Abstract
BORN MAY 20, 1806; DIED MAY 8, 1873 THOUGH it has not been the custom among specialists to regard Mr. John Stuart Mill as a scientific man, yet we venture to say that he has not left behind him in this country any man who has done more for the general advancement of science. Before Mr. Mill's time men found their way to great discoveries, and succeeded in proving to each other that what they had discovered was scientific truth. But they could tell each other very little about the method of scientific investigation. Indeed Whately, the then greatest authority in logic, pronounced a theory of induction impossible. Mr. Mill, however, did formulate the canons of induction, and in so doing he lit a lamp which will for ever burn a steady guiding light in the path of the scientific inquirer. And the value of this light need be regarded as none the less even if we consider that its chief service lies in guiding us past the snares and pit-falls of error, and the entrances to those mazes and endless labyrinths of unreality in which so many powerful intellects have toiled and spent their strength for nought; nay, worse than in vain, for their brilliant struggles have fascinated thousands and drawn them from the sober highway of truth, which alone is the road to usefulness—to happiness. The vast and still growing influence that Mr. Mill has exerted in this direction is fully recognised by those who regret it most, because they believe that Truth may be reached by other and nobler paths. We are content to note the fact that among the great men of our day no one has done so much as he, to widen the domain of science and to subdue to its methods all subjects of human interest. Choosing for the field of his more serious labours several of the most difficult subjects of research, those that had most eluded the grasp of the understanding, he has enriched the world with works that will long remain monuments of science. His “Logic” is our textbook of the science of evidence. His “Political Economy” is our text-book of the science of wealth. And if there is a scientific work on politics it is Mr. Mill's “Representative Government.” One feature of Mr. Mill's character deserves special notice in this connection. He had the true scientific temper, a disinterested love of truth, in a degree not to be surpassed. If it could be shown that in any particular his teaching was unsound, and none were ever able to do this so well as his own disciples, the men whom he had trained to think, no one was more glad that error had been detected than was Mr. Mill himself. It will be enough to remind our readers of one notable example of this. When Mr. Thornton showed that the universally accepted doctrine of the wage-fund was a huge fallacy, Mr. Mill came forward with alacrity to acknowledge that he in common with all other political economists had fallen into a grave error, and that Mr. Thornton had made a most valuable contribution to economic science. If all scientific men could as completely subordinate their personal vanity to the pursuit of truth, progress would be more rapid than at present. The daily papers have already made the reader familiar with the many-sided richness and beauty of Mr. Mill's character. He was an object of loving admiration to all who had the happiness to enjoy his personal acquaintance. The world, while it mourns his loss, does not, cannot know how great and how good a man has been taken away; and still less does it know how ill it can afford to lose such a man.
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John Stuart Mill . Nature 8, 47 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/008047a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/008047a0