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Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill
page 83 of 85 (97%)
difference is in the peculiar sentiment which attaches to the former, as
contradistinguished from the latter. If this characteristic sentiment
has been sufficiently accounted for; if there is no necessity to assume
for it any peculiarity of origin; if it is simply the natural feeling of
resentment, moralized by being made coextensive with the demands of
social good; and if this feeling not only does but ought to exist in all
the classes of cases to which the idea of justice corresponds; that idea
no longer presents itself as a stumbling-block to the utilitarian
ethics. Justice remains the appropriate name for certain social
utilities which are vastly more important, and therefore more absolute
and imperative, than any others are as a class (though not more so than
others may be in particular cases); and which, therefore, ought to be,
as well as naturally are, guarded by a sentiment not only different in
degree, but also in kind; distinguished from the milder feeling which
attaches to the mere idea of promoting human pleasure or convenience, at
once by the more definite nature of its commands, and by the sterner
character of its sanctions.


THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote C: See this point enforced and illustrated by Professor Bain,
in an admirable chapter (entitled "The Ethical Emotions, or the Moral
Sense") of the second of the two treatises composing his elaborate and
profound work on the Mind.]

[Footnote D: This implication, in the first principle of the utilitarian
scheme, of perfect impartiality between persons, is regarded by Mr.
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