OF THE GOOD. 



139 



many times over by men representing all the different 

 shades of the intellect of the nation, in and out of the 

 Church, the Schools, and the Universities, with a practical 

 or a theoretical bias and in a systematic as well as a 

 controversial spirit. As much cannot be found in the 

 literature of any other modern country, perhaps not 

 even at the present day. 



But though the ground was thus fairly covered, a 

 great additional impetus was given to ethical speculation 

 towards the end of the eighteenth century by a thinker 

 whose interest was not pre-eminently and exclusively 

 ethical, but who succeeded in bringing morals into 

 immediate connection with practical legislation : this 

 was Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). It is interesting lo. 



Bentham. 



to note that in Germany an equally important stimulus 

 was given about the same time to ethical theory by an 

 individual mind of quite a different order and in a 

 totally different direction — namely, Immanuel Kant 



(1724-1804).' 



In order to understand the nature and the causes 

 of the great influence which the writings of Bentham 

 and his disciples have exerted, we may dwell on two 

 main points. The first was that Bentham formed, as 

 it were, an exception to the general tone which pre- 

 vailed among the better - known British writers on 

 ethical subjects. He did not share — or shared only 



^ It may be noted that the 

 three most original thinkers — 

 Kant, Bentham, and Goethe — 

 whose works appeared about the 

 same time, and who in different 

 directions influenced European 

 thought most profoundly towards 



the end of the eighteenth century, 

 were quite unknown to each other, 

 a circumstance which contrasts 

 markedly with the state of in- 

 tellectual intercourse a century 

 later. 



