Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

T

JOHN STUART MILL:* A STUDY.

I.

HIS RELIGION.

HE most satisfactory way of treating his Autobiography is to string together selections from it,

and with comments on these make

them furnish an antidote to its mischievous tendencies, in the way that a witness is made to prove the worthlessness of the cause in favour of which he is brought forward to testify. The book begins badly :

He

so loosely and illogically put together, that among other things, the positive truth cannot be drawn from elder Mill's religious ideas; and it in regard to the stages of the there is much that requires explanation about him consenting to be educated by others for the Church, and being licensed to preach at the age of twenty-five, and then becoming a practical atheist. He is described as

years

in

"One who never did anything negligently; never undertook any task, lite"My father, the son of a petty trades-rary or other, on which he did not conman and (I believe) small farmer, at scientiously bestow all the labour necesNorthwater Bridge, in the County of sary for performing it adequately" (p. Angus, was, when a boy, recommended 4). by his abilities to the notice of Sir John Stuart, of Fettercairn, one of the Barons of the Exchequer in Scotland, and was, in consequence, sent to the University of Edinburgh, at the expense of a fund established by Lady Jane Stuart (the wife of Sir John Stuart) and some other ladies, for educating young men for the Scottish Church. there went through the usual course of study, and was licensed as a preacher, but never followed the profession, having satisfied himself that he could not believe the doctrines of that or any other Church. For a few years he was a private tutor in various families in Scotland, among others that of the Marquis of Tweeddale, but ended by taking up his residence in London, and devoting himself to authorship. Nor had he any other means of support until 1819, when he obtained an appointment in the India House" (p. 3).

"I was brought up from the first without any religious belief, in the ordinary acceptation of the term. My father, educated in the creed of Scotch Presbyterianism, had by his own studies and reflections been early led to reject not only the belief in Revelation, but the foundations of what is commonly called Natural Religion" (p. 38).

There is so much in the Autobiography that is so illy arranged, and

A man of his talents and energy, with a conscience to regulate them, could not surely have taken four years' study in literature and philosophy, and then four divinity, at the university, in addition to his school and home training, and his " own studies and reflections," to make up his mind on the subject of the first principles of religion (saying nothing of Christianity). However that may be, he was received into the ranks of the clergy, as a probationer, after a severe examination into his religious knowledge, learning, walk and conversation, and giving specimens of his sermons and prayers; and it does not appear from the Autobiography that he did not preach occasionally for other clergymen, either before or while he was a tutor in the families mentioned. No doubt he was engaged in the latter capacity on the faith-implied or expressed—of his being a clergyman of the Church, believing its doctrines; and he was most probably employed while tutor

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

in teaching the children their reli- | circumstances and details between gious lessons, and reading the the first doubt and the final step, family prayers, or conducting the had he been able and willing to household worship. Notwithstanding that, his son says that he was early led to reject not only the belief in Revelation, but the foundations of what is commonly called Natural Religion," merely on account of the moral and physical evil that is in the world, and the punishment that awaits the finally impenitent. The early period here mentioned was doubtless long before he was twenty-five, when licensed to preach; a supposition borne out when he says:

"I have heard him say that the turning-point of his mind on the subject was 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" (p. 38). The " some considerable time" here mentioned is a very indefinite phrase, that might mean some months, or weeks, as well as years. He was naturally supposed to have been a believer in Christianity, for the reason that it was the religion of the community in which he was reared, as would be the case with a child, or a grown-up person whose mind might be called a sheet of blank paper; not as a matter of inquiry or evidence, but merely something t

ing in the air, like any popular idea. There is, therefore, an absurdity involved in the remark that it was only by hanging Butler around his neck he was kept, " for some considerable time," a believer; when he became an atheist, but not a dogmatic one, whatever the difference might be." These particulars are important" (p. 39). Real particulars would have been important had he given us them, in place of the "slovenliness of thought that throws no light on the religious history of his father from the day he went to college, or before he went there, till he left for London. The

[ocr errors]

give them, would doubtless have been interesting. The questions are, when did he first read Butler, and when did he throw him off? He doubtless read him not later than the first year of his attendance at the divinity hall, or while at the moral philosophy class, or as is the custom to-day. There is nothing to show that James Mill ever believed in Christianity, when he came to examine into it, except that Butler-"the turning-point of his mind "-kept him in check for

66

some considerable time"; previous to which he must, of course, have been a sceptic, possibly, but not probably, before he even went to college. At the best, Butler only kept him from going over to deism, but did not prevent him becoming an atheist. His belief in Christianity, under the circumstances, must have been only of a very so-so nature. And that is confirmed by a writer in the Edinburgh Review, for January, when he says: "It seems, from an inquiry which has been made in the University Library of Edinburgh, that the books he was most given to read there were of a sceptical character."*

At any stage of his instruction James Mill could have declined the patronage of the ladies that befriended him, without avowing his infidelity or atheism, and betaken himself to many a calling in which opinions on religion were not required, or expected to be expressed or entertained, and earned his bread like an honest man. But he seems to have preferred acting the hypocrite for the benefit of the education and worldly advancement, illustrating, in some respects, a case given by him to his son,

*This was doubtless when he was studying literature and philosophy, dur ing the first four years he was at College and before he entered the Divinity Hall.

"In which frankness on these subjects would either risk the loss of means of subsistence, or would amount to exclusion from some sphere of usefulness peculiarly suitable to the capacities of the individual" (p. 45).

66

[ocr errors]

It was after finally breaking with the Church, perhaps in consequence of disappointment of a benefice, and of the restraint on his godless opinions, that he gave vent to all his spitefulness against religion of every kind, natural as well as revealed; although all his intellectual training was received, as a gift, under its auspices, with the view of making him a servant at its altar; and but for which training he might have passed through life an atheistical master-baker, a heartless West India slave-driver, or something of that kind. It sounds odd to hear it said that he was once among the prophets." Like a certain personage, he went out from them because he was not of them." It would have been interesting had his son published, among his writings, the written trial discourses which he preached before the Presbytery when it licensed him, and solemnly set him apart, to defend that Christianity which he spent his life in attempting to destroy, and perhaps swore his son to do it after him. Here was verily a wolf in sheep's clothing." As it was, the Church narrowly escaped receiving into its fold, not by climbing over the wall, but boldly entering it by the door, like a shepherd, one who was in reality 66 a thief and a robber."* And yet he is described by his son as

[ocr errors]

"Being not only a man whom nothing would have induced to write against

*The following remarks, made by Dr. Thomas Guthrie in his Autobiography, on the subject of ministers being appointed by patrons, are interesting as bearing on the case of James Mill:

"This system, so far as students were concerned, had but one redeeming feature. Through it, boorish cubs were licked into shape, and vulgarly-bred lads acquired the manners of gentlemen; for

his convictions [excepting in the case of India], but one who invariably threw into everything he wrote as much of his convictions as he thought the circumstances would in any way permit" (p. 4); and than whom "no one prized conscientiousness and rectitude of intention more highly, or was more incapable of valuing any person in whom he did not feel assurance of it" (p. 50).

Shortly after his arrival in London, he began to write his "History of India," a work which has been described as "an elaborate inculpation of the entire policy pursued by the East India Company. He believed that the ruling motives of the body, from almost the first hour of its existence, were commercial cupidity, and a desire of territorial aggrandizement" (Athenæum). "A constant attempt to underrate the services and conceal the great achievements of the East India Company (Blackwood). Offensive as John Stuart Mill described this work to be, as calculated, in short, to raise up against him noth

most of those who had the ministry in view could obtain the favour of a patron in no other way than by becoming families. Few had the political influence tutors in gentlemen's and noblemen's which made it unnecessary for me to seek access to the Church in that way. The consequence was, that almost all divinity students were eager to get tutorships. In this capacity-entering the houses of landed gentlemen, associating there with people of cultivated habits, and becoming in a sense members of the familythey, however humble their origin, acners which were more the characteristic quired those courteous and genteel manof the ministers of my early days than they are of their successors" (p. 56).

[ocr errors]

Did Mill become, "for a few years," a private tutor in various families in Scotland, among others that of the Marquis of Tweeddale," for the purpose of getting a church through their influence, as Dr. Guthrie says that "most of those who had the ministry in view" did? And then the question would arise, when did he "satisfy himself that he could not believe the doctrines of that or any other Church"? View the subject in any way we may, little regard can be had for his judgment or character under the circuinstances.

66

ing but enemies in powerful quarters, and especially in the East India Company, to whose commercial privileges he was unqualifiedly hostile, and on the acts of whose government he had made so many severe comments," but bearing testimony to (what could not be denied) its "good intentions towards its subjects," his father yet made a rush to the Company, on hearing that it wanted clerks, with an offer of his services, which were accepted. He

became one of its most devoted servants, and, in his hard struggle for existence, had bread provided, and a nest feathered, for himself, and his son after him. The Company had evidently sense enough to receive the smart adventurer as a satellite, rather than allow him to become a thorn in its side, by attacking it through the press of the Both father and son were country. the strongest defenders, as well as the servants and advisers, of a corporation of merchants which exercised a rule the most absolute that perhaps ever existed, over a vast territory and population that had no voice in its government, in the face of the published writings of both on the rights of man, and of their individuality in the choice of legislators. Well might a writer in the Edinburgh Review, for January, say :—

"Had Mill not been a servant of the East India Company it is impossible to doubt that he would have denounced it as one of the most odious of monopolies and close corporations, which held in subjection and bondage tens of millions of the human race.'

And what Blackwood's Magazine, for the same month, says, is equally to the point:

"Mill never, during his whole thirtyfive years [service with the Company], opened his mouth against it, [but maintained to the last] that any change from such a system would necessarily be a change for the worse.'

[ocr errors][merged small]

sistance which the Company made to their own political extinction; and to the letters and petitions I wrote for them, and the concluding chapter of my treatise on Representative Government [everywhere but in India], I must refer for my opinions on the folly and mischief of this ill-considered change (p. 249).

A man like James Mill was sure to impress on his son the same reticence in regard to religion that he exercised himself, and with the following result:

"This point in my early education had, however, incidentally one bad consequence deserving notice. In giving me an opinion contrary to that of the world, my father thought it necessary to give it as one which could not prudently be avowed to the world. This lesson of keeping my thoughts to myself, at that early age, was attended with some moral disadvantages; though my limited intercourse with strangers, especially such as were likely to speak to me on religion, prevented me from being placed in the alternative of avowal or hypocrisy. I remember two occasions in my boyhood on which I felt myself in this alternative, and in both cases I avowed my disbelief and defended it. My opponents were boys, considerably older than myself: one of them I certainly staggered at the time, but the subject was never renewed between us: the other, who was surprised and somewhat shocked, did his best to convince me for some time, without effect" (p. 44).

his atheism, as if it had been that He seems to have been proud of of an aristocratic distinction, for thus he writes :—

"I am thus one of the very few examples in this country of one who has not thrown off religious belief, but never had it: I grew up in a negative state with regard to it. I looked upon the modern exactly as I did upon the ancient religion, as something which in no way concerned me. It did not seem to me more strange that English people should believe what I did not, than that the men I read of in Herodotus should have done so" (p 43).

He had already said, as we have

seen, that he

was brought up from the first without any religious belief, in the ordinary acceptation of the term" (p. 38), which qualification had evidently no meaning, as he afterwards said he never had any (p. 43). This is supported by what he says when he speaks of

"-A view of religion which I hold to be profoundly immoral-that it is our duty to bow down in worship before a Being whose moral attributes are affirmed to be unknowable by us, and to be perhaps extremely different from those which, when we are speaking of our fellow-creatures, we call by the same name" (p. 275).*

[blocks in formation]

66

stern repre

Doubtless he treated with "scornful disapprobation" and hension," and positively prohibited, any attempt of the poor mother, whom he kept in absolute subjection, to teach any of her large family to even lisp a prayer. There must be a reason for Mill not even

mentioning her, or any of his brothers or sisters, beyond the trouble he had in teaching them; and it would be interesting to know how they turned out in regard to religion. His own history shows that it is possible to "breed and raise' practical atheists. It may be that

[ocr errors]

*This is strange language to come from a man who said that he "never had any religious belief." Of course, it would have been out of the question to have asked him to give us a "view of religion" that was 'profoundly moral," or state where he found his ideas of morality on that or any other subject.

There was something horrible in James Mill's course in this respect, if we judge him by his class, irrespective of its shades of unbelief; for such often, if not generally, teach the children nothing in regard to religion (and would sometimes

the

his father, looking on him as apple of his eye," the heir and successor of himself and creed, or rather want of a creed, let the rest of the family "run" in the matter of the important question of religion; about which Mill, with apparent want of candour, says nothing. And yet we might have expected him to have informed us on that point, since he dwelt on the subject at such length, returning again and again to it. The conclusion to be drawn from his father so jealously preventing him being taught anything on the subject of religion by others would be, that the rest of the family were brought up in the same way. The father" rejected all that is called religious belief" (p. 39). "He regarded it with the feeling due not to a mere mental delusion, but to a great moral evil. He looked upon it as the greatest enemy to morality," and as radistandard of cally vitiating the morals" (p. 40); without saying what that standard of morals is, or where it is to be found, or how it can be made binding on men.

66

"He was supremely indifferent in opinion (though his indifference did not show itself in personal conduct) to all which he thought had no foundation those doctrines of the common morality but in asceticism and priestcraft" (p. 107). "And thus [says his son] morality continues a matter of blind tradition [!], with no consistent principle, nor even any consistent feeling, to guide it” (p. 42), [like Maurice's] "worthless heap of received opinions on the great subjects of thought " (p. 153).*

wish that they rather were religious) but leave that question to the mother, or let the children pick up a creed of any kind, or in any way acquired. Often, when closely pressed, they will say that their soul is like the dove that could find no rest for the sole of its foot.

*The reader will feel it difficult, or rather impossible, to put a meaning on the language quoted.-Take the last six commandments in the Decalogue, for our negative morality, and the many injunctions, both negative and positive, scattered through the New Testament,

« ПредишнаНапред »