to death,' A brief was given to him in a
suit, upon which L50 depended. He advised that the suit should be
dropped and the money saved. Other experiences only increased his
repugnance to his profession.[211] A singularly strong impression had
been made upon him by the _Memoirs_ of Teresa Constantia Phipps, in
which there is an account of vexatious legal proceedings as to the
heroine's marriage. He appears to have first read this book
in 1759. Then, he says, the 'Demon of Chicane appeared to me
in all his hideousness. I vowed war against him. My vow has been
accomplished!'[212] Bentham thus went to the bar as a 'bear to the
stake.' He diverged in more than one direction. He studied chemistry
under Fordyce (1736-1802), and hankered after physical science. He was
long afterwards (1788) member of a club to which Sir Joseph Banks, John
Hunter, R. L. Edgeworth, and other men of scientific reputation
belonged.[213] But he had drifted into a course of speculation, which,
though more germane to legal studies, was equally fatal to professional
success. The father despaired, and he was considered to be a 'lost
child.'

NOTES:

[201] The main authority for Bentham's Life is Bowring's account in the
two last volumes of the _Works_. Bain's _Life of James Mill_ gives some
useful facts as to the later period. There is comparatively little
mention of Bentham in contemporary memoirs. Little is said of him in
Romilly's _Life_. Parr's _Works_, i. and viii., contains some letters.
See also R. Dale Owen's _Threading my Way_ pp. 175-78. A little book
called _Utilitarianism Unmasked_, by the Rev. J. F. Colls, D.D. (1844),
gives some reminiscences by Colls, who had been Bentham's amanuensis for
fourteen years. Colls, who took orders, disliked Bentham's religious
levity, and denounces his vanity, but admits his early kindness.
Voluminous collections of the papers used by Bowring are at University
College, and at the British Museum.

[202] _Works_, x. 33.

[203] _Ibid._ x. 31.

[204] _Ibid._ ix. 84.

[205] _Ibid._ x. 18.

[206] Southey was expelled from Westminster in 1792 for attacking the
birch in a schoolboy paper.

[207] _Works_, x. 38. Bowring's confused statement, I take it, means
this. Bentham, in any case, was not on the foundation. See Welsh's
_Alumni West_.

[208] _Works_, x. 37.

[209] _Ibid._ viii. 113, 217.

[210] _Works_, x. 45.

[211] _Ibid._ x. 51, 78, 83.

[212] _Works_, x. 35, 77. References are given to thi