OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 295 



matters by a current or conventional standard, but as tests and illus- 

 trations of new standards of criticism, which have a general and en- 

 during interest, especially to the examining minds of youth. 



With a tact almost feminine, INIill avoided open war on abstract 

 grounds. The principles of his philosophy were set forth in their 

 applications, and were advocated by bringing them down in applica- 

 tion to the common sense or instinctive, unanalyzed judgments of his 

 readers. His conclusions in psychology and on the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of philosophy were nowhere systematically set forth. In his 

 Logic, they were rather assumed, and made the setting of his views 

 of the science, than defended on general grounds ; though, from his 

 criticisms of adverse views on the principles of Logic, it was suffici- 

 ciently ajjparent what his philosophy and psychological doctrines 

 were. 



English speaking and reading people had so completely forgotten, 

 or had so obscurely understood the arguments of their greatest thinkers, 

 that the inroad of German speculation had almost overwhelmed the 

 protest of these thinkers against the a priori philosophy. English- 

 speaking people are not metaphysical, and Mill respected their preju- 

 dice. But when the philosophy of Sir William Hamilton, professing 

 to combine the Scottish and German reactions affiiinst Hume with 

 what science had demonstrated as the necessary limits of human 

 knowledge, was about to become the prevalent philosophy of England 

 and America, it was not merely an opportunity, but almost a necessity, 

 for the representative of the greatest English thinkers (himself among 

 the greatest), to re-examine the claims of the a priori philosophy, and 

 either to acknowledge the failure of his own attempt to revive the 

 doctrines of his predecessors, or to refute and overthrow their most 

 powerful British antagonist. Accordingly Mill's " Examination of 

 Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy," published in 18G5, when he was 

 nearly sixty years old, but in the full vigor and maturity of his powers, 

 was his greatest effort in polemical writing. That the reputation of 

 Sir William Hamilton as a thinker was greatly diminished by this 

 examination cannot be doubted. Nor can it be doubted that the pen- 

 dulum of philosophical opinion has begun, through Mill's clear exposi- 

 tions and vigorous defence of the Experience philosophy, to move again 

 towards what was a century and a half ago the prevalent English 

 philosophy. That its future movements will be less extreme in either 

 direction, and that the amplitude of its oscillations have continually * 

 diminished in the past through the progress of philosophical discussion, 

 were beliefs with which his studies in philosophy and his generous 



