37° 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the face of the friends of scientific 

 education as a final refutation of their 

 case. It was a victory of the classi- 

 cists simply because it gave them every 

 thing they asked. If they could have 

 classical studies assured on such a scale 

 as Mr. Mill proposed, there was no 

 longer any fear of scientific encroach- 

 ment. Already in possession of the 

 appliances of education in existing in- 

 stitutions, if his programme is accept- 

 ed, they will always remain in posses- 

 sion. Mr. Mill said, " Why not both ? " 

 But his argument was a practical sur- 

 render to one side, because, on his 

 scale of study there is not time for both, 

 and the party that comes first gets 

 all. 



The question now arises, "Was this 

 exalted estimate of classical studies the 

 result of an impartial survey of the 

 field of knowledge and an equal appre- 

 ciation of science, or of an overwhelm- 

 ing bias produced by a one-sided train- 

 ing, of which Mr. Mill had been the 

 victim in his youth ? The Autobiogra- 

 phy here comes to our assistance, and 

 we learn from it the following extraor- 

 dinary facts : 



Mr. Mill's father was a man of great 

 intellectual vigor, and a disciplined 

 scholar, and he determined to make 

 his son an example of the most thor- 

 ough and perfect form of education. 

 Critical, vigilant, and exacting, he took 

 entire charge of the boy's studies. 

 Fortunately, the lad had great native 

 capacity, and a fine, tenacious organi- 

 zation, and his proficiency equaled his 

 father's efforts and expectations. At 

 three years old he commenced the 

 study of Greek, and only faintly re- 

 members going through Esop's " Fa- 

 bles " in that language. He then read 

 the "Anabasis," and, before he was 

 eight years old, he had read all the nine 

 books of Herodotus, the first six " Dia- 

 logues " of Plato, all Xenophon's " Cy- 

 ropaadia," the " Memorabilia " of Soc- 

 rates, and portions of Diogenes Laer- 

 tius, Lucian, and Isocrates. During this 



time he also learned arithmetic, and read 

 the histories of Robertson, Hume, Gib- 

 bon, Watson, Hooke, Rollin, Burnet, 

 Langhorne's Plutarch, Millar's " Histor- 

 ical View of the English Government," 

 Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, and 

 various other ponderous books ; nor 

 were these merely cursory or desultory 

 readings. His father required every day 

 a full account of what he had read. 

 Notes, abridgments, and synoptical 

 statements, had to be made, and in 

 their daily walks the father enforced 

 the lessons, and gave him explanations 

 and ideas on various questions of civili- 

 zation, government, mental philosophy, 

 and morality ; and all this the son was 

 required afterward to reproduce in his 

 own words. 



Amazing as was the work done up 

 to his eighth year, it increased, in a 

 most oppressive ratio, in the next four 

 years. English and Greek being not 

 sufficient, he now went into Latin, and, 

 as he acquired it, taught it to his broth- 

 ers and sisters. Between his eighth 

 and twelfth year, he read Virgil, Hor- 

 ace, part of Livy, the whole of Sal- 

 lust, parts of Ovid, Terence, Lucretius, 

 Cicero, the "Iliad" and "Odyssey," 

 one or two Greek plays, the whole of 

 Thucydides, Aristotle's " Rhetoric," 

 Tacitus, Juvenal, Quintilian, and the 

 principal " Dialogues " of Plato. From 

 ten to eleven he wrote a " History of 

 Rome " that would have filled an octavo 

 volume. He also learned elementary 

 geometry, algebra, the differential calcu- 

 lus, and other parts of the higher math- 

 ematics. Logic, and the " Organon " of 

 Aristotle, had not been neglected ; and, 

 at thirteen, he corrected the proof- 

 sheets of his father's " History of In- 

 dia," and went through with him a 

 complete course of political economy, 

 being required to correct "the more 

 superficial views of Adam Smith by the 

 superior lights of Ricardo." Of course, 

 the boy was kept to the inexorable 

 drill, upon subjects selected by his 

 father ; but, in his spontaneous reading, 



