It is under this head that Bentham rapidly surveys and dismisses all the current theories of Right and Wrong.  They consist all of them, he says, in so many contrivances for avoiding an appeal to any external standard, and for requiring us to accept the author’s sentiment or opinion as a reason for itself.  The dictates of this principle, however, will often unintentionally coincide with utility; for what more natural ground of hatred to a practice can there be than its mischievous tendency?  The things that men suffer by, they will be disposed to hate.  Still, it is not constant in its operation; for people may ascribe the suffering to the wrong cause.  The principle is most liable to err on the side of severity; differences of taste and of opinion are sufficient grounds for quarrel and resentment.  It will err on the side of lenity, when a mischief is remote and imperceptible.

The author reserves a distinct handling for the Theological principle; alleging that it falls under one or other of the three foregoing.  The Will of God must mean his will as revealed in the sacred writings, which, as the labours of divines testify, themselves stand in need of interpretation.  What is meant, in fact, is the presumptive will of God; that is, what is presumed to be his will on account of its conformity with another principle.  We are pretty sure that what is right is conformable to his will, but then this requires us first to know what is right.  The usual mode of knowing God’s pleasure (he remarks) is to observe what is our own pleasure, and pronounce that to be his.

Chapter III.—­ON FOUR SANCTIONS OR SOURCES OF PAIN AND PLEASURE whereby men are stimulated to act right; they are termed, physical, political, moral, and religious.  These are the Sanctions of Right.

The physical sanction includes the pleasures and pains arising in the ordinary course of nature, unmodified by the will of any human being, or of any supernatural being.

The political sanction is what emanates from the sovereign or supreme ruling power of the state.  The punishments of the Law come under this head.

The moral or popular sanction results from the action of the community, or of the individuals that each person comes in contact with, acting without any settled or concerted rule.  It corresponds to public opinion, and extends in its operation beyond the sphere of the law.

The religious sanction proceeds from the immediate hand of a superior invisible being, either in the present, or in a future life.

The name Punishment is applicable only to the three last.  The suffering that befalls a man in the course of nature is termed a calamity; if it happen through imprudence on his part, it may be styled a punishment issuing from the physical sanction.