OF THE GOOD. 153 



portant works on 'Logic' in 1843, on 'Political Econ- 

 omy' in 1848, and the first two volumes of his 'Disser- 

 tations and Discussions' in 1859. His Ethical treatise 

 was accordingly a matured exposition and defence of his 

 ethical views. Mill has himself, in his Autobiography, 

 given expression to his high appreciation of Bentham's 

 teachings,^ of the influence they had on him, as well as 

 of various other influences, unknown or disregarded by 

 Bentham, but which assisted to mould his own opinions. 

 He was an early student of the ancient philosophers, 

 notably of the writings of Plato ; he recognised that an 

 entirely different spirit breathed in them from that of 

 the current philosophy which surrounded him in his own 

 country. Of the latter, he assimilated the psychological 

 views first propounded by David Hartley,^ but made 

 more accessible by his father James Mill in his well- 

 known ' Analysis of the Human Mind.' Through this 

 channel he acquired the habit of regarding mental states, 

 moral emotions and feelings, as complex phenomena, 

 formed by the combination of simpler elements ^ under 

 the influence of various forms of association. Thus he 

 regarded mental characters, such as sympathy, benevo- 

 lence, moral sense, &c., not as prime factors of men's 

 moral constitution in the way that many representatives 

 of religious, common-sense, or intuitional ethics had 



^ See supra, vol. iii. p. 313, 

 note 2. 



" See supra, vol. iii. p. 216, note 

 1 sqq. 



" Nevertheless Mill betrays some 

 suspicion that analysis into, and 

 synthesis of, elements is not suf- 

 ficient to explain the " concrete 

 whole " which cannot be exhausted 

 by these processes. See his re- 



marks on Happiness, p. 55 of 

 ' Utilitarianism.' Also the passage 

 (p. 2) in which he explains that the 

 relation of first principles to a 

 science " is not that of foundations 

 to an edifice, but of roots to a tree, 

 which may perform their office 

 equally well though they be 

 never dug down to and exposed 

 to light." 



