John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections

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this chapter is not inferior to any in the
book; it is admirable as an exposition in
practical ethics, and might be enshrined
as a standing homily in the moral in
struction of mankind. It does what
homilies rarely do, namely, endeavour to
draw precise lines betY/een social~4ttty
and individual liberty; and reviews the
more notable instsnces where society
continues to tyrannize over minorities.
Still, the instances adduced seem
scarcely to justify the denunciations of
the author; they are the remains of past
ages of intolerance, and are gradually
losing their hold.
It is in his subsequent chapter on
"Applications^" that we seem to approach
his strongest case: but it is little more
than hinted at: I meen the relationship
of the sexes. It hardly admits of
question that any great augmentation of
human happiness that may be achieved in
the future, must proceed first, upon a
better standard of worldly circumstances,
and, next, upon the harmonizing and ad
justing of the social relations. After
people are fed, clothed, and housed, at
a reasonable expenditure of labour, the
next thing is to seek scope for the
affections; it is at this point that
there occur the greatest successes and
the greatest failures in happy living.
The mcrriage relation is the most
critical of all; and various thinkers
now hold that this is enforced with
too great stringency and monotony. To
attain some additional latitude in