Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/402

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the theories already taught by Bentham. His political views were equally those of his master, but his far greater powers of dealing with men enabled him to exert a more potent, direct influence upon the operations of the party, and he cast the theories into a form more immediately applicable. He was more original in the psychological inquiries, to which Bentham had contributed little, although the essential principles are taken for granted in Bentham's ethical speculations. Mill's ‘Analysis’ is a book of singular merit, from the terse and lucid exposition of a one-sided point of view. He was greatly influenced by Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and by the French writers, such as Condillac, Helvetius, and Cabanis; but his chief master was Hartley, whose theory of association he applied and extended. The book marks a distinct stage in the development of the empirical school, and many of J. S. Mill's logical and ethical doctrines are evidently suggested by the attempt to solve problems to which his father's answers appeared unsatisfactory. The ‘Fragment on Mackintosh’ is one of the most characteristic expressions of utilitarian morals. In James Mill utilitarianism showed all its most characteristic qualities. The resolution to keep to solid facts, and not to be misled by words; the attempt to treat all problems by a scientific method, the blindness to opposite schemes of metaphysical thought, and the contempt for the mystical and the sentimental apparent in all Mill's writings, explain both the attractions of the doctrine for some temperaments and the repulsion which it aroused in others. In domestic life Mill was a curious example of a man who, while resolutely discharging every duty, somehow made even his virtues unamiable. He seems to have despised his wife, and to have allowed his contempt to appear in his conversation, though in his letters he always refers to her respectfully. He spared no labour in the attempt to teach his children thoroughly, though his habitual repression of his feelings and his constitutional irritability made the task trying on both sides, and the children, though not unhappy, were never at ease in his presence. His son observes (Autobiog. p. 47) that he was, ‘in the ancient sense of the words,’ a stoic in his personal qualities, an epicurean as regarded his standard of morals, and a cynic in that he set little value upon pleasures, and thought that human life was ‘a poor thing at best,’ after the freshness of early years had decayed.

Mill's works are: 1. ‘Essay on the Impolicy of a Bounty on the Exportation of Grain and the Principles which ought to regulate the Commerce of Grain,’ 1804. 2. ‘Commerce Defended: an Answer to the Arguments by which Mr. Spence, Mr. Cobbett, and others have attempted to prove that Commerce is not the source of National Wealth,’ 1808. Spence replied in ‘Agriculture the Source of the Wealth of Britain.’ 3. ‘History of India,’ 3 vols. 4to, 1817; 4th edit., 9 vols. 8vo, 1848; 5th edit., ed. with continuation by H. H. Wilson, 10 vols. 8vo, 1858. 4. ‘Elements of Political Economy,’ 1821; 2nd edit. 1824; 3rd edit. 1826. 5. ‘Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind,’ 1829, edited by J. S. Mill, with notes by Alexander Bain, Andrew Findlater, and George Grote, 2 vols. 8vo, 1869. 6. ‘A Fragment on Mackintosh,’ 1835 and 1870.

Between 1816 and 1823 Mill contributed to the supplement of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ articles upon ‘Government,’ ‘Jurisprudence,’ ‘Liberty of the Press,’ ‘Prison and Prison Discipline,’ ‘Colony,’ ‘Law of Nations,’ and ‘Education,’ which were reprinted in a separate volume (n.d., see above); and others upon ‘Caste,’ ‘Economists,’ ‘Beggars,’ ‘Benefit Societies,’ ‘Banks for Saving,’ which were not collected. A review of the essays of Samuel Bailey [q. v.], originally contributed to the ‘Westminster Review’ for July 1829, was reprinted as ‘The Principles of Toleration’ in 1837. A full account of many of Mill's contributions to various periodicals is given in Professor Bain's ‘Life of James Mill.’

[James Mill: a Biography, by Professor Bain, 1882, contains a careful account of all the facts. See also Macvey Napier's Correspondence; Life, by A. Bisset, in the Penny Cyclopædia; J. S. Mill's Autobiography; Bowring's Life of Bentham; Personal Life of G. Grote, pp. 21–5. Place's manuscripts in the British Museum have been used by Professor Bain. The writer has to thank Mr. Graham Wallas, who is preparing a life of Place, for communicating other letters.]

L. S.

MILL, JOHN (1645–1707), principal of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, was born at Hardendale, in the parish of Shap, Westmoreland, in 1645. His father, Thomas, son of John Mill or Milln, of Banton, near Shap, was a weaver. The son was known until 1673 as Milne. Mill matriculated in the university as ‘pauper puer’ on 14 Oct. 1661, and entered Queen's College, Oxford, in Michaelmas term, on 18 Oct. 1661, as a batler. On 23 June 1663 he was elected tabardar of the college, to be admitted as soon as possible. He proceeded B.A. on 3 May 1666, M.A. 1669, B.D. 1680, D.D. 1681, and his distinction in classics led to his selection as speaker of the ‘Oratio Panegyrica’ at the opening of the