HIS ED UCA TION. 



ment, made use of its wings on be- 

 ing set at liberty, totally ignorant 

 of the outside world. We find him 

 saying of himself, when fifteen and a 

 half years old, that he " had what 

 might truly be called an object in 

 life to be a reformer of the world " 

 (p. 132). For this, his father was 

 doubtless mainly responsible, for he 

 looked on " his son John " as a 

 wonderful child, destined to do 

 some great things in the 'world ; a 

 kind of John the Baptist, in his way 

 of thinking, who would at least 

 " build the bridges and clear the 

 paths " for others, and connect their 

 thoughts with his (and doubtless 

 his father's) " general system of 

 thought " (p. 244). 



It is also interesting to notice that 

 Mill kept his son aloof from the 

 " corrupting influence which boys 

 exercise over boys," the " demoral- 

 izing effects of school life," and the 

 " contagion of vulgar modes of 

 thought and feeling," when even 

 royalty will send its children to 

 public educational establishments, 

 for the benefit of being initiated in 

 some of the ways of the world, 

 which must be done in youth, to 

 speak of nothing else. This appears 

 singular when we consider the birth 

 and rearing of Mill himself, who 

 was brought up on the humblest of 

 Scotch fare" taties and kail, par- 

 ritch and skim or kirn milk " and 

 went barefooted during a good part of 

 the year, and used his jacket-sleeve as 

 his only handkerchief. And if the 

 charity by which he was educated 

 went no further than the instruction, 

 his " provender " while at college 

 would, in all probability, be con- 

 fined for the most part to his meal- 

 bag. 



It cannot be said that James 

 Mill was a fit and proper person to 

 be intrusted with the bringing-up 

 of children. He would, doubtless, 

 have made an excellent teacher or 

 drill-master in certain branches of 

 education in an institution presided 

 over by a man of judgment and 



humanity, who would have allowed 

 him no discretion in their manage- 

 ment, beyond instructing them in 

 their lessons or the subjects to be 

 taught them.* John Stuart Mill's 

 education, in the proper sense of 

 the word, really began after he left 

 his father, of whom he stood in con- 

 stant dread to the last, as if he had 

 him always after him with a stick. 

 It is noticeable how he picked it 

 up " about town " here, there, and 

 everywhere undoing much of his 

 previous instruction and as much 

 as possible away from his father's 

 supervision or influence. The latter 

 in some respects resembled a "beard- 

 ed Savoyard," whose calling is to 

 " teach " animals which have the 

 misfortune to find their way to his 

 establishment for that purpose. 

 The education which he gave his 

 son was devoid of everything con- 

 nected with the imagination and 

 the heart. How the son gradually 

 shook himself clear of him is thus 

 related, when he was about twenty- 

 six years old : 



" My father's tone of thought and feel- 



* Divinity students, in Scotland espe- 

 cially, labour under great disadvantages 

 in gaining a knowledge of the world by 

 the time they have otherwise prepared 

 themselves to assume their positions in it. 

 They have to isolate themselves to a 

 great extent from their fellow-creatures, 

 owing to the nature of their calling and 

 the peculiarities of society ; their associa- 

 tions with them being confined for the 

 most part to some of the trifling amenities 

 of life, where everything presents itself 

 in its most favourable aspect ; so that 

 when they are about twenty-five years 

 old they have had little or no real com- 

 merce with their kind. And there is no 

 chair at the university to teach them 

 " worldly wisdom," to make up the loss. 

 They thus lose at least eight years of the 

 best part of their lives for acquiring the 

 most important part of knowledge. Dur- 

 ing all that time they are presumed to 

 have been studying the " eternal verities," 

 to the great neglect of what strictly refers 

 to this world. Hence they assume their 

 positions with a sufficiency of learning, 

 but with a deficiency of the knowledge 

 of their duties relating to practical life. 

 If the student belongs to a poor or hum- 



