John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections

40 OUTLINE FROM 1830 TO 1840. 1820-1840.
Roebuck ".
Doubtless,
this was the occasion that Roebuck
described. At all events, the father had to succumb; John
stuck by his friends, but of course did not bring them back to
the house.
Preparatory to the additional elucidation of his life and work
from 1830 to 1840, I have constructed the following chrono
logical
outline :
1830. Put on paper ideas on Logical distinctions among
Terms, and the Import of Propositions. First acquaintance
with the French Philosophy of History : St. Simonians; Comte.
Went to Paris after Revolution of July. Began to write steadily
on French Politics (Examiner).
1831. Writing in Examiner: essays on the Spirit
of the
Age.* Essays on Unsettled Questions in Political Economy
(1830 and 1831, not published till long after). Resumed
Logical Axioms and theory of the Syllogism. Tide of the
Reform Agitation.
First introduction to Mrs. Taylor.
* On looking over the file of the Examiner, to see the drift of these Essays,
which I expected to turn upon social questions, more than upon politics, I find
that they all point in the direction of his Representative Government, in so
far as they contain anything constructive. There is a long exorditim on the
character of the present age, as an age of transition, with all the consequences
growing out of that unsettlement of existing institutions, in the absence of
principles to found new ones upon. "Wordly power must pass from the
hands of the stationary part of mankind into
"
those of the progressive part.
" There must be a moral and social revolution which shall indeed take away no
men s lives or property, but which shall leave to no man one fraction of un
earned distinction or unearned importance."
"For mankind to change their
institutions while their minds are unsettled, without fixed is
principles, indeed a
fearful thing. But a bad way is often the best, to get out of a bad position.
Let us place our trust in the future, not in the wisdom of mankind, but in some
thing far surer, the force of circumstances which makes man see that, when it
is near at hand, which they could not foresee when at a distance." Discussing
the way to secure government by the fittest, he considers the time is gone by
when wealth is the criterion. Age has more to say for itself, excepting in a
time of transition. He considers at some length the sources of moral influence
on society. The last of the series (zgth May) concludes
"
I shall resume my
subject as early as possible after the passing of the Reform Bill"; the agitation
then going on being used as the climax of the proof that the time is one of
transition.