OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 291 



a rational classification in the practical pui'suit of botany, — a favorite 

 pastime witli liini throughout his life. The use to him of this kind of 

 knowledge, as of all other kinds wortiiy to be called science, was in its 

 bearings on other and wider branches of knowledge. He generalized 

 the principles exhibited in the natural system of botanical classification 

 to their application " to all cases in which mankind are called upon to 

 bring the various parts of any extensive subject into mental co-ordina- 

 tion. They are as much to the point," he adds, " when objects are to be 

 classed for jmrposes of art or business, as for those of science. The 

 proper arrangement, for example, of a code of laws, depends on the 

 same scientific conditions as the classifications of natural history ; 

 nor could there be a better preparatory discipline for that important 

 function than the study of the principles of a natural arrangement, 

 not only in the abstract, but in their actual applications to the class of 

 phenomena for which they were first elaborated, and which are still 

 tlie best school for learning their use." To rightly divide and define 

 is divine, said Plato; yet it is not an excellence by which the divine is 

 distinguished from a human i^erfection. It is rather a perfection which 

 is relative to human limits and weaknesses. 



The " mastery system " of studying a subject in its facts, and at first 

 hand, was not liable with Mill to degenerate into the mere idiotic pursuit 

 of facts, since the character of his mind was already determined by a 

 strong philosophical bias. Even subjects like the fine arts, which are 

 commonly and properly regarded as affording ends in tliemselves, or 

 sufficient and worthy motives to study, interested Mill as affording broad 

 principles and influences, extending beyond the immediate and present 

 delight they inspire. In his readings of poetry he looked not merely 

 for beauties or for sympathy, but for principles, causes, and influeTices; 

 for the relations of it to the times in which it appeared. So wide was 

 the range of his studies and his intellectual symi>athies, that no writer 

 has given wiser advice on the much debated subject of education, or 

 advice more satisfactory to all parties, even to the advocates of special 

 studies. 



Mr. Mill was a thinker about whose personal character and circum- 

 stances of education the student naturally seeks to learn. In such a 

 thinker, these elements of power are instinctively felt to be of prime 

 importance. They explain Mill's later influence at the universities, 

 where, though not personally known, his effect upon the young men 

 of the most active minds, through his principal works, his Political 

 Economy and his System of Logic, became a powerful one, though 

 purely spontaneous ; for it did not come in by the normal channels 



