JOHN STUART MILL. 375 



Mr. Mill's nobility of feeling, and his anxiety to further what he re- 

 garded as a beneficial end. Such proposals would have been remark- 

 able even had there been entire agreement of opinion. But they were 

 the more remarkable as being made by him under the consciousness 

 that there existed between us certain fundamental differences, openly 

 avowed. I had, both directly and by implication, combated that form 

 of the experiential theory of human knowledge which characterizes 

 Mr. Mill's philosophy ; in upholding Realism, I had opposed, in decided 

 ways, those metaphysical systems to which his own Idealism was 

 closely allied ; and we had long carried on a controversy respecting 

 the test of truth, in which I had similarly attacked Mr. Mill's positions 

 in an outspoken manner. That under such circumstances he should 

 have volunteered his aid, and urged it upon me, as he did, on the 

 ground that it would not imply any personal obligation, proved in him 

 a very exceptional generosity. 



Quite recently I have seen afresh illustrated this fine trait this 

 ability to bear with unruffled temper and without any diminution of 

 kindly feeling the publicly-expressed antagonism of a friend. The last 

 evening I spent at his house was in the company of another invited 

 guest, who, originally agreeing with him entirely on certain disputed 

 questions, had some fortnight previously displayed his change of view 

 nay, had publicly criticised some of Mr. Mill's positions in a very 

 undisguised manner. Evidently, along with his own unswerving alle- 

 giance to truth, there was in Mr. Mill an unusual power of appreci- 

 ating in others a like conscientiousness ; and so of suppressing any 

 feeling of irritation produced by difference suppressing it not in ap- 

 pearance only, but in reality ; and that, too, under the most trying 

 circumstances. 



I should say, indeed, that Mr. Mill's general characteristic, emo- 

 tionally considered, was an unusual predominance of the higher senti- 

 ments a predominance which tended, perhaps, both in theory and 

 practice, to subordinate the lower nature unduly. That rapid advance 

 of age which has been conspicuous for some years past, and which 

 doubtless prepared the way for his somewhat prematui*e death, may, I 

 think, be regarded as the outcome of a theory of life which made 

 learning and working the occupations too exclusively considered. But, 

 when we ask to what ends he acted out this theory, and in so doing 

 too little regarded his bodily welfare, we see that even here the excess, 

 if such we call it, was a noble one. Extreme desire to further human 

 welfare was that to which he sacrificed himself. 



HIS BOTANICAL STUDIES. 



BY HENBY TBIMEN. 



If we would have a just idea of any man's character, we should 

 view it from as many points and under as many aspects as we can. 

 The side-lights thrown by the lesser occupations of a life are often 



