82 CHAUNCEY WRIGHT. [vi. 



far-reaching connotations of phrases to him entirely 

 familiar. 



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 estima- 

 tion, among the foremost philosophers 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 pene- 

 trating 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 intellectual 

 honesty is there accompanied by sleepless vigilance 

 against fallacy or prejudice ; and while generous emo- 

 tion often kindles a warmth of expression, yet the 

 jurisdiction of feeling is seldom allowed to encroach 

 upon that of reason. Nevertheless, there are 

 numerous little signs which give one the impression 



