Bygones Worth Remembering, Vol. 1 (of 2)Holyoake, George Jacob
Philosophy
Bygones Worth Remembering, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Holyoake, George Jacob
Holyoake, George Jacob, 1817-1906; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Working class -- Great Britain -- Biography
There was no tongue in the House of Commons more bitter, venomous, or
disparaging of the people than that of Lord Robert Cecil, afterwards
Lord Salisbury; yet I record to his honour he subscribed £50 towards the
memorial to Mr. Mill. One of the three first persons who gave £50 was
Mr. Walter Morrison. The Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Derby, the Duke of
Devonshire, Sir Charles and Lady Dilke, Mr. and Mrs. P. A. Taylor were
also among the subscribers of £50 each. Among those who gave large
but lesser sums were Mr. Herbert Spencer, Stopford Brooke, Leonard
H. Courtney, Frederic Harrison, G. H. Lewes, W. E. H. Lecky. Sir John
Lubbock, G. Croome Robertson, Lord Rosebery, Earl Russell, Professor
Tyndall, and Professor Huxley. So Mr. Mill had his monument with honour.
It stands on the Thames Embankment, and allures more pilgrims of thought
than any other there.
Purity and honour, there is reason to believe, were never absent from
Mill's mind or conduct; but trusting to his own personal integrity, he
assumed others would recognise it His admiration of Mrs. Taylor, whom he
frequently visited, and subsequently married, was misconstrued--though
not by Mr. Taylor, who had full confidence in Mr. Mill's honour. No
expression to the contrary on Mr. Taylor's part ever transpired. It
might be due to society that Mr. Mill should have been reserved in
his regard. But assured of his own rectitude, he trusted to the proud
resenting maxim, "Evil be to him who evil thinks," and he resented
imputation--whether it came from his relatives or his friends. Any
reflection upon him in this respect he treated as an affront to himself,
and an imputation upon Mrs. Taylor, which he never forgave. A relative
told me after his death, that he never communicated with any of them
again who made any remark which bore a sinister interpretation. If ever
there was a philosopher who should be counted stainless, it was John
Stuart Mill.
In the minds of the Bentham School, population was a province of
politics. It would seem incredible to another generation--as it seems
to many in this--that a philosopher should incur odium for being of
Jowett's opinion, that the most vital information upon the conduct of
life should not be withheld from the people. To give it is to incur
conventional reprehension; as though it were not a greater crime to be
silent while a feeble, half-fed, and ignorant progeny infest the land,
to find their way to the hospital, the poor house, or the gaol, than to
protest against this recklessness, which establishes penury and
slavery in the workman's home. Yet a brutal delicacy and a criminal
fastidiousness, calling itself public propriety, is far less reputable
than the ethical preference for reasonable foresight and a manlier race.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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