November 28, 1832

Leslie Stephen (November 28, 1832 to February 22, 1904) was a Victorian scholar and one of his books dealt with the philosophy labeled Utilitarianism, that is, the theory which argued the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers was the supreme ethical measure. These ideas were a vivid part of Stephen's intellectual surroundings at the time, having that glare of the new which can obscure flaws. In our excerpt we find Stephen nevertheless dealing humorously with the ideas. Here is an excerpt from The English Utilitarians, (1900) which describes the original proponent of that philosophical stance: Jeremy Benthan, who was:

"neat in person, and wore a Quaker-like brown coat, brown cassimere breeches, white worsted stockings and a straw hat. He ... took his ' ante-prandial' and other 'circumgyrations' with absolute punctuality. He loved pets; he had a series of attached cats; and cherished the memory of a 'beautiful pig' at Hendon, and of a donkey at Ford Abbey. He encouraged mice to play in his study—a taste which involved some trouble with his cats, and suggests problems as to the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Kindness to animals was an essential point of his moral creed. 'I love everything,' he said, 'that has four legs.' He had a passion for flowers, and tried to introduce useful plants. He loved music—especially Handel—and had an organ in his house. He cared nothing for poetry: 'Prose,' he said, 'is when all the lines except the last go on to the margin. Poetry is when some of them fall short of it.'
He was courteous and attentive to his guests, though occasionally irritable when his favourite crotchets were transgressed, or especially if his fixed hours of work were deranged.
His regularity in literary work was absolute. He lived by a time-table, working in the morning and turning out from ten to fifteen folio pages daily. He read the newspapers regularly, but few books, and cared nothing for criticisms on his own writings. His only substantial meal was a dinner at six or half-past, to which he occasionally admitted a few friends as a high privilege. He liked to discuss the topics of which his mind was full...."

Stephen's loving detail above derives more from his own vision of scholarly order, than a concern for animals, one suspects.