic, and antipathetic sensibilities. Under a well-constituted, or even
under a well-administered though ill-constituted government, men’s moral
sensibility is commonly stronger, and their moral biases more conform-
able to the dictates of utility: their religious sensibility frequently weaker,
but their religious biases less unconformable to the dictates of utility:
their sympathetic affections more enlarged, directed to the magistrate
more than to small parties or to individuals, and more to the whole
community than to either: their antipathetic sensibilities less violent, as
being more obsequious to the influence of well-directed moral biases,
and less apt to be excited by that of ill-directed religious ones: their
antipathetic biases more conformable to well-directed moral ones, more
apt (in proportion) to be grounded on enlarged and sympathetic than on
narrow and self-regarding affections, and accordingly, upon the whole,
more conformable to the dictates of utility.
XLII. 32. The last circumstance is that of religious profession: the
religious profession a man is of: the religious fraternity of which he is a

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