Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-03-21
JOHN STUART MILL.

10 lovers OF nDerty and lnulVluuallSll,
few are more worthy to be enshrined than
that of John Stuart Mill. His father was
James Mill, author Of the History of
British India, and famous for his Vest
minister RerjeC papers. James Mill made
his son a scholar at an age when
most English boys are at Iar-
row, Winchester or Eaton; and
at twelve years OF age, young Mill
had read more of the classics
than the graduates of Oxford
and Cambridge usually read before
taking their degrees. The range and
depth of this knowledge were wonderful;
and stranger than all it increased with his
years, while his thought and his specula-
ton We're still more wonderful,
and did not end in writing con-
ceits and praising folly; nor in en-
deavoring to see how many quaint and
curious phrases he could Gull from un-
known and forgotten authors. He praised
man and not folly, and in long and
busy life found no time and no inclina-
tion to deal in trivialities; he anatomized
society and social wrongs and not melan
choly.
His father was man who
would in no way allow of any
departure from the idea of life which he
himself had formed, which idea was that
life was thing to be used in lettering the
condition ofman in this world, physically,
socially, morally and intellectually. The
father made the son his pupil, and when
he had completed his education to a
point absolutely necessary according to his
standard, he made the son his co-worker
and friend The first work he had him
do was to read through the entire series
of the Edinburgh Reciew and make notes
for the father OF such articles as the son
might think he would wish to examine in
his review of the Reriew These
early articles are the ones in
which James Mill so thoroughly
exposed and denounced the English aris-
tocracv, and more especially did he at
tack the rights of primogenture. Having
been thus raised, and early associated
with such men as Betham and the disci-
pies of utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill
could not have been other than what he
was-a man whose whole life was devoted
to the contemplation and solution of the
problems of philosophy and logic, of soci-
ofNy aud Cno,o1 ,Nho,,n,,oo,,o @lo
cal destiny of man. Among his better
known works are his Dissertations and
Discussions; System of Logic; Political
Economy; Representative Government,
etc. His most widely known work in
America at least, is his fOn Liberty"
1t is written in the calm, dspassionate
spirit of philosopher, and after the
manner of a scientist whose only end is
the finding of truth. As a political
treatise it stands in the same rank for
thoroughness and sincerity as Darwin's
tific world of research after the cause and
evolution of life. 1t is difficult matter
TO tell which is most admirable in the
work, the frank, clear treatment of the
subject, or the dissipation of the many
conventional, one may say sane
titled errors which it explodes 1t
treats the relation of man TO man,
and to the government under which
he lives, as founded upon necessity and
not upon the idea of a contract To
treat of government as a social contract
is to illustrate and not TO define. 1t
treats of man as he is, an animal, think
ing it is true, but with his thought cir
cumscribed by nature and by man him.
self Mans truths are treated as they
are found, an admixture of truth, error
and prejudice. 1t is book that should
be read by all, and Will aid in clearer
and better comprehension of what true
liberty is. From it people will learn that
many of the cherished ideals of life are
after all but bigoted prejudice, and that
with their loss there is much greater
gain, while the view will be enlarged and
the vision made stronger.
Probably the chapter most applicable
TO affairs in Utah is the one entitled: "Of
the Liberty OF Thought and Discussion
We close this article with the following
extract from it:
I'VE have now recognized the neces-
sity to the mental well-being of mankind
ton which all other well-being depends) of
freedom OF opinion, and freedom of the
expression of opinion, on four distinct
grounds; which we will now briefly re-
capitulate:
First, if any opinion is compelled to
silence, that opinion may, for aught we
can certainly know, be true. To deny this
is TO assume our own infallibility
Secondly, though the silenced opinion
be an error, it may, and very commonly
does, contain portion of truth and since
the general or prevailing opinion on any
subject is rarely or never the whole truth,
it is only by the collision of adverse
opinions that the remainder of the truth
has any chance of being supplied.
Thirdly, even if the received opinion
be not only true, but the whole truth
unless it is suffered to be, and actually is,
vigorously and earnestly contested, it
will, by most o; those who receive it, be
held in the manner of prejudice, with
little comprehension or feeling of its