JOHN STUART MILL. 



training [beyond that of the school, the 

 university, his tutorship, and his inter- 

 course with his fellow-creatures] he 

 seems to have supposed that I ought to 

 acquire as easily [although reared like 

 a bird in a cage]. He had not, I think, 

 bestowed the same amount of thought 

 and attention on this as on most other 

 branches of education [ ? ] ; and here, 

 as well as in some other points of my 

 tuition, he seems to have {seems to 

 have !] expected effects without causes 

 (P- 37). 



We are told that his father " most 

 anxiously guarded against " his son 

 acquiring self-conceit, and kept him 

 " with extreme vigilance " from 

 being praised, so that he did not 

 become aware that his attainments 

 were anything unusual at his age, 

 and in such ignorance on the sub- 

 ject, that he " did not estimate him- 

 self at all." In speaking of his 

 father, he says, when in his four- 

 teenth year : 



" From his own intercourse with me 

 I could derive none but a very humble 

 opinion of myself" (p. 32). " He wound 

 up by saying that whatever I knew more 

 than others could not be ascribed to any 

 merit in me [even in standing the cram- 

 ming], but to the very unusual advantage 

 which had fallen to my lot of having a 

 father who was able to teach me [after 

 being himself taught at the expense of 

 strangers] and willing to give the neces- 

 sary trouble and time [or let the family 

 grow up so many barbarians]; that it was 

 no matter of praise to me [but all to him- 

 self] if I knew more than those who 

 had not had a similar advantage, but 

 the deepest disgrace to me if I did not " 

 (p. 34). " They, as I have since found, 

 thought me greatly and disagreeably 

 self-conceited, probably because I was 

 disputatious, and did not scruple to give 

 direct contradictions to things which I 

 heard said. I suppose I acquired this 

 bad habit from having been encouraged 

 in an unusual degree to talk on matters 

 beyond my age, and with grown per- 

 sons, while I never had inculcated on 

 me the usual respect for them. My 

 father did not correct this ill-breeding 

 and impertinence, probably from not 

 being- aware of it, for I was always too 

 much in awe of him to be otherwise 

 than extremely subdued and quiet in 



his presence " (p. 34). Yet " he was 

 full of anecdote, a hearty laugher, and, 

 when with people whom he liked, a 

 most lively and amusing companion" 

 (p. 102). 



Among the books which Mill 

 read in his childhood, he says : 



" At this time I also read the whole 

 of Tacitus, Juvenal, and Quintilian. 

 The latter . . . . is a kind of ency- 

 clopaedia of the thoughts of the ancients 

 on the whole field of education and 

 culture ; and I have retained through 

 life many valuable ideas which I can 

 distinctly trace to my reading of him, 

 even at that early age " (p. 21). 



Had he read Quintilian to any 

 advantage, he would have found 

 stated at length, the many advan- 

 tages a boy derives from a public 

 school education over one given 

 him by a private tutor; which would 

 have completely disposed of almost 

 all he says in regard to his so-called 

 early advantages. He would also 

 have found the following remarks 

 very applicable to himself: 



" How shall he learn what we call 

 ' common sense,' when he sequesters 

 himself from society, which is natural 

 not only to men, but to mute animals" 

 (Patsall, /. p. 26). " It is more advisable 

 . . . that a show may not be made 

 of studies which are still in a crude 

 state. For hence arises a neglect in 

 taking pains, and a foundation is laid 

 for effrontery, and what is attended 

 with very bad consequences, presump- 

 tion anticipates abilities " (/#.,!!., p. 385). 



Mill wrote of himself when four- 

 teen years old : 



" I was not at all aware that my at- 

 tainments were anything unusual at my 

 age [completely isolated as he was kept 

 from his kind] ... I never thought 

 of saying to myself, I am, or I can do, 

 so and so. I neither estimated myself 

 highly nor lowly ; I did not estimate my- 

 self at all" (p. 33), [although he added 

 that others thought him " greatly and 

 disagreeably self-conceited "]. 



It is interesting to notice how 

 this cage-bred bird, which had been 

 taught many things in its confine- 



