Chauncey Wright. 83 



It was only some such circumstances as these, 

 joined to a kind of mental inertness which made 

 some unusually strong incentive needful to any 

 prolonged attempt at literary self-exposition, that 

 prevented Chauncey Wright from taking rank, in 

 public estimation, among the foremost philoso- 

 phers of our time. An intellect more powerful 

 from its happy union of acuteness with sobriety 

 has probably not yet been seen in America. In 

 these respects he reminds one of Mr. Mill, whom 

 he so warmly admired. Though immeasurably 

 inferior to Mill in extent of literary acquirement, 

 he was hardly inferior to him in penetrating and 

 fertile ingenuity, while in native soberness or 

 balance of mind it seems to me that Wright was, 

 on the whole, the superior. In reading Mr. 

 Mill's greater works, one is constantly impressed 

 with the admirable thoroughness with which the 

 author's faculties are disciplined. Inflexible in- 

 tellectual honesty is there accompanied by sleep- 

 less vigilance against fallacy or prejudice ; and 

 while generous emotion often kindles a warmth of 

 expression, yet the jurisdiction of feeling is sel- 

 dom allowed to encroach upon that of reason. 

 Nevertheless there are numerous little signs which 

 give one the impression that this wonderful equi- 

 poise of mind did not come by nature altogether, 



