John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections

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READINESS TO LEARN AND TO UNLEARN. 1849-1872.
those very questions. He is generally
originality
admitted to combine
and clearness as only very few men have done.
The attempts to undervalue his reputation on either head have
met with little countenance. Tried by an absolute stan
dard, he may be found defective at points ;
but who is entitled
to cast the first stone? What other speculator from the
beginning of philosophy has been equally original, and yet
more uniformly precise, logical, and intelligible? He could
split hairs with any
scholastic. He could discern flaws in the
closest dialectic ; or turn the flank of the most circumspect
disputant. Unless I am greatly deceived, time will not impair
the fascination of that subtle intellect. The number of men
that can handle such weapons can never be so great
render his writings a superfluity ;
as to
and, even when his doctrines
shall have been more highly worked up, by other thinkers, his
manner of putting them will be looked back upon with curious
interest.
He himself speaks with not unbecoming pride of his being
always open to new views. To the last, he continued (he says)
to learn and to unlearn. Of no man can this be stated
absolutely.
Yet Mill stood very high on the point of receptive-
ness. He did not shut up his mind to new impressions at forty.
This, however,, was merely another form of his anxiety to
know whatever could be said by any one upon any question.
Wishing always to do his very best, he neglected no available
means. Before beginning to produce, he took ample time to
absorb; and, better than most men, hit the happy mean
between haste and procrastination. He might have occasionally
improved his work by a little more elaboration, but the loss in
quantity would not have been compensated by the difference
in quality.
He tells us, in connexion with his readings at Grote s house,
that he
"
dated from these conversations my own real inaugura
tion as an original and independent thinker. It was also
through them that I acquired, or very much strengthened, a