New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-07-15
A PHILOSOPHER DEFENDED.
THAT SMALL SCIOLIST-MR. MILL"

|
| TO the Editor OF The Tribune.
SIR: always lay down my Church Journal and
Gospel Messenger with mingled feelings of pleasure
and ave. On any question involving the hight of a
candestick the breadth Of an altarcloth the length
OF genuhecton, the depth of an aims basn its
fervOr Apostolic and its logic Aristotean. Take,
| Tor example, two articles in its last issue
one on the question whether "introit" should be
| psalm or hymn-the other on the difference in re-
ligious symbolism between a triangle of red roses
and circle of yellow roses. What profundity, pun
gency, earnestnessl One seems to catch echoes of
the rejoicngs of Apostles and Martyrs and Confess
sors, such potent efforts to evangeze this most
| corrupt of countries in this most wicked
OF worlds. But when The Church Journal
and Gospel Messenger descends from those calm
nights, where the cut Of cassocks, the friDges Of
stoles the position of lecterns and the right mani
pulation of "introits" are the supreme objects of
contemplation, and lowers itself to the atmosphere
Of the leaders of modern thought it is too modest
ii does its powers and functions injustice.
! AS an example of this laxness cite its recent
notice of the philosopher and statesman whose
death has 80 strongly affected all Europe. The
Church Journal and Gospel Messenger speaks Of him
simply az that small Sciolist Mr.. MILL" Now
submit that such mention-though good as far as it
goes-is insufficient. Ii is too modest, it certainly
wants severity, and possibly wants orthodoxy.
Sundry English journals of the Church had already
! declared Mr. Mill a 'mOnster"-had dismissed him to
the internal regions" had expressed the hope that
England might lose more such; and after these
noble examples of thorough utterance, The Church
Journal and Gospel Messenger is content to dismiss
the maefactor with the words, that small SciOlSt,
Mr. Millw
John Stuart Mills shortcomings are too great to
be thus lightly passed over. He has, indeed devoted
a long life to the solid bettement of his country.
and to such purpose that some thoughtful men have
pronounced him the greatest benefactOr of mankind
| since Adam Smith Others have called him
the greatest of English thinkers since Ba-
| con-" and the very toughest of his re-
cent antagonists-Mr. Stephen-speaks of him
as the great ogician Of our age. Nor has his logic
been sterile. He has emphatically visited the poor
the oppressed, the afflicted, and the prisoner, for
no one of the present century has studied out and
| fought out more ideas that have increased bread
and diminished brutality. More than any Otherman
he has aidedi in Fastening the time when nations
| shall not learn war any more" He has
! breasted masses of British prejudices and
| throtted multitudes of abuses and wrongs and
hundreds of thousands of his poorer cOuntrymen
have through him better food raiment, and shelter,
and more chance to find whether they have souls to
be saved OF not But while his Christianity has
been thus satisfactory, his churchmanship merits
the sternest apprehension. So far heard FROM he
has never chanted an "intrOt' or discOursed the
symbolism Of red and yellow roses. Nor has he en-
riched the world with any "Breathings from
Elim,' or "SoOthings from Gilead." Nay,
it would not surprise me to learn
that he had spoken of the former as
millinery and of the latter az ecclesiastical
pap" Merely to call him that small Scioist, Mr..
MILL is to be wanting in just severity Then, too
as to his personal character. His quiet frmness
unselfshness endurance his faith in God, his fidel
ity to truth as TRUTH and right right, seemed to
spread a benedicton over England, and even those
gloomy old inqusitiOn towers ut Avignon look less
! severe now that the lives Of John Stuart Mill
and his wife have ebbed out so sweetly and trust
fully beneath their shadows. Still Of justice
compels me to say, that far be learned, he
never sang occasional" or "intoned" a collect,
or attained the devOut subllmites of Fifth-ave
| pocket cathedrals. The words that small
Sciolist Mr. Mill" family reveal the depths
| Of his turpitude. To be sure, he
gave the sturdest practical rebuke to corrupt cleo
toral practices that England has yet known and his
thoughts on political, social and moral subjects
hsve been pure and so fruitful of good that the
! Duke of Argyle and Prof. Tyndall Mr. Gladstone
| anu MI huAley. ltdu Nuell lSlio" NAtlHSbS VA
| all creeds and parties in doing him honor in
| England. while the French Institute assemblies
| for the same purpose in France. They honor
1 him not only AZ great thinker, but
also as one who introduced more health into cot
| tages. more hope into prisons, more justice into
| courts more reason into legislatures, and more
christianity into churches but, after ALL he took no
part in "the glorious work Of introducing the sur
plice instead of the gown into the pulpits," and
must again insist that in view of such spoiled life
as that, the severity of The Church Journal and Cos
pei Messenger is painfully inadequate when it allows
his memory to escape with the words, II that small
sciolst, Mr.. Mill.'
| The Journal must do better than this. For, to
! myriads of men-yea to many duly enlightened by
"recessionals" aud introits and trangles of yell
low roses"-John Stuart Mill to have been one
of those foretOld by tho Sermon on the Mount. and
] to have borne those blessings which came therein
warm from the heart of the great author and Fin
| isher of the Faith-the blessing upon the
peacemakers-the blessing on the merciful-the
blessing which comes when men revile. Reading
that touching dedication of his to his dead wife one
can see that his too was the blessing of those that
MOURN and AZ men gaze at the imprint of his quiet,
thoughtful loving face the belief is born that after
| all his heresies his may at this moment be the most
ineffable blessing of althe blessing OF the pure 10
| heart Yours, W.D A.
Neg Yok, July II, 1873.
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