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 Church, {374} and, of course, a corresponding dislike to its ministers.These two vehement currents of antipathy came to be gradually shared by George Grote, in proportion as his veneration of Mr.Mill took deeper and deeper root.Although his own nature was of a gentle, charitable, humane quality, his fine intellect was worked upon by the inexorable teacher with so much persuasive power that George Grote found himself inoculated, as it were, with the conclusions of the former almost without a choice, since the subtle reasonings of Mr.Mill appeared to his logical mind to admit of no refutation.And thus it came to pass that, starting from acquired convictions, George Grote adopted the next phase; viz., the antipathies of his teacher,-- antipathies which colored his mind through the whole period of his ripe meridian age, and may be said to have inspired and directed many of the important actions of life.Originating in an earnest feeling for the public good, these currents gradually assumed the force and sanction of duties, prompting George Grote to a systematic course both of study, opinion, action, and self-denial, in which be was urgently encouraged by the master-spirit of James Mill, to that gentleman's latest breath in 1836.This able dogmatist exercised considerable influence over other young men of that day as well as over Grote.He was indeed a propagandist of a high order, equally master of the pen and of speech.Moreover, he possessed the faculty of kindling in his auditors the generous impulses towards the popular side both in politics and social theories; leading them at the same time to regard the cultivation of individual affections and sympathies as destructive of lofty aims and indubitably hurtful to the mental character." Mr.
Grote says in 1819: "I have met Mill often at his (Ricord's)house, and hope to derive great pleasure and instruction from his acquaintance, as he is a very profound-thinking man and seems well disposed to communicate, as well as clear and intelligible in his manner.His mind has indeed all that cynicism and asperity which belong to the Benthamian school;and what I chiefly dislike in him is the readiness and seeming preference with which he dwells on the faults and defects of others, even of the greatest of men.But it is so very rarely that a man of any depth comes across my path, that I shall almost assuredly cultivate his acquaintance a good deal farther." We have a less favorable picture in an article in the " Edinburgh Review" (July, 1873), {375} which says of the son His fine and loving temper was constantly struggling against the imperious dictates of his master, who had taught him to regard, as Mr.Grote tells us, the cultivation of individual affections and sympathies as destructive of lofty aims, and hurtful to the mental character.In the course of years several young men devoted to the study of metaphysics and mental philosophy were accustomed to meet twice a week at Mr.Grote's in the city, at half-past eight in the morning, for an hour or two.
Jeremy Bentham was regarded by them as a kind of deity, whose utterances were closely watched and reverently received.James Mill was their prophet, who exercised uncontrolled sway over their minds." Mrs.Grote gives an account of the men and their studies." They read Mr.Mill's last work, " The Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind," Hartley" On Man," Dutrieux's "Logic," Whately's works, &c., discussing as they proceeded.Mr.John Stuart Mill, Mr.Charles Buller, Mr.Eyton Tooke, (son of Mr.