Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/565

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MILL 547 caused the directors in 1819 to introduce him into their home establishment, where he man- aged their correspondence with India in the revenue branch of the administration ; and he became in time head of the department of In- dian correspondence. His official duties did not preclude the continuance of his labors as an author, and he contributed to the supple- ment to the earlier editions of the " Encyclo- paedia Britannica." His articles on colonies, education, government, jurisprudence, law of nations, liberty of the press, and prison disci- pline were reprinted in a volume (1828), and are among his most effective writings. His "Elements of Political Economy" (1821-'2) presented the views of Ricardo in a precise and clear style. His most elaborate work is his "Analysis of the Phenomena of the Hu- man Mind " (2 vols. 8vo, 1829), an ingenious exposition of the sensational philosophy. His last publication was a fragment containing a severe criticism on Sir James Mackintosh's dis- sertation on the progress of ethical philosophy (1835). II. John Stuart, an English philoso- pher, son of the preceding, born in London, May 20, 1806, died in Avignon, France, May 9, 1873. He was educated by his father in a singularly pedantic manner, and for many years subjected himself to the severest intel- lectual training, while pursuing a wide range of studies. In 1823 he became a clerk in the India house, in which after a series of pro- motions he received in 1856 the appointment of examiner of Indian correspondence, a post which had been held by his father, and which he retained till the extinction of the East India company in 1858. He was selected to edit Bentham's "Eationale of Judicial Evidence" (1827), to which he added notes and supple- mentary chapters. He was a frequent con- tributor to the journals in favor of advanced liberal views during the agitation of the reform bill. In the "London and Westminster Re- view," which he conducted from 1834 to 1840, appeared his masterly articles on Bentham and Coleridge, in which his aim was to inter- pret between their respective admirers, critici- sing his own party and reporting truths which it might learn from its opponents. He also wrote for the "Edinburgh Review" and other leading periodicals. He first became widely known by the publication of his "System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive" (2 vols., 1843), in which the whole character of his phi- losophy appears. The predominance which he gives to sensation in psychology involves the predominance of induction in logic. He denies the existence of a priori truths, affirms that knowledge is limited to phenomena, and ignores causation beyond phenomenal condi- tions. His " Essays on some Unsettled Ques- tions of Political Economy" (1844) -was pre- liminary to his second great work, entitled "Principles of Political Economy, with some of their Applications to Social Philosophy" (1848), a subject peculiarly fitted to his adroit- ness in the treatment of positive problems and palpable interests. He aimed, like Adam Smith, to associate the exposition of general principles with their practical applications, and also to introduce the new ideas, especially re- specting currency, foreign trade, and coloniza- tion, which had been elicited by discussions subsequent to the publication of the " Wealth of Nations;" to maintain a course of strict scientific reasoning while exhibiting the eco- nomical phenomena of society in their relation to the best social ideas of the present time. His " Dissertations and Discussions, Political, Philosophical, and Historical," collected chiefly from the " Edinburgh " and " Westminster " reviews (2 vols., 1859; vol. iii., 1867; vel. iv. in preparation, 1874), embrace his views on the most important topics. He maintains that sci- entific certainty is only relative, and that theol- ogy can have no firmer basis than an inference from the analogies of experience ; that moral- ity is but a means to an end, which is hap- piness, that approximation to an ideal standard of inward harmony is the method of attaining that end, that the realization of this harmony is not a moral but an sesthetical achievement, and that the utilitarian is entirely different from the selfish view of life; that poetry, music, painting, and sculpture have great so- cial value and educative power ; that political questions should be decided by the deliberately formed opinions of a select few, specially edu- cated for the task, whose rectitude of purpose should be secured by rendering them respon- sible to the many ; that the ideal of a rational democracy is not that the people themselves govern, but that they have security for good government; that there is no essential differ- ence between the powers of woman and man, and that she should be his partner in all actual and intellectual enterprises, and in all social and political privileges and responsibilities; and that all history is a progressive chain of causes and effects, the complex facts of each generation being caused by that which pre- ceded it, and moulding that which follows it. He published also in 1859 a work "On Lib- erty," the object of which is to show that our age manifests an increasing despotism of so- cial and political masses over the moral and intellectual freedom of individuals, that the supremacy of public opinion discourages the strength or intensity of any well marked type of character, that energetic characters on any large scale are becoming merely traditional, and that the only guarantee against the decline of our civilization is to erect by common con- sent every individual human mind into an im- pregnable and independent fortress, within which no social authority shall have any juris- diction. In his " Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform " (1859) he recommends the extension of the electoral suffrage to all householders without distinction of sex, on condition of proving their ability to read, write, and cal- culate, and a considerable extension to persons