496 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



found likewise, that I could do no good to his mind, and 

 that all the good he could do to mine he did by his 

 books." ^ 



Mill's later contributions to the solution of the social 

 problem were various and important, but he never 

 advanced to the conception of sociology as a whole as 

 Comte had done, and this probably for two reasons. 

 First, political economy had, since the time of Adam 

 Smith, and greatly through the influence of James Mill 

 and his friends, Malthus and Eicardo, become an in- 

 dependent science. Hence among social questions the 

 economic question was mainly studied, while other equally 

 important social questions received only scant atten- 

 tion. The existing political Order in this country with 

 its enviable constitution, — considered by many foreign 

 philosophers as a model of political organisation to be 

 imitated by the aspiring peoples of the Continent, — 

 relieved English thinkers from dealing with funda- 

 mentals or answering the abstract question of what 

 society is or should be ; and secondly, the comparative 

 stability and constitutional order of English society and 

 politics suggested a variety of practical problems in 

 legislation and administration, and to these Mill applied 

 himself with conspicuous success. But Mill himself 

 was far from satisfied with the stagnant condition of 

 the intellectual atmosphere which surrounded him ; ^ he 



activity which has made some 

 periods of history so remarkable. 

 Never when controversy avoided 

 the subjects which are large and 

 important enough to kindle en- 

 thusiasm, was the mind of a people 

 stirred up from its foundations, and 

 the impulse given which raised even 



^ See 'Autobiography,' p. 211. 



^ " Where there is a tacit conven- 

 tion that principles are not to be 

 disputed, where the discussion of 

 the greatest questions which can 

 occupy humanity is considered to 

 be closed, we cannot hope to find 

 that generally high scale of mental 



