JOHN STUART MILL:* A STUDY. 



I. 



HIS RELIGION. 



THE most satisfactory way of 

 treating his Autobiography is to 

 string together selections from it, 

 and with comments on these make 

 them furnish an antidote to its mis- 

 chievous tendencies, in the way that 

 a witness is made to prove the 

 worthlessness of the cause in fa- 

 vour of which he is brought forward 

 to testify. The book begins bad- 

 ly:- 



" My father, the son of a petty trades- 

 man and (I believe) small farmer, at 

 Northwater Bridge, in the County of 

 Angus, was, when a boy, recommended 

 by his abilities to the notice of Sir John 

 Stuart, of Fettercairn, one of the Barons 

 of the Exchequer in Scotland, and was, 

 in consequence, sent to the University 

 of Edinburgh, at the expense of a 

 fund established by Lady Jane Stuart 

 (the wife of Sir John Stuart) and 

 some other ladies, for educating young 

 men for the Scottish Church. He 

 there went through the usual course of 

 study, and was licensed as a preacher, 

 but never followed the profession, hav- 

 ing satisfied himself that he could not 

 believe the doctrines of that or any 

 other Church. For a few years he was 

 a private tutor in various families in 

 Scotland, among others that of the Mar- 

 quis of Tweeddale, but ended by taking 

 up his residence in London, and devot- 

 ing himself to authorship. Nor had he 

 any other means of support until 1819, 

 when he obtained an appointment in the 

 India House " (p. 3). 



" I was brought up from the first 

 without any religious belief, in the 

 ordinary acceptation of the term. My 

 father, educated in the creed of Scotch 

 Presbyterianism, had by his own studies 

 and reflections been early led to reject 

 not only the belief in Revelation, but the 

 foundations of what is commonly called 

 Natural Religion " (p. 38). 



There is so much in the Autobi- 

 ography that is so illy arranged, and 



so loosely and illogically put to- 

 gether, that among other things, the 

 positive truth cannot be drawn from 

 it in regard to the stages of the 

 elder Mill's religious ideas ; and 

 there is much that requires ex- 

 planation about him consenting to 

 be educated by others for the 

 Church, and being licensed to preach 

 at the age of twenty-five, and then 

 becoming a practical atheist. He is 

 described as 



' One who never did anything negli- 

 gently; never undertook any task, lite- 

 rary or other, on which he did not con- 

 scientiously bestow all the labour neces- 

 sary for performing it adequately " (p. 

 4). 



A man of his talents and energy, 

 with a conscience to regulate them, 

 could not surely have taken 

 four years' study in literature and 

 philosophy, and then four years in 

 divinity, at the university, in addi- 

 tion to his school and home train- 

 ing, and his " own studies and re- 

 flections," to make up his mind on 

 the subject of the first principles of 

 religion (saying nothing of Chris- 

 tianity). However that may be, he 

 was received into the ranks of the 

 clergy, as a probationer, after a severe 

 examination into his religious know- 

 ledge, learning, walk and conversa- 

 tion, and giving specimens of his 

 sermons and prayers; and it does 

 not appear from the Autobiography 

 that he did not preach occasionally 

 for other clergymen, either before or 

 while he was a tutor in the families 

 mentioned. No doubt he was en- 

 gaged in the latter capacity on the 

 faith implied or expressed of his 

 being a clergyman of the Church, 

 believing its doctrines ; and he was 

 most probably employed while tutor 



* Born May 2Oth, 1806 ; died May 8th, 



1873- 



