AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN STUART MILL.

....Although it is obvious from the fact that John Stuart Mill was the oldest of the family, and there were others, sons and daughters, that his mother must have been alive long enough for him to know her, there is no mention of her whatever in these pages, nor does she appear to have taken any part at all in the formation of her son's character. To this significant circumstance we may add another, which will help to explain much of Mr. Mill's character. The father, James Mill, held religion to be not only false, but demoralising. Concerning the origin of things, beheld that "nothing was known," and that "the ne plus ultra of wickedness was embodied in what is commonly presented to mankind as the creed of Christianity."

"l am thus," says Mr. Mill, "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. History had made the variety of opinions among mankind a fact familiar to me, and this was but a prolongation of that fact. 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."

As to the morality of concealing his atheistic views, Mr. Mill gives an opinion which will hardly be accepted as sound even by those who may prefer to be classed among his disciples. What the world cannot forget is, that during the whole of Mr. Mill's career, even during that part of it when he was before the public as a politician, not a single hint was given of the total infidelity here avowed, and we cannot help saying that it would have been better for Mr. Mill's reputation had the avowal been made during his lifetime. The rule which he lays down himself he certainly did not comply with :—

From the propriety of the principle of concealing religious views Mr. Mill expresses his dissent in the following terms :—

" It is the duty of all who, being qualified in point of knowledge, have on mature consideration satisfied themselves' that the current opinions are not only false, but hurtful, to make their dissent known ; at least, if they are among those whose station or reputation gives their opinion a chance of being attended to. Such an avowal would put an end, at once and for ever, to the vulgar prejudice that what is called, very improperly, unbelief, is connected with any bad qualities either of mind or heart. The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments —of those most distinguished even in popular estimation for wisdom and virtue—are complete sceptics in religion ; many of them refraining from avowal, less from personal considerations than from a conscientious, though now in my opinion a most mistaken apprehension, lest by speaking out what would tend to weaken existing beliefs, and by consequence (as they suppose) existing restraints, they should do harm instead of good."

As to morality, this was the kind of thing taught by the elder Mill :—

" My father's moral convictions, wholly dissevered from religion, were very much of the diameter of those of the Greek philosophers ; and were delivered with the force and decision which characterised all that came from him. Even at the early age at which I read with him the Memorabilia of Xenophon, I imbibed from that work and from his comments a deep respect for the character of Socrates ; who stood in my mind as a model of ideal excellence : and I well remember how my father at that time impressed upon me the lesson of the ' Choice of Hercules.' At a somewhat later period the lofty moral standard exhibited in the writings of Plato operated upon me with great force. My father's moral inculcations were at all times mainly those of the ' Socratici viri ;' justice, temperance (to which he gave a very extended application), veracity, perseverance, readiness to encounter pain and especially labour ; regard for the public good ; estimation of persons according to their merits, and of things according to their intrinsic usefulness; a life of exertion in contradiction to one of self-indulgent ease and sloth. These and other moralities he conveyed in brief sentences, uttered as occasion arose, of grave exhortation, or stern reprobation and contempt.".......

The Argus  31 December 1873,