[Illustration:  JEREMY BENTHAM]

He was born in London, February 15th, 1747-8; the child of an attorney of ample means, who was proud of the youth, and did not hesitate to show him off.  In his fourth year he began the study of Latin, and a year later was known in his father’s circle as “the philosopher.”  At six or seven he began the study of French.  He was then sent to Westminster school, where he must have had a rather uncomfortable time; for he was small in body, sensitive and delicate, and not fond of boyish sports.  He had a much happier life at the houses of his grandmothers at Barking and at Browning Hill, where much of his childhood was spent.  His reminiscences of these days, as related to his biographer, are full of charm.  He was a great reader and a great student; and going to Oxford early, was only sixteen when he took his degree.

It must be confessed that he did not bear away with him a high appreciation of the benefits which he owed to his alma mater.  “Mendacity and insincerity—–­ in these I found the effects, the sure and only sure effects, of an English university education.”  He wrote a Latin ode on the death of George II., which was much praised.  In later years he himself said of it, “It was a mediocre performance on a trumpery subject, written by a miserable child.”

On taking his degree he entered at Lincoln’s Inn, but he never made a success in the practice of the law.  He hated litigation, and his mind became immediately absorbed in the study and development of the principles of legislation and jurisprudence, and this became the business of his life.  He had an intense antipathy to Blackstone, under whom he had sat at Oxford; and in 1776 he published anonymously a severe criticism of his work, under the title ’Fragments on Government, or a Commentary on the Commentaries,’ which was at first attributed to Lord Mansfield, Lord Camden, and others.  His identification as the author of the ‘Fragments’ brought him into relations with Lord Shelburne, who invited him to Bowood, where he made a long and happy visit, of which bright and gossipy letters tell the story.  Here he worked on his ‘Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation,’ in which he developed his utilitarian theory, and here he fell in love with a young lady who failed to respond to his wishes.  Writing in 1827, he says:—­

“I am alive, more than two months advanced in my eightieth year, more lively than when you presented me in ceremony with a flower in Green Lane.  Since that day not a single one has passed, not to speak of nights, in which you have not engrossed more of my thoughts than I could have wished....  Embrace——­; though it is for me, as it is by you, she will not be severe, nor refuse her lips to me as she did her hand, at a time perhaps not yet forgotten by her, any more than by me.”

Bentham wrote voluminously on morals, on rewards and punishments, on the poor laws, on education, on law