John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections

102 WIFE S DEATH. 1849-1873.
take office as a Crown nominee. In declining, he gave, as his
reason, failing health : but, even had he been stronger, he would
have still preferred retirement to working under the new
constitution.
His deliverance from official work in 1858 was followed by
the crushing calamity of his wife s death. He was then on his
way to spend the winter in Italy, but, immediately after the
event, he returned to his home at Blackheath. For some
months, he saw nobody, but still corresponded actively on
matters that interested him. His despondency was frightful.
In reply to my condolence, he said
"
I have recovered the
shock as much as I ever shall. Henceforth, I shall be only a
conduit for ideas." Thornton shewed me the letter written to
him, which gave the first intimation of the event to friends in
England, and enclosed the form of notice that appeared in the
at the time. Here is an extract :
leading London newspapers
" The hopes with which I commenced this journey have
been fatally frustrated. My Wife, the companion of all my
feelings, the prompter of all my best thoughts, the guide of all
my actions, is ! gone She
was taken ill at this place with a violent
attack of bronchitis and pulmonary congestion. The medical
men here could do nothing for her, and before the physician
at Nice, who saved her life once before, could arrive, all was
over.
"
It is doubtful if I shall ever be fit for anything, public or
private, again. The spring of my life is broken. But I shall
best fulfil her wishes by not giving up the attempt to do
something useful. I am sure of your sympathy, but if you
knew what she was, you would feel how little any sympathy can
do."
In the beginning of 1859, 1 was preparing for publication my
volume on The Emotions and the Will. I showed the MS. to
Mill, and he revised it minutely, and jotted a great many