Principles of Morals and

Principles of Morals and Legislation/217
details, it would have ceased to be so, there I have taken care always to
stop: and thence it is that it has come to be so much more particular in
the class of offences against individuals, than in any of the other classes.
One use then of this arrangement, if it should be found to have been
properly conducted, will be its serving to point out in what it is that the
legal interests of all countries agree, and in what it is that they are liable
to differ: how far a rule that is proper for one, will serve, and how far it
will not serve, for another. That the legal interests of different ages and
countries have nothing in common, and that they have every thing, are
suppositions equally distant from the truth.
LVII. A natural method, such as it hath been here attempted to ex-
hibit, seems to possess four capital advantages; not to mention others of
inferior note. In the first place, it affords such assistance to the appre-
hension and to the memory, as those faculties would in vain look for in
any technical arrangement. That arrangement of the objects of any sci-
ence may, it should seem, be termed a natural one, which takes such
properties to characterise them by, as men in general are, by the com-
mon constitution of man’s nature, independently of any accidental im-
pressions they may have received from the influence of any local or
other particular causes, accustomed to attend to: such, in a word, as
naturally, that is readily and at first sight, engage, and firmly fix, the
attention of any one to whom they have once been pointed out. Now by
what other means should an object engage or fix a man’s attention,
unless by interesting him? and what circumstance belonging to any ac-
tion can be more interesting, or rather what other circumstance belong-
ing to it can be at all interesting to him, than that of the influence it
promises to have on his own happiness, and the happiness of those who
are about him? By what other mark then should he more easily find the
place which any offence occupies in the system, or by what other clue
should he more readily recall it?
LVIII. In the next place, it not only gives at first glance a general
intimation of the nature of each division of offences, in as far as that
nature is determined by some one characteristic property, but it gives
room for a number of general propositions to be formed concerning the
particular offences that come under that division, in such manner as to
exhibit a variety of other properties that may belong to them in com-
mon. It gives room therefore, for the framing of a number of proposi-
tions concerning them, which, though very general, because predicated
of a great number of articles, shall be as generally true.

---

218/Jeremy Bentham
LIX. In the third place, it is so contrived, that the very place which
any offence is made to occupy, suggests the reason of its being put
there. It serves to indicate not only that such and such acts are made
offences, but why they ought to be. By this means, while it addresses
itself to the understanding, it recommends itself in some measure to the
affections. By the intimation it gives of the nature and tendency of each
obnoxious act, it accounts for, and in some measure vindicates, the treat-
ment which it may be thought proper to bestow upon that act in the way
of punishment. To the subject then it is a kind of perpetual apology:
showing the necessity of every defalcation, which, for the security and
prosperity of each individual, it is requisite to make from the liberty of
every other. To the legislator it is a kind of perpetual lesson: serving at
once as a corrective to his prejudices, and as a check upon his passions.
Is there a mischief which has escaped him? in a natural arrangement, if
at the same time an exhaustive one, he cannot fail to find it. Is he tempted
ever to force innocence within the pale of guilt? the difficulty of finding
a place for it advertises him of his error. Such are the uses of a map of
universal delinquency, laid down upon the principle of utility: such the
advantages, which the legislator as well as the subject may derive from
it. Abide by it, and every thing that is arbitrary in legislation vanishes.
An evil-intentioned or prejudiced legislator durst not look it in the face.
He would proscribe it, and with reason: it would be a satire on his laws.
LX. In the fourth place, a natural arrangement, governed as it is by
a principle which is recognised by all men, will serve alike for the juris-
prudence of all nations. In a system of proposed law, framed in pursu-
ance of such a method, the language will serve as a glossary by which
all systems of positive law might be explained, while the matter serves
as a standard by which they might be tried. Thus illustrated, the practice
of every nation might be a lesson to every other: and mankind might
carry on a mutual interchange of experiences and improvements as eas-
ily in this as in every other walk of science. If any one of these objects
should in any degree be attained, the labour of this analysis, severe as it
has been, will not have been thrown away.
§ 5. 
Characters of the five classes
LXI. It has been mentioned as an advantage possessed by this method,
and not possessed by any other, that the objects comprised under it are
cast into groups, to which a variety of propositions may be applied in
common. A collection of these propositions, as applied to the several

---

Principles of Morals and Legislation/219
classes, may be considered as exhibiting the distinctive characters of
each class. So many of these propositions as can be applied to the of-
fences belonging to any given class, so many properties are they found
to have in common: so many of these common properties as may respec-
tively be attributed to them, so many properties may be set down to
serve as characters of the class. A collection of these characters it may
here be proper to exhibit. The more of them we can bring together, the
more clearly and fully will the nature of the several classes, and of the
offences they are composed of, be understood.
LXII. Characters of Class 1; composed of 
PRIVATE
 offences, or of-
fences against assignable individuals.
1.When arrived at their last stage (the stage of consumation) they
produce, all of them, a primary mischief as well as a secondary.
2.The individuals whom they affect in the first instance (that is, by
their primary mischief) are constantly assignable. This extends to all;
to attempts and preparations, as well as to such as have arrived at the
stage of consummation.
3.Consequently they admit of compensation: in which they differ
from the offences of all the other classes, as such.
4.They admit also of retaliation; in which also they differ from the
offences of all the other classes.
5.There is always some person who has a natural and peculiar in-
terest to prosecute them. In this they differ from self-regarding offences:
also from semi-public and public ones; except in as far as the two latter
may chance to involve a private mischief.
6.The mischief they produce is obvious: more so than that of semi-
public offences: and still more so than that of self-regarding ones, or
even public.
7.They are every where, and must ever be, obnoxious to the censure
of the world: more so than semi-public offences as such; and still more
so than public ones.
8.They are more constantly obnoxious to the censure of the world
than self-regarding offences: and would be so universally, were it not
for the influence of the two false principles; the principle of asceticism,
and the principle of antipathy.
9.They are less apt than semi-public and public offences to require
different descriptions in different states and countries: in which respect
they are much upon a par with self-regarding ones.
10.By certain circumstances of aggravation, they are liable to be

---