Table of Contents, Footnote #01
Manuscript Sources
The original MSS. from which these Essays are edited, consist of Project Matiere, Marginata, and fragments. By the first of these terms, Bentham designated the contents of paragraphs he intended to write; by the second, the contents of paragraphs he had written:---by means of these two sets of papers, the fragments have been arranged, and the connexion between them supplied;---but on this, as on every other occasion, the object of the Editor has been, without addition of his own, to show what Bentham has said upon each subject. This will account for the incompleteness of the Essay, and for the circumstance, that upon some points there are only indications of the subjects which Bentham had intended to discuss.
The MSS. here edited bear date 1786 to 1789.