MILL, JAMES. 



MILL, JAMES. 



240 



coovat, while it wa* admired by yourg student*, it was censured 

 by naay aore advanced professors, who charged the author with 

 epeakinc too freely of many eminent name*, with attacking authorities, 

 aid i rvpouoding hi* own vkw* without repaid to the example of 

 other*. KM Att di vedrre nelle Belle Arti,' in which he .bowed 

 ktalf a strong partiaan of Mrogs, U nnothrr wik written with 

 treat eloquence, and with equal freedom of opinion, impugning 

 icbel Anjelo, among others, with unsparing severity. He aUo 

 nbliabed a work entitled ' Roma delle B.Ue Arti di Ditegno,' and 

 L* ' Dixionnario delle Belle Arti,' which latter, first printed at 

 BBBMOO, in 1707, 2 vol. 8vo, i* chiefly a translation from the ' Ency- 

 clopedic- Wttbodique.' After this, disgusted at the attacks levelled 

 against Li* ' Korna,' he not only desisted from publishing the second 

 and third part* which be had proposed of that work, but abandoned 

 the fine art*, and took up the study of natural history. He died at 

 Bom* in March 1798. 



Mihxia bad for a short time held the appointment of superintendent 

 of the building* in the Eccleaiutical Sutes belonging to the king -of 

 the Two SicUirs, but he resigned it in 1786. not caring to have any 

 such responsibility or tie upon him. HU Lettere iueoite,' addressed 

 to the Count Saiigiovanni, and first published in l'ari.% in 1827, serve 

 to portray his disposition, and, without the testimony of bis other 

 writings, to convince us that he abhorred pedantry and dogmatism, 

 false enthusiasm, and quackery. They abound with very free remarks 

 on perMXia, and are seasoned with much caustic humour. An English 

 translation of bis ' Live* of the Architect* ' appeared in 2 Tola. 8vo, in 

 but it U badly executed and full of gross error* of the press. 



MILL, JAMES, wa* born at Montrose, on the 6th of April 1773. 

 After having at is said received the early part of hi* education at the 

 grammar school of Montrose, he was, subsequently, educated in the 

 bouse of Sir John Stuart (originally Belcher), who was for a long time 

 M.P. for Kincardiuohire. Mr. Mill waa then aent to the University 

 of Edinburgh, where he was educated for the church, and where be 

 distinguished himself a* a Greek, scholar. Metaphysical and ethical 

 philoeophy also occupied a great part of his time at the university. 

 He wa* a favourite of Dalxej, the then Greek professor in Edinburgh, 

 who recommended him as a tutor to the Marquis of Tweedale. He 

 wa* licensed to preach about 1798. By the advice of a friend he 

 rhej*T*(i hi* views, and in 1800 accompanied Sir John Stuart to London, 

 where h* settled. He became editor of 'The Literary Journal,' a 

 review, which supported him for some time, but was discontinued in 

 OonaeHnanne of the smallneas of the sale. Mr. Macdiarmid, and Dr. 

 T. Thomson, professor of chemistry in the University of Glasgow, 

 were the chief contributor*. He afterward* employed much of his 

 time in writing for periodical publication* ; and for several yean 

 he was an occasional contributor to the ' Edinburgh Review.' He 

 married soon after he bad settled in London. His acquaintance with 

 Mr. RenUism commenced at an early period of hi* residence in the 

 metropolis. 



Hu History of British India' wa* commenced about 1806, but 

 being a work of great labour, and the author being obliged to devote 

 a considerable portion of hi* time to other avocation*, it wa* not 

 pobliahed till the winter of 1817-18. It U perhap* no very high 

 praise of this work to say that it i* not only the beat history of 

 British India, but the only single work calculated to convey to the 

 general reader any clear and connected view of India aud Anglo- 

 Indian affair*. Lut it possesses higher claim* than these. It i* 

 admitted by some of the molt eminent of those who have adminis- 

 tered Indian affair* during the hut few yean, that Mr. Mill'* work 

 wa* the beginning of sound thinking on the subject of India; and 

 the measures of government in that country are stated by those who 

 have the beat mean* of knowing, to be now bearing every year more 

 and more the imprea* of hi* views. The style of Mr. Mill'* history 

 ha* been represented by some a* dry and unattractive. Mr. Mill 

 certainly does not deal u.uch in rhetorical ornament, at least in what 

 is uMiliy considered such by modern writers, for hi* itylo remind* 

 us more of the nerrou* simplicity and teracnesa of some of the ancient 

 master* of the difficult art of writing, than that of any modern 

 excrpt Uobbca. The reader who i* really in search of a meaning 

 will und it in the writing* of Mr. Mill with far let* labour than where 

 It is to be sought for in a crowd of unapt and unnecessary woids. 

 remarks may be said to be applicable ruther to Mr. Mill'* 

 1 than to hi* narrative style. But although not possessing 

 power* of the earn* kind a* Sir Walter Scott or even David 

 Home, there are pa**ages of Mr. Mill'* history which will interest 

 many reader* a* much as the most spirit-stirring romance; for 

 iartaBoa, hie account of some of the actions of Clive, aud of Corn- 

 wallia'a night attack upon the outworks of Seringapatam. His narra- 

 tive of military operations is good ; cleaiutss, in which Mr. Mill 

 exetU, Uing the principal quality required. And come of hi* 

 harmcVrs, U.at of Clive in particular, are drawn in a few bold and 

 forabl* lines, which engrave them on tho mind of the reader. A 

 new edition of Mr. Mill'* ' History of India ' h>* been publuhed 

 with a Coatoraeiion by Profeasor H. H. Wilson. 



rqu.no. of the ability and knowledge of the subject dis- 

 his history, and although he had in some part* of it freely 

 the conduct of the East India Company, the Court of 

 Director., in the spring of 1819, introduced him into their home- 



establishment, and intrusted to him the chief conduct of their corre- 

 spondence with India in the revenue branch of administration. He 

 afterward* rote, in the course of promotion, to be head of the depart- 

 ment in the India House of correspondence with India. 



About three years before his appointment to his office in th< 

 House, Mr. MiU became a contributor to the 'Supplement to tho 

 Encyclopaedia Britannic*,' his principal contributions to which were 

 the articles on Government, Education, Jurisprudence, Law of Nation*, 

 Liberty of the Free*, Colonies, and Prison Discipline. These esamy* 

 were reprinted in a separate form, and are probably tb* best known 

 of Mr. Mill's productions. They exhibit great powers both of analyst* 

 and ratiocination, and produced, we believe, more marked effect* than 

 any other, not only of the works of Mr. Mill, but of perhaps any 

 other writer of this age on such subjects, on the mind* of hi* 

 con torn poraries. 



HU ' Element* of Political Economy,' whatever may be its merit* 

 or demerits, and it made no pretensions to originality, published in 

 1821-22, bin at least the very great merit of being written with his 

 usual clearness aud precision of language. 



In 1829 he published his ' Analysis of the Phenomena of the Humau 

 Mind,' a work on which he bestowed more of the labour of t 1 

 than on any other of hU productions. lu this vv >rk Mr. MiU has 

 attempted to resolve all the potter* of the human mind iute a very 

 small number of simple elements. From an examination of a number 

 of the more complicated case* of consciousness, he arrives at the con- 

 clusion that they all resolve themselves into three simple elements 

 sensations, ideas, aud the train of ideas. He thus explains what he 

 means by the terms eentations aud idtai: " We have two classes of 

 feeliug : one, that which exists when the object of sense i* present; 

 another, that which exists after the object of sense has ceased to be 

 present. The one class of feelings I call sensations ; the other class 

 of feelings I call ideas." ('Analysis of the Phenomena of tho Human 

 Mind,' vol. i., p. 41.) Mr. Mill begins with the simpler, and thence 

 proceeds to the exposition of the more complex phenomena. " The 

 feelings," he Bays, " which we have through the external senses are 

 the nio.-t simple, at least the most familiar, of the meubd phenomena. 

 Hence the propriety of commencing with this class of our fi-< 

 (' Analysis,' vol. i., p. 1.) Accordingly, he begins with sensi'im; 

 under which head he ranges tha feelings which we have by the five 

 sense* smell, taste, hearing, touch, and sight ; 6, sensations of dis- 

 organisation, of the approach to disorganisation, in any part of the 

 body ; 7, muscular sensations, or those feelings which accompany the 

 action of the muscles ; 8, sensations in the alimentary canal. He next 

 proceeds to ideas, or the copies or images of sensations, lie then 

 treat* of ideas put together or associated in trains, and of the order of 

 their association and the causes of that order. Before proceeding to 

 the exposition of the more complex ideas or clusters of ideas, he finds 

 it necessary to explain the process of naming, or language ; that 

 process by which the sensations and ideas of one man are communi- 

 cated to another, and by which likewise a record is preserved of 

 sensations and ideas after they are passed. Hu then treats of conscious- 

 ness aud conception, which philosophers, he says, have erroneously 

 created into what they called powers of the mind ; whereas, he says, 

 consciousness is merely a name applied to sensations, and to ideas 

 whether simple or complex; to all the feelings of our sentient nature: 

 and conception a name applied only to ideas, and to ideas only in a 

 state of combination. But consciousness may surely be said to be 

 the power of having sensations and ideas ; and conception the power 

 of having ideas in a state of combination. In this sense, which is not 

 at variance with Mr. Mill's explanation of them, both consciousness 

 and conception may be called powers of the mind. 



Again, imagination, he says, is the name of a train of ideas. " I 

 am said to have an imagination, when I have a train of idea* ; aud 

 when I am said to imagine, 1 have the same thing ; nor is there any 

 train of ideas to which the term imagination may not be applied." 



" There U a great diversity of trains. Not only has the same indi- 

 vidual an endlet* variety of trains, but a different character belongs to 

 the whole series of trains which pass through the minds of different 

 individuals or classes of individuals. The different pursuits in which 

 the several classes of men are engaged render particular trains of ideas 

 more common to them than other trains. One man i* a merchant, 

 and train* respecting the goods in which he buys and those in wnich 

 he sell* are habitual in his mind. Another man is a lawyer, and idea* 

 of client* and fees, aud judges and witnesses, and legal instrument* 

 and point* of contestation, aud the practice of his court, are habitually 

 passing in his mind. Idea* of another kind occupy the mind of tha 

 physician ; of another kind still the mind of the warrior. The states- 

 man i* occupied with a train different from that of any of the classes 

 thai have been mentioned, and one statesman with a very different 

 train from another, according as his mind is running upon expedients 

 which may serve the purpose of tho day, or arrangement which \ni.ty 

 secure the happiness of the population from generation to generation. 

 A peculiar character belongs to the train which habitually occupies 

 the mind of the mathematician. The mind of the metaphysician is 

 also occupied by a train distinguished from that of other classes. And 

 there U one man yet to be mentioned, the poet, tho peculiarity of 

 whose train* ha* been a subject of particular observation. To such a 

 degree indeed have the trains of the poet been singled out for distinc- 



