David Hartley and James Mill

PART I. Their Lives

Ch. I. David Hartley Ch. II. James Mill

PAGE

PART II. Their Philosophical Systems and Opinions

I. Preliminary remarks on the Theory of Association of Ideas — The Physical Groundwork of the Theory — Hartley's Yibrations — James Mill and Hartley on Sensations — Ideas as copies of Sensations . II. The Elementary Postulates, and First Propositions, of the Theory of Association as laid down by Hartley and James Mill ........

III. The Communication of Ideas — Language — Naming IV. The Theory of Association, as applied to explain the more important processes and operations of the mind . Y. Belief, as interpreted by the laws of Association VI. Leading metaphysical conceptions, forms, and reiations, as accounted for on the theory of Association — Sameness — Similarity — Succession — Causality — Ex tension — Motion — Quantity — Quality — Analogy — In

duction

Ch. VII. The Active Powers of the Human Mind Ch. VIII. The Will, as explained by Hartley and Mill .

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111 136 164 r

IV

COX TENTS.

Or. IX. The Practical Laws of Ethics, as resulting from the prin ciples of Association and Utility

Ch. X. The .Esthetic Doctrines of Hartley and Mill .

Ch. XI. The Principles of Utilitarianism and Association, as ap plied by Hartley and James Mill to special depart mentg of Practical Life — Politics — Legislation — Edu cation — International Law

178 191

PART III. The Value and Influence of theik Opinions

. 214

. 247

HARTLEY & JAMES MILL.

part L

THEIR LIVES.

Chapter I. David Hartley

Datid Hartley, the son of a clergyman residing at Armley in Yorkshire, was born on the 30th of August, 1705. He was educated at a private school, and, in 1720, entered at Jesus College, Cambridge, of which society he subsequently became a fellow. Owing to conscientious scruples with reference to the Thirty-nine Articles, he abandoned his preparation for the clerical profession, for which he was originally intended ; and thenceforth applied himself to the study of medicine. Commencing practice at Newark, he afterwards removed to Bury St. Edmund's, and thence to London. In the later years of his life, he took up his residence at Bath. In the exercise of his functions as a physician, he was sympathetic, assiduous, and skilful. He especially devoted himself to the study and cure of the stone, and was the author of several medical pamphlets on Mrs. Stephens' medicine for that disease, 1 besides

' " Observations made on the persons who have taken the medicament of Mrs. Stephens," 1738. " View of the present evidence for and against Mrs. Stephens' medicine as a solvent for the stone, containing 155 cases"

B

2 HA R TL EY A XD J A MES MIL L .

being the instrument of finally procuring for her the reward of 5000/. offered by Parliament. 2 He is said to have written against Dr. Warren in defence of inoculation for smallpox; and several other of his medical disquisitions are to he found in the Philosophical Transactions of the time. He was twice married, and had issue by both marriages. He died on the 2Sth of August, 1757; at Bath, of the disease which he had so patiently investigated in his lifetime.

Both the philosophical and the moral character of Hartley were no less conspicuous in his life than in his writings. Philosophically, he was remarkable for patience of research, variety of study, thorough scientific candour, and a constant readiness to receive new impressions and ideas. Morally, he was distinguished by modesty, unaffected openness, and benevolence. In the one case, his inquisitiveness of intellect well qualified him for a writer on the connexion between body and mind, and their reciprocal influence on one another, — a kind of inquiry where alertness in the seizing of analogies is above all things requisite; in the other, his sympathy of heart was of eminent service to him in the observation and appreciation of moral phenomena.

His great work On Man occupied sixteen years of slow thought and toil in maturing (1780 — 1746); and even for some years before 1730, " the seeds of this work were lying in latent germination/' as he himself used to tell his friends. One cannot fail to notice the results of this steady and persistent investigation, (extending over so long a period, and

[of which his own was one], " with some experiments and observations," 1739. "Directions for preparing and administering Mrs. Stephens' medicine in a solid form," 1746 (in the Gentleman s Magazine). A large ingredient in this medicine was soap, of which the unfortunate Hartley was said to have himself consumed 200 lbs. before he eventually died of the disease.

2 Gazette, June, 1739.

DAVID HARTLEY.

into so many different fields), in the astonishing 1 wealth of illustrative matter by which the principles laid down in his "book are confirmed. It was first published in two volumes in 1749. Another edition b\ r Dr. Priestley with elucidatory dissertations appeared in 1775. In this the vibration theory, and most of the Second Part on theological questions, were omitted. But the book was, notwithstanding, practically almost ignored till 1791. In 1801, Hartley's son published the entire work, in three volumes, from the German of the Rev. Dr. Herman Andrew Pistorius, rector of Poseritz, in the island of Riigen, accompanied with the latter's notes and essays. 3 Hartley himself was not at all sanguine as to the chances of the immediate acceptance of his novel theory. " He did not expect that it would meet with any general or immediate reception in the philosophical world, or even that it would be much read or understood ; neither did it happen otherwise than as he had expected. But at the same time he did entertain an expectation that, at some distant period, it would become the adopted system of future philosophers. That period" [writes his son in 1801] " seems now to be approaching," — and by this time it has arrived, and a formidable and industrious school of philosophy, known as the Association Psychology, has been constituted on the lines sketched out by him.

From a very early age, Hartley had a fancy for natural science, experimental philosophy, and mathematics, which he studied under the tuition of a celebrated man in his day, Professor Saunderson. To optics, statics, and other special departments of science, he devoted himself in company with Dr. Hales, Dr. Smith (then Master of Trinity College, Cambridge), and some other members of the Royal Society. He

3 This is the edition to which the references throughout this work are made.

B % was a keen observer, in the exercise of his professional duties, of physical peculiarities and habits, and mental diseases and defects; and acquired early the habit of sound and rapid generalization, which proved so useful to him in the construction of his philosophical system. Historical and chronological researches also claimed a large portion of his spare time; and he was on intimate terms with N. Hooke, the Roman historian. In chronology, so far as physical science could be brought to bear on its numerous problems, as indeed in all hinds of natural science, he was an ardent admirer and disciple of Newton, whose Principia and other works first suggested to him the theory of vibrations. He was much interested in all schemes for the reformation of language, either as written, (e.g. methods of short-hand), or as written and spoken both; and welcomed proposals of universal and philosophical languages and dictionaries, and similar fresh ideas.

But it was to mental science, ethics, and theology that Hartley's tastes were principally drawn. In regard to these subjects, the intellectual atmosphere in which he lived was that of Edmund Law, Warburton, Butler, and Jortin, who were his intimate associates and fellow-labourers both in these fields and in that of ecclesiastical history. It was, however — as he himself acknowledges, with his usual candour — from one Mr. Gay that he derived, the germ of his association theory — at all events, as applied to morals. It was only the germ, however, that he obtained ; and how fruitful Gay's two short treatises became in Hartley's hands it only needs a comparison of them with the latter philosopher's second volume to show. In the latter part of his life he corresponded very much with Dr. Priestley on their common subject.

Nor did Hartley neglect the more distinctly humanizing studies of history, poetry, and art. Of the first of these means of cultivation lie was especially fond. He was a great admirer of some of the poets of his own country, such as Pope, whom he respected not only as a man of genius, but also, and chiefly, because he was a poet who " moralized his song," and pursued by a different road the same goal as himself. On similar grounds he was interested in Dr. Young, and also in Hawkins Browne, the author of a Latin poem, De Anhni Immortalifafe. It must be confessed, however, that Hartley does not seem to have been a very enthusiastic lover of poetry, except as a veil for philosophy, and that he was disposed to regard the exercise of the imagination too much in a didactical light. Owing* to this latter attitude of mind, he even took offence at the Essay on Man, which he thought inspired by Bolingbroke, and calculated to weaken the force and inviolability of the moral law, of which — though characteristically charitable in judging individual instances of its perversion in practice — he was extremely jealous. To the " lewd " poets, who discoursed of love and beauty, entirely unmoved by the puzzles of metaphysics and morals, he felt — and frequently displayed in his works — a hearty aversion. In music he took a nassionate delight.

J. o

He was also a fair classical scholar; and the first preliminary sketch of his system — a little treatise, Be Sensu, Motu, et Idearum Generatione, which he published in the form of an appendix to a medical tractate on the stone — was written in elegant Latin. With Hebrew he seems to have been at all events moderately well acquainted.

All these varied tastes were reflected in the pages of his work, as we shall have occasion to remark below. 4 So, also,

* See Part. III. Cp. the Life by Hartley's son, Observations on Man, Tol. ii. p. ix. ''It was from the union of talents in the moral sciences with natural philosoplvy, and particularly from the professional knowledge of the human frame, that Dr. Hartley was enabled to bring into one view

1L \ R TL E Y AND 7 A J/I-S MILL.

was his personal character. His amiability 3 — no pen was ever freer from gall than his, and in the whole of his work we do not End a single harsh criticism of a personal nature, while his kindly appreciation and recognition of the labours of his precursors is abundant and marked — his openness, and his easy-going laissez-faire tendencies, — all these are manifest in the tone of his recorded opinions, and the style of his writing. As his son says, "it may with peculiar propriety said of him, that the mind was the man/' His philosophical character was only his personal character in one of its aspects.

Hartley's was a quiet, useful, unromantic life, — unromantic in all ./espects, except in that steady devotion to truth and i'aet which tinges the most uneventful life with a hue of romance,— too often of pathos. Eminently typical of the century in which he lived, — comfortable, and ready to comfort others, — disposed to ponder and wait, not very prone to action, unambitious,— he was always in a mood to make allowances for the frailty of others, and to take things as they came, while he was utterly destitute of the " passion for reforming the world/' which possessed James Mill. On the other hand, if his life was not lit up by such noble aims as that of his great successor, he had all the compensating advantages incidental to a lack of enthusiasm. While he was not to same extent as Mill the cause of good to unseen masses en, he made far more friends and intimates out of those whom he did know. The bitterness and violence, which in Mill's case were engendered by consuming earnestness, were unknown to him. No zeal could eat him up. His philosophical system was not converted by him into a dogma or

the various argument* for his extensive system, from the first rudiments d through the maze of complex affections and passions in the of lif'', to the final, moral end of man."

DAVID HARTLEY.

discipline; by thus having' no practical reference, while it won him no partisan s, it made him no enemies.

Though accurate and precise in his reasoning, and methodical in his daily habits, Hartley was far removed alike from pedantry and fussiness. He was polished and gay in society, and eloquent in conversation, without becoming importunate or a bore; and he was entirely without the vices of pride, selfishness, sensuality, or disingenuousness. In the endeavour to suggest the proper associations of ideas to the minds of others, and to form their habits on the lines, and with the help, of their position and previous circumstances, he was " the faithful disciple of his own theory/' He did what some one has said should always be done by every man, whether Libertarian or, like Hartley, an advocate of the doctrines ot Necessity : in actual life he regarded himself alone as free, and all other men as determined.

" His person was of the middle size and well proportioned : his complexion fair, his features regular and handsome; his countenance open, ingenuous, and animated. He was peculiarly neat in his person and attire. He was an early riser, and punctual in the employments of the day; methodical in the order and disposition of his library, papers, and writings, as the companions of his thought."" {Observations on Man [Life), vol. ii., pp. xvii, xviii].

During the nine years that elapsed between the completion of his book and his death, Hartley, though reposing from active work and collection of materials in reference to it, continued to keep his mind open to any further suggestions or discoveries that might have the effect of destroying or modifying any of his doctrines. None such, however, were made of any materiality sufficient to render an alteration of his Observations necessary.

HARTLEY AND JAMES MILL.

CHAPTER IT.

JAMES MILL.

James Mill was born at North water Bridge, in the parish of Logic Pert, in the county of Angus, on the 6th of April, 1 7 73. His father, a shoemaker, lived in one of the little tworoomed clay-built cottages, some dozen of which made up a hamlet of the parish. Industry, soberness, and piety, without any remarkable gifts of intellect, distinguished the elder James Mill in his life and vocation. The mother, Isabel Fenton, was a woman of a somewhat different stamp. She was proud — (being the daughter of a substantial farmer, who had been in very good circumstances before he joined in the Stuart rising of 1745, she probably felt her marriage to have been something of a descent, and was not slow in manifesting her feelings to her neighbours, and in domineering over their wives) — but, together with her pride, possessed some of the good qualities which usually spring out of it. She was most ambitions for her eldest son James, and soon determined to rear him to some destiny higher than his father's workshop. Her influence over her husband was successfully exerted for this purpose, for we find no record of James having ever been required by his parents to assist in his father's trade, or indeed, engage in any manual labour; while there are "emphatic assurances," as Professor Bain 1 tells us, to the

1 Life of James Mill, Mind, vol. i. p. 101.

contrary. William/ the second son, took to the family business, but the tender hand of his mother reserved James exclusively for study. So that it must be remembered that to her pride and motherly interest we, in some degree, owe the Analysis and the History of British India.

At Montrose Academ}^ one of the Scotch grammar-schools, James acquired the rudiments of a good classical education, and meanwhile received kindly and constant encouragement in his studies and aspirations from the minister of his parish, Mr. Peters. At about the age of eighteen he came under the notice of Sir John Stuart, of Fettercairn, one of the Barons of the Exchequer in Scotland, a man who, though reputed in the neighbourhood to have been haughty and morose, must always command our respect for his fidelity to his young friend. By Sir John and Lady Jane Stuart's influence James Mill was sent, in the year 1790, to the University of Edinburgh, under the following circumstances: — " Some pious ladies/'' writes Mr. Bisset, 3 " amongst whom was Lady Jane Stuart (she was then ' Belsches'), " having established a fund for educating one or two young men for the Church, Lady Jane applied to the Rev. Mr. Foote, minister of Fettercairn, to recommend some one. Mr. Foote applied to Mr. Peters of Logie Pert, who recommended James Mill, both on account of his own abilities, and the known good character of the parents." It was a great advantage to Mill to be able to go to Edinburgh at a mature age (for a Scotch university), instead of receiving his education as a boy at Aberdeen, as, without the intervention of the Stuarts, he would in the ordinary course have been compelled to do. Being at this period destined for the Church, he was bound to frame his

2 Besides the two sons there was a daughter, Mary, who was the youngest child.

3 In the article on James Mill, in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

1 3 HA K TL E Y A XD J A MES MILL.

course of study accordingly. Moral philosophy in the first place was required; nor, had it not been, can we imagine Mill neglecting it, more especially as the professor and lecturer was Stewart, of whose discourses on this subject he ever afterwards spoke with the greatest enthusiasm, even declaring that their eloquence was superior to that of the most admired speeches of Pitt and Fox. He is recorded in the registers of the university as having attended the Greek, Latin, natural philosophy, and logic classes, between 1790 and 1798. There is no mention of mathematics, but it is probable that he attended this class, because of Playfair's reputation, and also because he could scarcely have otherwise begun natural philosophy and Newton's Principia under Robison. John Stuart Mill {Autobiography) supposes that he may have also studied in the medical classes at this time.

During his residence at Edinburgh James Mill became acquainted with a variety of men, who subsequently became distinguished in their different walks of life, and some of whom kept up their intimacy with him to the last. Among these were Brougham, who probably then commenced a friendship which did not terminate with his Chancellorship, Professor AVallace, Thomas M'Crie, John Leyden, Jeffrey, and Mountstuart Elphinstone.

Mill's divinity studies proper began in 1794, and lasted for tour winters. Professor Bain gives a curious list of the works which he took out from the Theological Library at this period, which shows very fairly the bent of his mind. A large proportion of these are philosophical, such as Alison on Taste, of which he afterwards made considerable use in the Analysis, Cudworth's Morality, Smith's Theory of Moral Sentimenls (to which he also refers in the Analysis), Locke, Reid, Hume, Rousseau, Bolingbroke, Ferguson, Jortin (a friend of Hartley's), and especially Plato, of whose influence (strange

JAMES MILL. ii as it may seem) many traces are to be found in the method, and even sometimes in the tone, of his philosophy. In other departments of literature, we find him reading' Rousseau's Emile and Discours, Massillon's Sermons, Karnes's Sketches, HakewelPs Apology, Campbell on Rhetoric, CEuvres de Fene- L»n, Maupertuis, Abernethie's Sermons, Whitby on the Five Points, &c. He must, therefore, have become by this time a very fair French scholar. But one sees that divinity was not occupying- a very large share of his time. However, on the 1st of February, 1797, he is introduced by Mr. Peters to the Presbytery of Brechin, with his proper certificates, to be licensed as a preacher. After the due amount of "questionaiy trials/' probationary sermons, lectures, homilies, and the like, he is formally licensed on the 4th of October, 1798. He began to preach in the church of Logie Pert. Those who heard him said that his voice was "loud and clear," but we are told that " the generality of the hearers complained of not being able to understand him •/' and we may easily imagine that his discourses were somewhat over the heads of the good people of Logie Pert. He also preached in Edinburgh, where Sir David Brewster heard him. From 1790 to 1802, Mill acted as private tutor in the Feltercairn family, (where, during the vacations of his Edinburgh course, he instructed ZNIi?s Stuart, 4 for whom he always preserved the warmest affection), and also in the family of Mr. Burnet at Aberdeen, (this tutorship he is reported to have given up, owing to an insult put upon him at a dinner-party), and in some others. The tradition as to his having been tutor to the Marquis of Tweeddale does not appear to be substantiated. These tutor-

4 This was the lady who married the son of the banker, Sir "William Forbes, and was the mother of a distinguished Edinburgh Professor of Natural Philosophy, James David Forbes. Sir "Walter Scott was vehemently, but fruitlessly, devoted to her before her marriage.

ships wore his first source of income. Meanwhile his parents were becoming somewhat reduced in circumstances. James Mill generally spent what time was spared him from his university studies and tutorial engagements at his home, of which we have the following picture by Professor Bain: " The best room of the house contained two beds along* the right hand wall ; in that room the mother hung up a canvas curtain ('cannas' it was called, being what is laid on the threshing-floor to keep the corn together) ; thus cutting off from the draught and from the gaze, the further end of the room, including James's bed, the fire, and the gable window. This was his study. . . . Here lie had his book-shelves, his little round table and chair, and the gable window-sill for a temporary shelf. He had his regular pedestrian stretches; one secluded narrow glen is called ( James Mill's walk/ He avoided people on the road ; and was called haughty, shy, or reserved, according to the point of view of the critic. . . . His meals were taken alone in his screened study; and were provided by his mother, expressly for his supposed needs." Certainly it cannot be said that James Mill was not appreciated by his parents, at all events hy his mother. Nor did he lack sympathetic friends in David Barclay, Peters, and others, at Logie Pert, besides his little knot of associates in Edinburgh.

In the beginning of 1802- all preaching and tutorial work was given up, and James Mill went up to London in company with Sir John Stuart. Now commenced his journalistic career, into which he entered with zeal and energy. Immediately on his arrival in London we find him recounting in a letter to his Edinburgh friend, Thomas Thomson (a well-known devotee of science, and especially chemistry), his literary adventures and prospects. He was delighted with the large scope which London life afforded to an ambitious spirit, as compared with the life of his ec over-cautious countrymen at home/'' where "everybody represses you, if you but propose to step out of the beaten track." He obtained introductions from Thomas Thomson to Dr. Robert Bisset, and Dr. Gifford, editor of the Ant i- Jacobin Revieio. Besides this, he takes the greatest interest in politics, and often goes to the House of Commons to hear the speeches of Pitt, Fox, and Sheridan. Of the eloquence of the other members whom he heard he had the lowest possible opinion. He has an idea of starling a class of jurisprudence, and of entering one of the Inns of Court, for that purpose, but subsequently abandons it. It may be inferred that he had studied law, or at all events the philosophy of law, at Edinburgh, and had perhaps begun to study Bentham in Dumont's translation. His first few weeks in London were thus full of hopes and schemes and enthusiasm.

He soon gets into harness as a journalist. Dr. Bisset first of all tried him as an occasional writer on politics. For Dr. Giffbrd's Anti- Jacobin Review he writes his first philosophical production, a review of Belsham's Elements of Logic and Mental Philosophy, which is very interesting as containing an attack on Hartley's theory of vibrations, and also on the selfish theory of morals, which " imposes an obligation to be vicious, removes the moral character of the Deity, and renders it impossible to prove a future state/' An argument appears in this connexion, which seems to reflect a turning-point in the history of his religious belief. He contends that till the moral attributes of God are proved, it is useless to offer proofs of revelation. " Unless I know that God is true, how do I know that His Word is true?" Another article from his pen followed shortly after this in the same Revieio — on his friend Thomson's System of Chemistry.

Besides reviewing for Dr. Gifford, he is now writing articles for the Encyclopedia Britannica, on which he hopes to be able to support himself at least for a year. " I am willing* to labour hard and live penuriously," he writes to Thomson in May, 'and it will be devilish hard, if a man, good for anything, cannot keep himself alive hereon these terms." The rewriting and rearrangement for Dr. Hunter of a work called _\ v Delineated, brought him in some more money, besides making him known to the booksellers; so that at the end of May lie was able to take rooms by the year in Surrey Street, with an old pupil of Thomson's. Meanwhile he was attending the debates in the House of Commons with the keenest interest. In November Mill had an opportunity of showing his powers not only as a contributor, but as an editor as well. Together with Baldwin he projected a new periodical, to be " devoted to the dissemination of liberal and useful knowledge/' called the Li/erary Journal. It was to embrace Physics, Literature, Manners, Politics, to commence in January, 1803, and to be issued weekly in shilling numbers. Mill was to be editor and contributor for four years. He corresponded extensively with all his friends, in order to get stance in the various departments, and especially took counsel with Thomson, whose brother James was to undertake the Literature and Philosophy of the Mind. Thomas Brown, the metaphysician, was also thought of; but, whether he accepted the offer or not, we are not told.

Most of the Edinburgh contributions were very good, but those from London quite the reverse. " His energies and his hopes," Professor Bain tells us, " were concentrated in the success of his bold design. It was no small achievement for a young man to have induced a publisher to make the venture. But he had the power of getting people to believe in him. He was also cut out for a man of business, and shows it now as an editor.'" The first year of the Literary Journal contains some curious articles either written or inspired by Mill, such as an essay on the structure of the Platonic dialogue (he always maintained his admiration for the Platonic mode of philosophical prodare), another (curiously enough) to prove that Utility is not the foundation of virtue, and another on Stewart's Life of field, wherein some of his well-known opinions on the necessity of bringing early influences systematically to bear on children are for the first time expressed. In the year 180-4 were produced (amongst others) a thoroughly characteristic paper on religious feeling as distinguished from action/ and several reviews of apologetic treatises in theology, most of which he is inclined to discourage. In 1805 Mill continues the Journal, and also publishes his translation of Villers' work on the Reformation, adding very copious notes of his own, in which he quotes largely from, and refers to, Dugald Stewart, Robertson, George Campbell, &c, expresses here and there his poor opinion of Voltaire, who " used not only lawful but poisoned arms against religion and liberty,"" and warmly defends the books of the Bible as comprising "the extraordinary code of laws communicated by a benevolent divinity to man/'' Villers' Kantism is also thrown in his teeth : consequently, since Mill was a conscientious man, we must presume that he had made himself acquainted with the writings and arguments of Kant (probably in some French translation) : also that he was as yet far from having reached the purely negative standpoint in religion. In this year Mill further commenced his editorship of the St. James's Chronicle, about which unfortunately little is known. The proprietor was Baldwin, his co-adventurer in the Journal. The paper lasted for at least two or three years, possibly more. In 1806 the

5 "Religion," he says in it, " without reason may be feeling, it may be the tremors of the religious nerve, but it cannot be piety towards God, or love towards man."

form of the literary Journal was altered. Henceforth it was announced that a Second Series would come out monthly, and that the plan of the contents would be somewhat varied. This year contains an article on Tooke's Diversions of Pur ley, which is a book well-known in connexion with the obsolete philology of the Analysis, a severe one on Payne Knight's Principles of Taste, and some reviews on works of Political Economy. In one of the articles a reviewer, whether with or without the editor's sanction, takes the side of the clergy against Dngald Stewart and Leslie.