John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections

PAUSE IN HIS CAREER. 9 1
was, hovv-ever, not to be moved from his accustomed routine.
His view of the medical art (at the time I speak of) was, that
it should restore a shattered frame by something like magic.
In other respects, his intercourse with Clark gratified him much,
and led to a permanent friendship.
His work, as a great originator, in my opinion, was done.
The two books now before the world were the main construc
tions that his accumulated stores had prepared him for ;
and I
do not think that there lay in him the materials of a third at all
approaching to these. It is very unlikely indeed that he was
even physically capable of renewing the strain of the two
winters 1842-3 and 1846-7. His subsequent years were
marked by diminished labours on the whole ; while the direc
tion of these labours was towards application, exposition and
polemic, rather than origination ; and he was more and more
absorbed in the outlook for social improvements. Not that
his later writings are deficient in stamina or in value ;
as sources
of public instruction and practical guidance in the greatest
interests of society, they will long hold their place. But it was
not within the compass of his energies to repeat the impression
made by him in 1843 and again in 1848. We must remember
that all through his severest struggles, he had a public official
duty, and spent six hours every day
in the air of Leadenhall
street ; and although he always affected to make light of this,
and even to treat the office work as a refreshing change from
study, yet when his constitution was once broken, it would tell
upon him more than his peculiar
would allow him to confess.
theories of health and work