JOHN STUART MILL. 



Well might the son say of the fa- 

 ther's religious opinions, at least, 

 that they "were more odious to all 

 persons of influence, and to the 

 common run of prosperous English- 

 men, in that generation, than either 

 before or since " (p. 4). 



He seems to have profited by his 

 father's instructions to the extent, at 

 least, of keeping his religious opin- 

 ions pretty much to himself, so that 

 to the last people were in doubt on 

 the subject ; and on the occasion of 

 standing for Westminster he says : 



" On one subject only my religious 

 opinions I announced from the begin- 

 ning that I would answer no questions " 

 (P- 283)- 



Thus he seems to have gone through 

 life muzzled on that question, except 

 perhaps to very intimate friends, of 

 his own way of thinking, and with 

 the strictest confidence ; but in 

 writing the Autobiography he re- 

 moved the muzzle, and expressed 

 himself with all the pent-up hydro- 

 phobia of his nature, after so long a 

 silence on a subject that lay nearest 

 to his heart, as the work shows; 

 leaving it as a legacy to the world 

 at large, and perhaps particularly 

 to the University of St. Andrews, 

 " whose students had done me the 

 honour of electing me to the office 

 of Rector" (p. 306) ; and hounding 

 on others in the same cause, for this 

 is his posthumous wish on the sub- 

 ject : 



" On religion in particular, the time 

 appears to me to have come when it is 

 the duty of all who, being qualified in 

 point of knowledge [which he doubtless 

 never was], have on mature considera- 

 tion satisfied themselves [which he ap- 

 parently never did] that the current 



such as can be literally acted up to, or 

 contemplated and brooded over for the 

 divine spirit they inculcate, and it would 

 be almost impossible to find a candid or 

 sane man that would object to them. The 

 inconsistency, even absurdity, running 

 through the writings of both the Mills, is 

 very manifest here : in the elder for not 

 practising, as is alleged, what he preach- 

 ed ; and in the younger for speaking of 



opinions are not only false but hurtful 

 [how did he know that the religion it- 

 self wasfatse or hurtful ?], to make their 

 dissent known " (p. 45). And he barbs 

 his prayer with the remark : " At least 

 if they are among those whose station 

 or reputation gives their opinion a 

 chance of being attended to." 



He did not seem to be averse to 

 any kind of allies, whoever or what- 

 ever they might be, that would en- 

 list under a common banner in a 

 crusade to banish both natural and 

 revealed religion from the world ; 

 but he would prefer the influential 

 kinds, of whom he probably speaks 

 a little at random when he says : 



" The world would be astonished if it 

 knew how great a proportion [what 

 proportion he does not say] of its highest 

 ornaments of those most distinguished 

 even in popular estimation for wisdom 

 and virtue are complete sceptics in 

 religion [not atheists, like himself, it is 

 hoped] ; many of them refraining from 

 avowal, less from personal considera- 

 tions than from a conscientious, though 

 now in my opinion a most mistaken, ap- 

 prehension, lest by speaking out what 

 would tend to weaken existing belief, 

 and by consequence (as they suppose) 

 existing restraints, they should do harm 

 instead of good" (p. 45). 



The people here mentioned are, 

 by Mill's own admission, too sensi- 

 ble to make any other use of their 

 religious opinions than keep them to 

 themselves; and little chance is 

 there of them ever ranging them- 

 selves under his standard in a war 

 against what mankind hold, in some 

 form or other, most sacred. No 

 matter what all mankind might feel, 

 think, or say to the contrary, Mill 

 would insist on it that religion is an 

 excrescence that ought to be abolish- 

 ed, even when it is said, that if there 



the "great subjects of thought," when he 

 ignored what are really such God, our 

 souls, and the aspiration towards, and be- 

 lief in, a future state. The Mills would 

 not advance what they considered moral- 

 ity, nor, as I have stated above, say 

 " where it is to be found, or how it can be 

 made binding on men," if the morality 

 contained in the Decalogue and New 

 Testament is to be rejected. 



