504 



MILL, JOHN STUART. 



bat was an active propagandist of this system 

 of unbelief. He had supported himself by au- 

 thorship and literary labor until 1819, when 

 he received an appointment in the East India 

 House. This stern, opinionated, yet learned 

 philosopher, was unwilling that his eldest son 

 should be educated in the ordinary way, and 

 was, perhaps, also unable, had be been so dis- 

 posed, to give him the advantages of a univer- 

 sity education. Hu therefore determined to 

 teach him himself, and, though a man of impa- 

 tient and exacting temper, he carried out his 

 purpose from the child's birth till his four- 

 teenth year, with a fidelity and persistency 

 which were characteristic of the man. In 

 some respects, the education thus attained was 

 a good one ; in others it was very objection- 

 able, and its results in a youth of less gentle 

 and patient temper could hardly have failed 

 to be ruinous. The boy commenced the study 

 of Greek at three years of age, and though 

 there were at that time no Greek lexicons 

 except those with Latin definitions, and ho 

 knew nothing of Latin till several years later, 

 he had, at the age of eight years, read not only 

 all the Greek authors of the university course, 

 but many others, and hod analyzed and re- 

 ported what ho read daily to his father. At 

 eight years of age he began the study of Latin, 

 and, as he had already been studying and ana- 

 lyzing Greek, Roman, English, and universal 

 history, be was soon after put into mathe- 

 matics, logic, rhetoric, political economy, and 

 metaphysics. In these latter studies he was 

 drilled very thoroughly, and the Benthamite 

 philosophy was assiduously inculcated, while, 

 in political economy, the works of Adam 

 Smith and Ricardo were critically analyzed. 

 With all this instruction, his father took the 

 utmost pains to prevent him from having any 

 religious ideas whatsoever. He taught him 

 that it was impossible to ascertain any thing 

 in regard to the origin of the earth and of 

 human beings, and that the question, " Who 

 made mo ? " could not be answered, as any 

 attempt at answering it by the assertion of a 

 Creator, only pushed the inquiry one step fur- 

 ther back, to the question, "Who made God ? " 

 At the ago of fourteen, then, John Stuart Mill 

 wai a boy of uncommon attainments in the 

 classics, in lope, rhetoric, political economy, 

 metaphysics, and history, well-versed in math- 

 ematics and physical science, with no idens 

 of a God, or of any religious belief; shy, mid 

 wholly un icciistomed to association with chil- 

 dren of his own age, and ignorant of many 

 pnadod matters, and of much information on 

 non subjects, ordinarily possessed by boys 

 of that age. In 1820 ho went to France, whore 

 he resided for upward of a year, making him- 

 self master of the French language, and occa- 

 sionally attending public lectures on science. 

 He lived for some time in Paris, in the house 

 of the French economist, Joan Baptiste Suy, 

 where he made the acquaintance of many men 

 distinguished then or afterward in politics. Ho 



spent part of his time in the south of France, 

 in the house ot'Sir Samuel Itciitham, brother to 

 .Jeremy Iteiitham. During this stay in France 

 he laid the foundation of his great familiarity 

 witli and interest in the politics as well as in 

 the literature of the French nation. In lx-J:l 

 he entered the India House, and became a clerk 

 in the Examiner's office, where his father was 

 Assistant Examiner. For thirty-three years 

 he continued to be occupied in the department 

 of the office named the Political, or the trans- 

 actions of the company with the native st 

 altlioiigh he occasionally acted in other depart- 

 ments, as Public Works and Education. In 

 1831 he was appointed Assistant Examiner, 

 and he held that otfice till 1856, when on the 

 retirement of the Examiner, he was placed at 

 the head of the department. He was under- 

 stood to have energetically assisted the direct- 

 ors in opposing the measure for the transfer 

 of the India Government to the crown, which 

 was carried in 1858. Ho was offered by Lord 

 Stanley a seat at the new Indian Council, but 

 declined on the score of failing health, and re- 

 tired from office in October of the same year 

 on a compensating allowance. 



AVliilo this was the course of his official and 

 in some sense public life, Mr. Mill maintained 

 through all the fifty years which elapsed from 

 his first appointment to a place in the East 

 India Houso to his death, a distinct philosophi- 

 cal and social life, but very slightly it' at all 

 influenced by his official position. His labors 

 in the East India Office were not, in general, 

 very burdensome, and left him time for other 

 intellectual pursuits, which he diligently im- 

 proved. At first, entering as he did into of- 

 ficial position at the age of seventeen, ho was 

 an ardent Benthamite, and, with a little coterie 

 of from six to ten persons, was accustomed to 

 meet once or twice a week at Bcntham's house 

 to discuss his philosophical theories. Two or 

 three years later he became a memlier of a 

 debating club composed of many of the most 

 brilliant young men of that period, including 

 such men as Macaulay, Grote, Roebuck, Thirl- 

 wall (afterward a bishop), Praed, the two 

 brothers Bulwer, Lord Poulett Thomson, Sam. 

 Wilbcrforce (afterward bishop), Albany Fon- 

 hlanque, John Sterling, F. D. Maurice, etc., 

 and in this society questions of po'itics, polit- 

 ical economy, psychology, and moral science, 

 were ardently and earnestly debated. Under 

 their influence in part, and in part also from 

 liis own reasonings and reflections, ho began 

 to drift away from the philosophical theories 

 of his father and Mr. Kent ham, and to incline 

 somewhat to the Positivist system enunciated 

 about that time by AngusteComte. But thongh 

 accepting some of Comtc's positions. Mr. Mill 

 never became fully a Comtist. Against some 

 of his views he protested earnestly, and to 

 others he gave only a partial assent. As ho 

 himself confesses, he had no complete system 

 of philosophy to offer; he was only dissatisfied 

 in some particulars with all ; the negations to 



