JOHN STUART MILL. 



several times over, and wrote out, 

 by way of exercise, a full analysis of 

 them" (p. 20). In 1819, when 

 thirteen years old, his father took 

 him " through a complete course of 

 political economy " (p. 27), and he 

 ' went through the whole extent of 

 the science" (p. 28), and "read 

 Ricardo, giving an account daily of 

 what I read, and discussing, in the 

 best manner I could, the collateral 

 points which offered themselves in 

 our progress" (p. 28). This won- 

 derfully precocious boy-philosopher 

 goes on to say : 



" I remember at some time in my 

 thirteenth year, on my happening to use 

 the word idea, he [his father] asked me 

 what an idea was ; and expressed some 

 displeasure at my ineffectual efforts to 

 define the word. I recollect, also, his in- 

 dignation at my using the common expres- 

 sion, that something was true in theory, 

 but required correction in practice ; and 

 how, after making me vainly strive to 

 define the word theory, ... I had 

 shown unparalleled ignorance " (p. 32). 

 " He strove to make the understanding 

 not only^Y? along with every step of the 

 teaching, but, if possible, precede zt [!] 

 .... As far as I can trust my remem- 

 brance, I acquitted myself very lamely 

 in this department ; my recollection of 

 such matters is almost wholly of failures, 

 hardly ever of success. It is true the 

 failures were often in things in which 

 success, in so early a stage of my pro- 

 gress, was almost impossible " (p. 32). 



There is much, at pages 30-32, 

 on this subject, at such variance 

 with human experience, and so con- 

 tradicted by himself, as just illustra- 

 ted, that it is difficult to think how 

 he could have put it on record. 

 Thus he says, " Mine, however, was 

 not an education of cram" (p. 31), 

 when it was nothing but cram, and 

 such cram that it was little better 

 than a crime for his father to perpe- 

 trate it on him. That can hardly 

 be called cram which consists in 

 filling a child's memory with words 

 without it understanding them, com- 

 pared to torturing one like Mill in 

 trying to get him to comprehend so 



many books and subjects, which, af- 

 ter ten years of such cramming, did 

 not yield the fruit of eliciting any 

 kind of definition of such simple 

 words as idea and theory ! Memory 

 and general instruction are the prin- 

 cipal things to be attended to in the 

 education of a child of a certain 

 age ; while its understanding of what 

 is taught it, and of things in general, 

 is to be cultivated as circumstances 

 will warrant, for the reason that the 

 mind, like everything else in nature, 

 must grow, and must not be forced. 

 He speaks of the " wretched waste 

 of so many precious years as are 

 spent in acquiring the modicum of 

 Latin and Greek commonly taught 

 to school-boys "(p. 30). Like perhaps 

 everything else he finds fault with, 

 he does not say in what respect this 

 is wrong, or suggest anything better 

 to take its place. No doubt more 

 time than is necessary is often, if not 

 generally, given to Latin and Greek, 

 when they are to be of almost no 

 use in after life, and when both be- 

 come nearly forgotten; their main 

 or only use then being, like mathe- 

 matics and such subjects, to remind 

 people that they did learn and un- 

 derstand such in their youth, if they 

 have now forgotten them, so as to 

 prevent them having an undefined 

 and magnified sense of ignorance, 

 and consequent diffidence, had they 

 never known anything about them. 

 A considerable part of the time 

 spent on Latin and Greek could, in 

 the great majority of cases, be profit- 

 ably given to modern languages and 

 more advanced branches of their 

 own language, and some of the sim- 

 ple aspects of science of various 

 kinds, and especially to writing or 

 copying subjects on paper, to im- 

 prove the handwriting, spelling, the 

 use of capitals and punctuation, com- 

 mand of language, style, etc., for use 

 in any calling in life. Education, 

 indeed, should be uniform up to a 

 certain point, when it should diverge 

 to suit the purpose it is required to 

 serve. As the classics are taught in 



