One such method might be as follows.Let the new law in question be enacted in the common form.But let its commencement be deferred to a distant period,suppose a year or two:let it then,at the end of that period,be in force,unless petitioned against,by persons of such a deion,and in such a number as might be supposed fairly to represent the sentiments of the people in general:persons,for instance,of the deion of those who at the time of the Union,constituted the body of electors.To put the validity of the law out of dispute,it would he necessary the fact upon which it was made ultimately to depend,should be in its nature too notorious to be controverted.To determine therefore,whether the conditions upon which the invalidation of it was made to depend,had been complied with,is what must be left to the simple declaration of some person or persons;for instance the King.I offer this only as a general idea:and as one amongst many that perhaps might be offered in the same view.It will not he expected that I should here answer objections,or enter into details.
95.I Comm.p.49.
96.With this note let no man trouble himself who is not used,or does not intend to use himself,to what are called metaphysical speculations:in whose estimation the benefit of understanding clearly what he is speaking of,is not worth the labour.
1.That may be said to be my duty to do (understand political duty)which you (or some other person or persons)have a right to have me made to do.Ithen have a DUTYtowards you:you have a RIGHT as against me.
2.What you have a right to have me made to do (understand a political right)is that which I am liable,according to law,upon a requisition made on your behalf,to be punished for not doing.
3.I say punished:for without the notion of punishment (that is of pain annexed to an act,and accruing on a certain account,and from a certain source)no notion can we have of either right or duty.
4.Now the idea belonging to the word pain is a simple one.To define or rather (to speak more generally)to expound a word,is to resolve,or to make a progress towards resolving,the idea belonging to it into simple ones.
5.For expounding the words duty,right,power,title,and those other terms of the same stamp that abound so much in ethics and jurisprudence,either Iam much deceived,or the only method by which any instruction can be conveyed,is that which is here exemplified.An exposition framed after this method I would term paraphrasis.
6.A word may be said to be expounded by paraphrasis,when not that word alone is translated into other words,but some whole sentence of which it forms a part is translated into another sentence,the words of which latter are expressive of such ideas as are simple,or are more immediately resolvable into simple ones than those of the former.
Such are those expressive of substances and simple mocks,in respect of such abstract terms as are expressive of what Locke has called mixed modes.This,in short,is the only method in which any abstract terms can,at the long run,be expounded to any instructive purpose:that is in terms calculated to raise images either of substances perceived,or of emotions;sources,one or other of which every idea must be drawn from,to be a clear one.
7.The common method of definingthe method per genus et differentiam ,as logicians call it,will,in many cases,not at all answer the purpose.
Among abstract terms we soon come to such as have no superior genus.A definition,per genus et differentiam ,when applied to these,it is manifest,can make no advance:it must either stop short,or turn back,as it were,upon itself,in a circulate or a repetend.
8.`Fortitude is a virtue;'Very well:but what is a virtue?`A virtue is a disposition:'Good again:but what is a disposition?`A disposition is a...;`and there we stop.The fact is,a disposition has no superior genus:a disposition is not a....,any thing:this is not the way to give us any notion of what is meant by it.`A power,'again `is a right.'and what is a right?It is a powerAn estate is an interest,says our Author somewhere;where he begins defining an well might he have said an interest was an estate.As well,in short,were it to define in this manner,a conjunction or a preposition.As well were it to say of the preposition through,or the conjunction because;a through is a ...,or a because is a and so go on defining them.
9.Of this stamp,by the bye,are some of his most fundamental definitions:
of consequence they must leave the reader where they found him.But of this,perhaps,more fully,and methodically on some future occasion.In the meantime I have thrown out these loose hints for the consideration of the curious.
