ept so far as private liberty entrenches on the liberty of others.'

[455] _Works_, ii. 506.

[456] _Works_, ii. 401.

[457] _Autobiography_, p. 274.

[458] Hobbes, in the _Leviathan_ (chap. xiii.), has in the same way to
argue for the _de facto_ equality of men.

[459] _Dissertations_, i. 375.

[460] I remark by anticipation that this expression implies a reference
to Mill's _Ethology_, of which I shall have to speak.

[461] _Works_, ix. 96, 113.

[462] _Dissertations_, i. 376.

VII. INDIVIDUALISM

'Individualism' in the first place is generally mentioned in a different
connection. The 'ready-made' man of whom I have spoken becomes the
'economic man.' Bentham himself contributed little to economic theory.
His most important writing was the _Defence of Usury_, and in this, as
we have seen, he was simply adding a corollary to the _Wealth of
Nations_. The _Wealth of Nations_ itself represented the spirit of
business; the revolt of men who were building up a vast industrial
system against the fetters imposed by traditional legislation and by
rulers who regarded industry in general, as Telford is said to have
regarded rivers. Rivers were meant to supply canals, and trade to supply
tax-gatherers. With this revolt, of course, Bentham was in full
sympathy, but here I shall only speak of one doctrine of great interest,
which occurs both in his political treatises and his few economical
remarks. Bentham objected, as we have seen, to the abstract theory of
equality; yet it was to the mode of deduction rather than to the
doctrine itself which he objected. He gave, in fact, his own defence;
and it is one worth notice.[463] The principle of equality is
derivative, not ultimate. Equality is good because equality increases
the sum of happiness. Thus, as he says,[464] if two men have L1000, and
you transfer L500 from one to the other, you increase the recipient's
wealth by one-third, and diminish the loser's wealth by one-half. You
therefore add less pleasure than you subtract. The principle is given
less mathematically[465] by the more significant argument that
'felicity' depends not simply on the 'matter of felicity' or the
stimulus, but also on the sensibility to felicity which is necessarily
limited. Therefore by adding wealth--taking, for example, from a
thousand labourers to give to one king--you are supersaturating a
sensibility already glutted by taking away from others a great amount of
real happiness. With this