The Scottish Philosophy [223]
If he ever belonged sincerely to the evangelical party, there must have been a tremendous revulsion of feeling in the change. If he belonged to the moderates, he had little to abandon beyond the doctrines of natural religion.
He married -- it is curious that the son never refers to the lady -- not long after his settlement in London, and when he had no resource but the precarious one of writing in periodicals. He must have had a hard struggle in these times, but he bore it resolutely. A writer in the "Edinburgh Review" (July, 1873) describes him. " In appearance he was strikingly like the portraits of Charles XII. of Sweden, with a lofty forehead, a keen and cutting face. His powers of conversation were extraordinary; but, both in his family and among his disciples, he was to the last degree tyrannical, arbitrary, and impatient of contradiction." "He was a harsh husband and a stern father." The first great literary work planned by him was the " History of British India," which he commenced and completed in about ten years, and published in 1817-18. In 1819 the Court of Directors of the India Company appointed him to the high post of assistant examiner of India correspondence, and he held this office till within four years of his death. He wrote articles in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica, " on government, education, jurisprudence, law of nations, liberty of the press, colonies, and prison discipline. He was also a contributor to the " Westminster Review," and the " London Review," which after a few months was merged in the " London and Westminster." In 1821-22 he published his " Elements of Political Economy; " in {373} 1829 his "Analysis of the Human Mind;" and in 1835 the " Fragment on Mackintosh," being the last work before his death, which took place 23d June, 1836.
For the last fifteen or twenty years of his life he was an important member of a thinking and writing circle, he himself being the centre of a smaller circle within that circle. In morals and politics he attached himself to Bentham, at that time obnoxious in the extreme to many, but adored by a select few. " Mr. Bentham, " says Mrs. Grote, " being a man of easy fortune, kept a good table, and took pleasure in receiving guests at his board, though never more than one at a time. To this one guest he would talk fluently, yet not caring to listen in his turn." James Mill was often the one guest so highly favored. " Bentham lived in Queen's Square Place, Westminster, close to the residence of Mill and his family, and his house was lent to the historian of India." Acquainted with mental science (at that time not studied in London), through his training in Scottish philosophy, and his reading of Hartley, he became the leader in metaphysical thought in the metropolis. He had qualities which fitted him to influence young men. He was earnest; he was clear; he was strongly impressed with the evils of the past and present; he spoke authoritatively and dogmatically, and with contempt of those who opposed him, and facile minds bent before him. We have a friendly picture of him drawn by Mrs. Grote as he began to exercise a powerful influence over her husband. " Before many months the ascendancy of James Mill's powerful mind over his younger companion made itself apparent. George Grote began by admiring the wisdom, the acuteness, the depths of Mill's intellectual character. Presently he found himself enthralled in the circle of Mill's speculations; and, after a year or two of intimate commerce, there existed but little difference, in point of opinion, between master and pupil. Mr. Mill had the strongest convictions as to the superior advantages of democratic government over the monarchical or the aristocratic -- , and with these he mingled a scorn and hatred of the ruling classes which amounted to positive fanaticism. Coupled with this aversion to-- aristocratic influence (to which influence he invariably ascribed most of the defects and abuses prevalent in the administration of public affairs), Mr. Mill entertained a profound prejudice against the Established
He married -- it is curious that the son never refers to the lady -- not long after his settlement in London, and when he had no resource but the precarious one of writing in periodicals. He must have had a hard struggle in these times, but he bore it resolutely. A writer in the "Edinburgh Review" (July, 1873) describes him. " In appearance he was strikingly like the portraits of Charles XII. of Sweden, with a lofty forehead, a keen and cutting face. His powers of conversation were extraordinary; but, both in his family and among his disciples, he was to the last degree tyrannical, arbitrary, and impatient of contradiction." "He was a harsh husband and a stern father." The first great literary work planned by him was the " History of British India," which he commenced and completed in about ten years, and published in 1817-18. In 1819 the Court of Directors of the India Company appointed him to the high post of assistant examiner of India correspondence, and he held this office till within four years of his death. He wrote articles in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica, " on government, education, jurisprudence, law of nations, liberty of the press, colonies, and prison discipline. He was also a contributor to the " Westminster Review," and the " London Review," which after a few months was merged in the " London and Westminster." In 1821-22 he published his " Elements of Political Economy; " in {373} 1829 his "Analysis of the Human Mind;" and in 1835 the " Fragment on Mackintosh," being the last work before his death, which took place 23d June, 1836.
For the last fifteen or twenty years of his life he was an important member of a thinking and writing circle, he himself being the centre of a smaller circle within that circle. In morals and politics he attached himself to Bentham, at that time obnoxious in the extreme to many, but adored by a select few. " Mr. Bentham, " says Mrs. Grote, " being a man of easy fortune, kept a good table, and took pleasure in receiving guests at his board, though never more than one at a time. To this one guest he would talk fluently, yet not caring to listen in his turn." James Mill was often the one guest so highly favored. " Bentham lived in Queen's Square Place, Westminster, close to the residence of Mill and his family, and his house was lent to the historian of India." Acquainted with mental science (at that time not studied in London), through his training in Scottish philosophy, and his reading of Hartley, he became the leader in metaphysical thought in the metropolis. He had qualities which fitted him to influence young men. He was earnest; he was clear; he was strongly impressed with the evils of the past and present; he spoke authoritatively and dogmatically, and with contempt of those who opposed him, and facile minds bent before him. We have a friendly picture of him drawn by Mrs. Grote as he began to exercise a powerful influence over her husband. " Before many months the ascendancy of James Mill's powerful mind over his younger companion made itself apparent. George Grote began by admiring the wisdom, the acuteness, the depths of Mill's intellectual character. Presently he found himself enthralled in the circle of Mill's speculations; and, after a year or two of intimate commerce, there existed but little difference, in point of opinion, between master and pupil. Mr. Mill had the strongest convictions as to the superior advantages of democratic government over the monarchical or the aristocratic -- , and with these he mingled a scorn and hatred of the ruling classes which amounted to positive fanaticism. Coupled with this aversion to-- aristocratic influence (to which influence he invariably ascribed most of the defects and abuses prevalent in the administration of public affairs), Mr. Mill entertained a profound prejudice against the Established