THE ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH. 



207 



and Water ; others were sent for inser- 

 tion in that periodical, but its conductors 

 had too much discretion to insert them 

 [they were politely returned by request/ 

 as stated in the Introduction to the 

 work] ; the rest have been added as the 

 result of labours undertaken in time 

 during which it is a great pity Mr. Sim- 

 son could find nothing better to do. . . . 

 He accumulates a mass of evidence to 

 prove that young snakes are in the habit, 

 after being hatched outside, of taking 

 refuge inside their parents' bodies on 

 very small provocation ; but this evi- 

 dence it would be found very difficult 

 to sift or test, and the impertinent dog- 

 matism with which Mr. Simson treats 

 Buckland, White of Selborne, and other 

 naturalists who do not favour his views, 

 is, of itself, sufficient to warrant a doubt 

 as to the value of his observations. Mr. 

 Simson's remarks on Waterton, and es- 

 pecially on Mill, are neither more nor 

 less than a string of absurd and point- 

 less criticisms, interspersed with a con- 

 siderable amount of personal abuse. The 

 puzzle is, why he should suppose that his 

 views on Waterton and Mill are of the 

 smallest importance to any human be- 

 ing except himself. The volume is alto- 

 gether a literary curiosity, presenting a 

 combination of bigotry and egotism such 

 as it would not be easy to parallel." 

 (June loth, 1875). 



In regard to James Mill, the father 

 of John Stuart Mill, I have said 

 that 



" It was after finally breaking with 

 the Church, perhaps in consequence of 

 disappointment of a benefice, and of the 

 restraint on his godless opinions, that he 

 gave vent to all his spitefulness against 

 religion of every kind, natural as well as 

 revealed" (p. 71). 



In his Life of James Mill, in 

 Mind, a London quarterly review, 

 Professor Bain says of him : 



" The latest recorded incident of his 

 career in Scotland is his being defeated 

 in his attempt to become minister of the 

 pleasant parish of Craig, a long narrow 

 strip of uplands lying on the coast 

 between Montrose and the Bay of Lunan. 

 Mill could have taken care of such a 

 parish [as parishes were then frequently 

 'taken care of], and yet have found 



time for his favourite studies, working 

 his way to authorship, and perhaps a 

 chair in a university " (p. 1 1 5). 



Powerful as was his influence, 

 that of his rival, James Brewster (a 

 brother of Sir David Brewster), was 

 more so. It is added : " Brewster 

 was a man far more acceptable to 

 an ordinary congregation than ever 

 Mill could have been." 



Professor Bain says that the popu- 

 lar idea of Mill's disappointment 

 being the cause of his going to Lon- 

 don, in the beginning of 1802, was 

 a mere guess, for with his friends 

 he would soon have found a church. 

 But no allowance is made for his 

 chagrin, his hasty temper, or the 

 delay (nearly eighteen months) till 

 the case was settled, after the resig- 

 nation of the incumbent, in June, 

 1803, under circumstances which 

 are not explained. We find Mill 

 writing from London, on the 7th of 

 February, 1807, to Mr. David Bar- 

 clay, as follows : 



" Have you no good kirk yet in your 

 neighbourhood [as if he had given him 

 a standing commission from the first to 

 find him one] which you could give me, 

 and free me from this life of toil and 

 anxiety which I lead here?" (p. 530).* 



It was doubtless with this in view 

 that he carefully kept his sermons, 

 about which Professor Bain says : 



"I cannot account for John Stuart 

 Mill's uncertainty as to whether his 

 father had been licensed to preach. I 

 have been told by members of the family 

 that their father s sermons were known 

 to be in the house. What became of 

 them no one can tell" (p. ill). (Per- 

 haps they were surreptitiously de- 

 stroyed). 



This remark has reference to his 



* There is nothing to show that James 

 Mill did not write to others to the same 

 effect, even subsequently to the time 

 mentioned, particularly as Professor Bain 

 says that, " with his friends he would 

 soon have found a church." 



