| Description | 123: Copy of a codicil to Bentham's will, original dated 29 March / 9 Oct 1824, enclosed in a letter to John Bowring postmarked 1840, giving instructions for the disposal of his body. In this version, his body was to be given to the care of Dr Armstrong of Russell Square, lecturer of Physic, and to be anatomised by him, and afterwards his skeleton and head (which was to be prepared "after the New Zealand manner") should be displayed as the auto-icon. Gives instruction that if his friends should meet to commemorate his birth and death, the auto-icon in its chair should be seated at the head of the table as Chairman.
124: Notes (crossed through) on death and grief. With an additional note at the bottom of the page (also crossed through) on the auto-icon, which "may in time become the object of pilgrimage - as the founder of the greatest happiness principle - as the author of the auto-icon institution itself". [c1831]. |