JOHN STUART MILL. 751 



ing winter to teach the class of moral philosophy in Marischal College, 

 as substitute for the Professor ; and his letter is chiefly a comment 

 upon this fact. Notwithstanding that he was then intently occupied 

 in finishing his " Logic " for the press, he wrote me several other let- 

 ters in the course of the winter. In the one immediately following 

 (October 15th), he made mention of Comte, in these terms : "Have 

 you ever looked into Comte's ' Cours de Philosophic Positive ' ? He 

 makes some mistakes, but on the whole I think it very nearly the 

 grandest work of this age." From the remaining letters, I can gather 

 that I had written him a good deal upon Whe well's writings, as well 

 as on Herschel, and on his own coming book. Among other things, 

 he sketched out for me a course of reading on political and historical 

 philosophy. He also criticised in detail the strong and weak points of 

 an article published by me in the " Westminster " in January, 1842, 

 with the somewhat misleading title " Toys." 



As soon as the Aberdeen winter session was over, in the middle of 

 April, 1812, I went to London, and remained there five months. The 

 day after arriving I walked down to the India House with Robertson, 

 and realized my dream of meeting Mill in person. I am not likely to 

 forget the impression he made upon me as he stood by his desk, with 

 his face turned to the door as we entered. His tall, slim figure, his 

 youthful face and bald head, fair hah* and ruddy complexion, and the 

 twitching of his eyebrow when he spoke, first arrested the attention : 

 then the vivacity of his manner, his thin voice approaching to sharp- 

 ness, but with nothing shrill or painful about it, his comely features 

 and sweet expression would have all remained in my memory, though 

 I had never seen him again. To complete the picture, I should add 

 his dress, which was constant a black dress-suit, with silk necktie. 

 Many years after that he changed his dress-coat for a surtout ; but 

 black cloth was his choice to the end. 



My opportunities of conversation with him for these five months 

 consisted in going down to the India House twice a week at four 

 o'clock, and walking with him a good part of his way to Kensington 

 Square, where his mother and family lived. I also spent occasional 

 evenings at the house, where I met other friends of his G. H. Lewes 

 being a frequent visitor. I may be said to have traveled over a good 

 part of his mind that summer : although he did not then give me 

 his full confidence in many things that I came to know afterward. 

 I had a very full acquaintance with his views on philosophy and 

 politics, as well as a complete appreciation of his whole manner of 

 thinking. 



His "Logic" was finished and ready for press ; he had intended 

 that it should be out in April of that year (1812). He had submitted 

 it the previous winter to Mr. John Murray, who kept it for some 

 time, and then declined it, so that it could not be brought out that 

 season. He then submitted it to J. W. Parker, by whom it was 



