Thomas Tooke), Mr.John Arthur Roebuck, Mr.G.H.Graham, Mr.Grant, and Mr.W.G.Prescott formed part of their class."He now became a leader of opinion, and imparted his own character to a whole school.His intellect was clear, but not comprehensive; was strong, but one-sided.He saw what he wished to see, and did not go round the object to view the other side.Hence be was not troubled with uncertainties or doubts, and he laid down his opinions coolly and dogmatically, wondering how every man did not see as he did, and bearing no contradiction.The school of which he was a leader -- or, rather, I believe, <the> leader -- came to be called " Philosophical Radicalism," or sometimes the "Westminster Review" school, from that review being its organ.It was founded on Utilitarianism in morals and on sensational empiricism in philosophy; and Mill gave it its earnestness, its narrowness, its exclusiveness, and its fanaticism.The school had at first the general sentiment against them; but they persevered, and came in a few years to exercise a potent influence, which is felt at this day, in consequence mainly of the able men, then young, but now old or deceased, who became attached to it.
He has left us no account of the religious crisis through which he passed, but his son has told us the results which he {376} reached: "The turning point of his mind on the subject -- as reading Butler's `Analogy.' That work, of which he always continued to speak with respect, kept him, as he said, for some considerable time a believer in the divine authority of Christianity, by proving to him that, whatever are the difficulties in believing that the Old and New Testaments proceed from, or record the acts of, a perfectly wise and good Being, the same and still greater difficulties stand in the way of the belief that a Being of such a character can have been the Maker of the universe.He considered Butler's argument as conclusive against the only opponents for whom it was intended.Those who admit an omnipotent as well as perfectly just and benevolent Maker and Ruler of such a world as this can say little against Christianity but what can, with at least equal force, be retorted against themselves.Finding, therefore, no halting place in deism, he remained in a state of perplexity, until, doubtless after many struggles, he yielded to the conviction that, concerning the origin of things, nothing whatever can be known.This is the only correct statement of his opinion;for dogmatic atheism he looked upon as absurd, as most of those whom the world has considered atheists have always done." " He found it impossible to believe that a world so full of evil was the work of an Author combining infinite power with perfect goodness and righteousness." He saw, what natural religion shuts its eyes to, that there were manifold evils in the world; so say the Scriptures, and tell us how they sprang up, and point to the remedy,-a remedy which Mr.
Mill was not pre pared to adopt, and so was left without any relief from the dark prospect.We do not wonder in these circumstances that " he thought human life a poor thing at best, after the freshness of youth and of unsatisfied curiosity had gone by."He was thoroughly discontented with the education commonly given to the young."In psychology his fundamental doctrine was the formation of all human character by circumstances, through the universal principle of association, and the consequent unlimited possibility of improving the moral and intellectual condition of mankind by education." So he took the education of his oldest son into his own hand.At three he taught him Greek; and by the age of eight the boy had read " the whole of Herodotus, of Xenophon's' `Cyropaedia' and {377} `Memorials of Socrates,'
some of the `Lives of the Philosophers' by Diogenes Laertius, part of `Isocrates ad Demonicum' and `Ad Nicoclem.'" At the age of nine he had read the first six Dialogues of Plato, from the "Euthyphron" to the "Theaetetus" inclusive.He was made to begin Latin in his eighth year; and from his eighth to his twelfth year he read the "Bucolics" of Virgil and the first six books of the "Aeneid," all Horace except the "Epodes," the "Fables" of Phaedrus, the first five books of Livy, with the remainder of the first decade, all Sallust, a considerable part of Ovid's " Metamorphoses," some plays of Terence, two or three books of Lucretius, several of the orations of Cicero and of his writings on oratory and his "Letters to Atticus;" and this while he was adding largely to his Greek and devouring elaborate volumes of history.At the age of twelve he entered on the study of logic, beginning with the "Analytics " of Aristotle.Everybody feels that it was a dangerous thing to lay such a load on the mind of one so young; and that there was an imminent risk either of his brain being overworked or of his being turned into a pedant.
The success of the trial proves that a boy of good ability may learn much more by systematic teaching than most people imagine.In the morning walks with the father the boy was induced to give an account of what he had read the day before.
There were surely great oversights in this training, as, for instance, in not allowing him to mingle with other boys, and in restraining natural emotions." For passionate emotions of all sorts, and for every thing that has been said or written in exaltation of them, he expressed the greatest contempt.He regarded them as a form of madness.