3 88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



English law, but has long been recognized by all but the shallowest 

 bigots. And yet Locke spoke of " atheism being a crime, which, for 

 its madness as well as guilt, ought to shut a man out of all sober and 

 civil society." Hei - e, again, what a stride does the Liberty make ? It 

 is, once more, the difference of the times, rather than of the men. The 

 same noble and prescient insight into the springs of national greatness 

 and social progress characterizes the work of both men, but in what 

 different measures ! Again, we must say, the disciple is greater than 

 the master. Closely bearing on this topic, is the relation of the two 

 men to Christianity. Locke not only wrote to show the "Reasona- 

 bleness of Christianity," but paraphrased several of the books of the 

 New Testament. Mr. Mill has never written one sentence to give the 

 least encouragement to Christianity. But, although a contrast ap- 

 pears to exist, there is really none. Locke was what may be called a 

 Bible Christian. He rejected all theological systems, and constructed 

 his religious belief in the truly Protestant way, with the Bible and his 

 inner consciousness. His creed was the Bible as conformed to reason ; 

 but he never doubted which, in the event of a conflict, ought to give 

 way. To him the destructive criticism of biblical scholars, and the 

 discoveries of geology, had given no disquietude ; and he died with 

 the happy conviction that, without abandoning his religious teaching, 

 he could remain faithful to Reason. Mr. Mill inherited a vast contro- 

 versy ; and he had to make a choice : like Locke, he remained faithful 

 only to Reason. 



Perhaps, it might be urged, this comparison leaves out of account 

 the very greatest work of Mr. Mill his " Political Economy." Locke 

 lived too soon to be an Adam Smith ; but, curiously enough, the par- 

 allel is not broken even at this point. In 1691, and again in 1695, he 

 wrote: "Some considerations of the consequences of the lowering of 

 interest, and raising the value of money," in which he propounded, 

 among other views, that " taxes, however contrived, and out of whose 

 hands soever immediately taken, do, in a country where the great fund 

 is in land, for the most part terminate upon land." There is of course 

 no comparison between the two men on this head ; nevertheless it is 

 interesting to note in prototype the germs of the great work of Mr. 

 Mill. It shows the remarkable, and by no means accidental, similarity 

 between the men. 



This parallel is already too much drawn out ; otherwise it would 

 be worth observing on the characters and lives of these two men. 

 Enough, however, has been said to show that we may not unreasona- 

 bly anticipate for Mr. Mill a future such as has fallen to Locke. His 

 wisdom will be the commonplace of other times ; his theories will be 

 realized in political institutions ; and we may hope and believe the 

 working-class will rise to such a standard of wealth, and culture, and 

 political power, as to realize the generous aspirations of one of Eng- 

 land's greatest sons. 



