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• Introduction
• The Autobiography
• Literary Essays
• Appendices
• Textual Principles and Methods
• Acknowledgments
• Autobiography and Literary Essays
• Autobiography Parallel Reading Texts of the Early Draft and the Columbia Ms
• Editors’ Note
• [early Draft]
• [yale Fragment]
• Chapter I: Childhood, and Early Education
• Chapter II: Moral Influences In Early Youth. My Father’s Character and Opinions
• Chapter III: Last Stage of Education, and First of Self-education
• Chapter IV: Youthful Propagandism. the Westminster Review
• Chapter V: A Crisis In My Mental History. One Stage Onward
• Chapter VI: Commencement of the Most Valuable Friendship of My Life. My Father’s Death. Writings and Other Proceedings Up to 1840
• Chapter VII: General View of the Remainder of My Life
• Periodical Literature: Edinburgh Review 1824
• Editors’ Note
• Periodical Literature: Edinburgh Review
• On Genius 1832
• Editors’ Note
• On Genius
• Thoughts On Poetry and Its Varieties 1833
• Editors’ Note
• Thoughts On Poetry and Its Varieties
• Writings of Junius Redivivus [i] 1833
• Editors’ Note
• Writings of Junius Redivivus [i]
• Writings of Junius Redivivus [ii] 1833
• Editors’ Note
• Writings of Junius Redivivus [ii]
• Views of the Pyrenees 1833
• Editors’ Note
• Views of the Pyrenees
• Tennyson’s Poems 1835
• Editors’ Note
• Tennyson’s Poems
• Aphorisms: Thoughts In the Cloister and the Crowd 1837
• Editors’ Note
• Aphorisms: Thoughts In the Cloister and the Crowd
• Ware’s Letters From Palmyra 1838
• Editors’ Note
• Ware’s Letters From Palmyra
• Writings of Alfred De Vigny 1838
• Editors’ Note
• Writings of Alfred De Vigny
• Milnes’s Poems 1838
• Editors’ Note
• Milnes’s Poems
• Milnes’s Poetry For the People 1840
• Editors’ Note
• Milnes’s Poetry For the People
• Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome 1843
• Editors’ Note
• Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome
• Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review, On James Mill 1844
• Editors’ Note
• Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review, On James Mill[*]
• Appendices
• Appendix A: Juvenilia
• The History of Rome By John Stuart Mill Aged 6½ Yrs
• Appendix B: Mill’s Early Reading, 1809-22
• Appendix C: Mill’s Early Writing, 1811?-22
• Appendix D: A Few Observations On Mr. Mill (1833)
• Appendix E: Browning’s Pauline (1833)
• Appendix F: Editorial Notes In the London and Westminster Review
• Appendix H: Helen Taylor’s Continuation of the Autobiography
• Appendix I: Bibliographic Index of Persons and Works Cited, With Variants and Notes

Appendix B

Mill’s Early Reading, 1809-22

mill’s “unusual and remarkable” education, as he himself calls it,^* is best revealed in the record of his early reading. In fact, accounts of his precocity and high intelligence are based on that record, drawn from the opening pages of the Autobiography. Other sources, however, give some information, and while his references to works studied and read for pleasure are often sufficient for easy identification (admittedly some of the Classics are now much better known by their names than their contents), frequently his mention of them is allusive, and there are some puzzles. We have, therefore, brought together here all the references from the major sources: the Autobiography (supplemented by its Early Draft), the letter to Samuel Bentham of 30 July, 1819 (when Mill was thirteen years old), outlining his studies from 1814 to 1819,^† and the Journal and Notebook of his sojourn in France in 1820-21, with a few amplifying and corroborating references from other sources.

The list begins in the year when Mill says he started to learn Greek (he can hardly have begun to read English much earlier), and ends in the year indicated when he says, “I have now, I believe, mentioned all the books which had any considerable effect on my early mental developement” (Autobiography, p. 73). As that remark itself indicates, he read other works during those years, many of which could now be identified only tentatively, and many more, one must assume, not at all. We have erred on the side of caution: for example, it might seem reasonable to include Clarendon’s History, of which James Mill borrowed six volumes from Bentham on 1 September, 1812, and five volumes on 25 June, 1815,^‡ during the period when his son was reading history avidly; however, there is no contemporary evidence that J. S. Mill read Clarendon at this time (he had read it by 1824, as is shown in his review of Brodie’s History).

The works are here listed in the chronological order one can derive from Mill’s accounts (which probably were based on a running record), but as will be seen, the exact order is uncertain, except for the entries from the French Journal and Notebook, which are precisely dated. The list gives the year (and month when possible) in which Mill read the work, his age at that time, the author, title,^* the date of the first edition, evidence for the dating of his reading, evidence (when possible) concerning the edition he was using (including information about the collection in his library, Somerville College, Oxford),^† any information about Mill’s reaction to the work, and the sources of the evidence and information. For this last purpose we have used these abbreviations: A = Autobiography; ED = Early Draft of the Autobiography (page references given in italics, and when the information merely duplicates that in A, also in parentheses without “ED”); EL = the letter to Samuel Bentham of 30 July, 1819 (page references to Earlier Letters, CW, Vol. XII, where the letter appears on pp. 6-10); and J = Anna Jean Mill, ed., John Mill’s Boyhood Visit to France: A Journal and Notebook (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1960).

Though the authors and works are listed in the Bibliographic Index below, to make reference easier we have supplied a separate index of authors at the end of this list. Compilations, anonymous works, and periodicals are given under their titles. The references are to the item numbers within the appendix.

1809. Aet. 3-4.

1. Aesop, Fables. Mill mentions this as the first Greek work he read (“I faintly remember”), but the context suggests only that he did so not long after he began to learn Greek when he was three years old. He read the fables in Aesopi Phrygis fabulae graece et latine, cum aliis opusculis (Pladunes Collection) (Basel: Heruagius, 1544), which is in SC, with the first twenty pages and the last page missing. There are some interesting marginalia in Mill’s childish hand: at 31.18 and 19 he twice altered “Xãthus” (in the Latin version) to “Xanthus” (both versions appear throughout the text), and at p. 64 he underlined the Greek in the text three lines before the last line on the page and wrote in the margin: “See page 1 Rolin hist of Greece.” There are other marginalia probably in his later, more mature hand, and several in another hand, probably that of a previous owner (1736) of the book, Matthew Mallioch. See also no. 27. A9 (8)

2. Xenophon, The Anabasis of Cyrus. The second Greek work read by Mill, presumably as soon as he finished Aesop, and which, he says, “I remember better.” It seems unlikely that he read the whole work at this age. He probably used the ed. of Xenophon’s works, ed. Thomas Hutchinson, 9 vols. (Glasgow: Foulis, 1768), which was formerly in SC (it is on a list prepared by the librarian in the 1930s). A9 (8)

Before May, 1813. Aet. up to 7.

3. Herodotus, History. This he says he read “the whole of,” sometime before he began Latin in his “eighth year” (which we interpret as aet. 7). He may have read other Greek prose; he lists only what he explicitly remembers, nos. 3-10 in this appendix. He probably read one of the two Greek and Latin eds. formerly in SC: Ἡ του̑ Ἡροδότου Ἁλικαρνασσέως ἱστορία. Herodoti Halicarnassensis historia, 9 vols. (Glasgow: Foulis, 1761), and Herodotus graece et latine, 7 vols. (Edinburgh: Laing, 1806). A9 (8)

4. Xenophon, Cyropaedia. The implication is that he read the whole of this extensive work. For the ed., see no. 2. A9 (8)

5. Xenophon, Memorabilia (Memorials of Socrates). Again the whole of the work would appear to have been read. For the ed., see no. 2. At A49 (48) Mill emphasizes the significance of the work for him. “Even at the very early age at which I read with him [James Mill] the Memorabilia of Xenophon, I imbibed from that work and from his comments a deep respect for the character of Socrates; who stood in my mind as a model of ideal excellence: and I well remember how my father at that time impressed upon me the lesson of the ‘Choice of Hercules’ [Bk. II, Chap. i, ll. 21-34].” A9 (8), 49 (24n, 48)

6. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers. He says only that he read “some of the lives,” probably in Vol. I of De vitis, dogmatibus et apophthegmatibus clarorum philosophorum libri x. Graece et latine, 2 vols. (Amsterdam: Wetstenius, 1692), which is in SC. A9 (8)

7. Lucian. In A, Mill says only that he read “part of Lucian,” probably in Λουκιανου̑ Σαμοσατέως ἅπαντα. Luciani Somosatensis opera, 4 vols. (Amsterdam: Wetstenius, 1743-46), which is in SC. (See also no. 160, and the references there given.) A9 (8)

8. Isocrates, Ad Demonicum. He probably read the oration in Opera omnia graece et latine, ed. Athanasius Auger, 3 vols. (Paris: Didot l’aîné. 1782), which is in SC (Ad Demonicum is the first oration). In ED, he says merely that he read “a little of Isocrates.” A9 (8)

9. Isocrates, Ad Nicoclem. (This is the second oration in Opera.) A9 (8)

10. Thucydides. In a clause omitted from A, Mill says in ED that he thinks he read “part of Thucydides” before learning Latin; he later says he read “all Thucydides” in the period from his “eighth to [his] twelfth year,” and in EL he indicates that in 1814 he read, and in 1817 reread, Thucydides. In a letter of 7 Dec., 1814 (abstract by Francis Place, Jr.), to Francis Place from Ford Abbey, James Mill mentions the studies of John and Wilhelmina, and says John has just read “the last half of Thucydides.” There were formerly two complete Greek and Latin eds. in SC: 8 vols. (Glasgow: Foulis, 1759), and 2 vols. (Leipzig: Schwickert, 1790, 1804). Cf. App. C, no. 16. ED8, A15 (14); EL 7, 8; BL Add. MS 35152, f. 119

1813. Aet. 6-7.

11. Plato, Euthyphron. Mill explicitly dates his reading of “the first six” of Plato’s dialogues “in the common arrangement” (nos. 11-16) to 1813. It is not known what ed. he read; the only one now in SC is Platonis et quae vel Platonis esse feruntur vel Platonicasolent comitari scripta graece omnia, ed. Immanuel Bekker, 11 vols. (London: Priestley, 1826), which postdates these references. Mill later translated this dialogue: CW, Vol. XI, pp. 187-96. A9 (8)

12. Plato, Apology. In “the common arrangement” of Plato’s dialogues, this comes second. Later translated by Mill: CW, Vol. XI, pp. 151-74. A9 (8)

13. Plato, Crito. The third in the common arrangement. A9 (8)

14. Plato, Phaedo. The fourth in the common arrangement. A9 (8)

15. Plato, Cratylus. The fifth in the common arrangement. A9 (8)

16. Plato, Theaetetus. Mill notes that this dialogue was totally beyond his comprehension at that age, thereby implying that the previous five were not. A9 (8)

1810-13. Aet. 4-7.

17. William Robertson, The History of America (1777). It may be inferred that this work (along with nos. 18-45) was read in the years when they lived in Newington Green. The reference is simply to “Robertson’s histories.” The only ed. now in SC long postdates the reference: Works, 6 vols. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1851). A11 (10)

18. Robertson, The History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V (1769). See no. 17. A11 (10)

19. Robertson, The History of Scotland under Mary and James VI (1759). See no. 17. A11 (10)

20. David Hume, The History of England (1754-62). A11 (10)

21. Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88). A11 (10)

22. Robert Watson, The History of the Reign of Philip II, King of Spain (1777). This work and the next were, Mill says, “my greatest delight, then and for long afterwards.” Along with an anonymous work (no. 58), he used this “favorite” work to compose a history of Holland (A17). BL Add. MS 33564 (2), in part a list by Bentham of books borrowed from him, cites “Watson’s Philip II & III” as borrowed by James Mill on 31 Mar., 1816 (f. 43r), there can be little doubt that the young Mill read them before that date, but it seems likely that the books were borrowed for him from Bentham. See also App. C, no. 4. A11 (10), 17 (16)

23. Robert Watson and William Thomson, The History of the Reign of Philip III, King of Spain (1783). Mill likely read Bentham’s copy (see no. 22), but the 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London: Robinson, et al., 1786), is in SC. A11 (10)

July, 1812. Aet. 6.

24. Nathaniel Hooke, The Roman History, from the Building of Rome to the Ruin of the Commonwealth (1738-71). Mill’s earliest extant letter is concerned with his “recapitulating” Hooke, which he borrowed from Bentham. This, after Watson (nos. 22 and 23), was his “favorite historical reading.” (See also no. 57.) The “History of Rome” (see App. A above), partly based on Hooke, written by Mill at this time, indicates in its footnotes that he also then used nos. 25, 26, and 72, Cf. App. C, no. 2. A11 (10), 15; EL, CW, Vol. XII, pp. 3-4.

25. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, The Roman Antiquities. In A, Mill first refers to his having read “a little” of Dionysius (and he later helped his sisters through it, see no. 152). He also used the work in his “History of Rome”; in the extant fragment (see App. A above), his references (which are all to the “Chronology of the Consuls”) correspond to the text of Διονυσίου Ἁλικαρνασέως τὰ εὑρισκόμενα, ἱστορικά τε καὶ ῥητορικά, συγγράμματα. Dionysii Halicarnassei scripta quae extant, omnia, et historica, et rhetorica (Greek and Latin), 2 vols. (Frankfurt: Weschel Heirs, 1586), which is, as Mill says his text was, in folio, and in which The Roman Antiquities occupies Vol. I. (This ed. is not unique in these features, however.) A15 (14), 17 (16); EL 10; App. A, pp. 542, 544n, 546n

26. Plutarch, Lives, trans. and ed. John and William Langhorne (1770). A11 (10); App. A, p. 544n

1810-13. Aet. 4-7.

27. Charles Rollin, The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians (in French, 1730-38). Mill implies that he read only the later volumes, beginning with Philip of Macedon (i.e., Vols. V-VIII in 8-vol. eds.). See also no. 1 above. A11 (10)

28. Gilbert Burnet, Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time (1724-34). A11 (10)

29. The Annual Register of World Events. A Review of the Year (1758ff.). Mill remarks that he read “the historical part” of the volumes from 1758 to “about” 1788, where Bentham’s set, which the Mills borrowed, ended. Bentham lists (see no. 22) James Mill as borrowing Vols. XXIX and XXX on 28 Apr., 1810 (f. 41r), and Vols. VII-X on 8 Mar., 1823 (f. 44v), this list is certainly not complete, but verifies Mill’s memory that the books were borrowed from Bentham. A11 (10)

30. John Millar, An Historical View of the English Government (1787). A work “highly valued” by James Mill, formerly in SC. A11 (10)

31. Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, An Ecclesiastical History (in Latin, 1755). A11 (10)

32. Thomas McCrie, The Life of John Knox (1812). A11 (10)

33. Willem Sewel, The History of the Rise, Increase, and Progress of the Christian People Called Quakers (1722). A11 (10)

34. Thomas Wight and John Rutty, A History of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers in Ireland (1751). A11 (10)

35. Philip Beaver, African Memoranda (1805). One of the books Mill says his father “was fond of putting” into his hands because they “exhibited men of energy and resource in unusual circumstances, struggling against difficulties and overcoming them.” A11

36. David Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales (1798-1802). See no. 35. A11

37. George Anson, A Voyage round the World (1748). A book, says Mill, that he “never wearied of reading.” A11 (10)

38. David Henry, An Historical Account of All the Voyages round the World (1774). Like no. 37, a work Mill “never wearied of reading.” This work fits Mill’s description of a 4-vol. collection beginning with Drake and ending with Cook and Bougainville; he says, “Hawkesworth’s, I believe,” but John Hawkesworth, An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the SouthernHemisphere (London: Strahan, Cadell, 1773; and other eds.), is normally in three vols., and does not include either Drake or Bougainville. A11-13 (10-12)

39. John Hamilton Moore, A New and Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels (1780?). In a cancelled passage in ED, Mill says he has a faint recollection of “some folio collection” in which he read “an account of the first circumnavigation of the globe, by Magellan.” Moore’s collection, which is in folio, includes “The Voyage of Ferdinand Maghellan” (Vol. I, pp. 13-15); another possibility, though less likely, is Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes (1625), also in folio, which includes “Of Fernandes Magalianes” (Vol. I, pp. 33-46). No other folio collection in English containing Magellan’s voyage has been located. ED12n

40. Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719). SC formerly contained an ed. (London: Daly, 1837) that long postdates the reference, though Mill says he possessed the work as a child. A13 (12)

41. The Arabian Nights (in English, 1706). Mill says his father borrowed several works, of which this was one, but the 5-vol. trans. by Edward Forster (London: Miller, 1802) is in SC (Vol. IV now missing). A13 (12)

42. Arabian Tales; or, A Continuation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments (in English, 1794). Another work Mill says his father borrowed. A13 (12)

43. Miguel de Cervantes, The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote (in English, 1612), trans. Tobias Smollett (1755), 6th ed., 4 vols. (London: Rivington, et al., 1792). This is another of the books Mill says his father borrowed; probably this ed., which is in SC, was obtained later. A13 (12)

44. Maria Edgeworth, Popular Tales (1804). It is not known which ed. of this work Mill read; again a book he recalls his father’s having borrowed. A13

45. Henry Brooke, The Fool of Quality; or, The History of Henry Earl of Moreland (1766-70). It is not known which ed. of this popular work Mill read; this is the last of the list of books he recalls his father’s having borrowed for him at this time. A13 (12)

1813-14. Aet. 7.

46. Latin grammar. It is not known which grammar Mill used; a representative work is the so-called “Eton” or “Royal” grammar, e.g., An Introduction to the Latin Tongue, for the Use of Youth, new ed., rev. (Eton: Pote and Williams, 1806). “In my eighth year,” Mill says, “I commenced learning Latin, in conjunction with a younger sister [Wilhelmina], to whom I taught it as I went on, and who afterwards repeated the lessons to my father: and from this time, other sisters and brothers being successively added as pupils, a considerable part of my day’s work consisted of this preparatory teaching.” (The comment continues; see A13.) For other references to Mill’s teaching his sisters, see nos. 47, 48, 51, 52, 53, 73, 74, 101, 102, 152, 153; see also no. 111. George Bentham records in his MS Autobiography (Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, f. 11) that the young Mill (“in a scarlet jacket with nankeen trousers buttoned over it”) accompanied the Samuel Benthams on a visit to Lady Spencer; Bentham says: “At this time at the age of six he was a Greek and Latin scholar and a logician and fond of shewing off his proficiency without the slightest reserve.” But the entry is for 1814, and in any case Bentham may have written “Greek and Latin” without really knowing exactly what the boy’s accomplishments were. A13 (12)

47. Cornelius Nepos, Excellentium imperatorum vitae. (Other titles often used.) This is one of the works Mill used to teach Latin to his sisters Wilhelmina and Clara. In his letter to Francis Place of 7 Dec., 1814 (see no. 10), James Mill says: “Willie has read along with [John] several lines in Cornelius Nepos and has got over the most difficult part of the task of learning Latin, while John wants little of being able to read Latin with ease.” By 30 July, 1819, Wilhelmina had read all, and Clara, some, of Cornelius Nepos. Mill says (A13) that he went through “a considerable part” of Cornelius Nepos with Wilhelmina, but afterwards “added to the superintendance of these lessons, much longer ones” of his own. A13 (12); EL 10; BL Add. MS 35152, f. 119

48. Julius Caesar, Commentaries. Like no. 47, this was used by Mill to teach his sisters, both of whom had read “some of Cæsar” by 30 July, 1819. Having superintended Wilhelmina’s study (presumably as early as 1813), he went on to longer lessons of his own. They probably used one of the two eds. formerly in SC. C Iulii Caesaris quae exstant, cum selectis variorum commentariis (Amsterdam: Elzevir, 1661); and C. Julii Caesaris quae exstant opera, 2 vols. (Paris: Barbou, 1755). A13 (12); EL 10

49. Homer, Iliad. He likely read this in Ἰλιὰς καὶ Ὀδύσσεια, 4 vols. (in 2) (Oxford: Typographicus Academicus, 1800), which is in SC. He made his “first commencement in the Greek poets with the Iliad.” in the same year that he began Latin (see no. 46). At A15, Mill says, of the period 1813-17 generally, that he read in Greek the Iliad “through.” A13 (12), 15 (14)

50. Homer, Iliad, trans. Alexander Pope. He probably read Homer’s Iliad, trans. Pope (1715), 6 vols. (London: Lintot, 1720), which is in SC. “It was the first English verse I had cared to read,” says Mill, “and it became one of the books in which for many years I most delighted: I think I must have read it from twenty to thirty times through.” See also App. C, no. 5. A13 (12)

1813-17. Aet. 7-11.

51. Phaedrus. Mill probably read Fabularum Aesopiarum libri v, ed. Peter Burmannus (Utrecht: van de Water, 1718), which is in SC. This is one of the works mentioned in A as having been read between his eighth and twelfth years that is not mentioned in EL as part of his own study from 1814 to July, 1819. As it seems likely that some (though probably not all) such works were in fact read in 1813, they (nos. 51-8) are given here before the works mentioned in EL for 1814. He used Phaedrus as a teaching text, his sister Wilhelmina having read “almost all” before 30 July, 1819. A15 (14); EL10

52. Sallust. Mill probably read Opera omnia, ed. H. Homer (London: Payne, 1789), which is in SC. In A, Mill says he read “all Sallust.” Another teaching text by the end of July, 1819, Wilhelmina had read all Cataline and part of Jugurtha; Clara almost as much as her sister. Cf. App. C, no. 24. A15 (14); EL10

53. Terence. Mill says in A merely that he read “some plays of Terence,” and does not mention him in EL. But he does there indicate that by 30 July, 1819, Wilhelmina had, under his direction, read two of Terence’s plays. They probably used Publii Terentii Afri comoediae (Birmingham: Baskerville, 1772), which is in SC. A15 (14); EL10

54. Lysias. Mill says merely that he read “a great part” of Lysias. It is not known which ed. of the orations he used; a 2-vol. ed. of Oratores Attici was formerly in SC. A15 (14); EL10

55. William Mitford, The History of Greece (1784-1818). Mill mentions the work in EL, but without giving a date. In A, he says: “History continued [in my private reading] to be my strongest predilection, and most of all ancient history. Mitford’s Greece I read continually. My father had put me on guard against the Tory prejudices of this writer . . . with such effect that in reading Mitford, my sympathies were always on the contrary side to those of the author, and I could, to some extent, have argued the point against him: yet this did not diminish the ever new pleasure with which I read the book.” Formerly in SC was the 10-vol. ed. (London: Cadell and Davies, 1818-20), which postdates the references. A15 (14); EL9

56. Adam Ferguson, The History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic (1783). It is not known which ed. Mill used. See no. 57. A15 (14-16); EL9

57. An Universal History, from the Earliest Account of Time to the Present, 7 vols. (London: Batley, et al., 1736-44). This is the “Ancient Part”; the work was completed by the Modern Part of the Universal History, 16 vols., plus a vol. of maps and charts (London: Osborne, et al., 1759-66). Mill refers to his reading “the Ancient Universal History,” a “book which, in spite of what is called the dryness of its stile,” he “took great pleasure in.” He attempted (A17) “an abridgment” of it (see App. C, no. 3). “Roman history,” Mill says, “both in my old favorite, Hooke, and in Ferguson, continued to delight me.” A17 (16)

58. Anon., The History of the Republick of Holland, from Its First Foundation to the Death of King William, 2 vols. (London: Bell, et al., 1705). Probably read at this time, but the reference does not come in a strictly sequential listing, and it may well be that Mill read it at or about the time he read the two works of Watson (see nos. 22 and 23). Mill does not give a title, but this would appear to be the work intended (no appropriate rival has been located) when he refers in A to “an anonymous compilation,” and in ED to “an anonymous history which somebody who knew my liking for the subject, picked up at a book stall and gave to me.” He used it, along with his “favorite Watson,” to write a history of Holland. See App. C, no. 4. A17 (16)

1814 Aet. 7-8.

59. Cicero, Pro A. Licinio archia poeta. In A, Mill refers to his reading “several [ED “some”] of the Orations of Cicero”; this one (with no. 60) is specifically mentioned in EL for 1814. Mill probably read this in Opera, 10 vols. (in 8) (Leyden: Elzevir, 1642), Vol. III, pp. 369-82, which is in SC. Again in EL he reports reading “part of Cicero’s Orations” in 1815. A15 (14); EL7

60. Cicero, In C. Verrem invective septem. In EL, Mill says, curiously, “the (first or last) part of [Cicero’s] pleading against Verres” (there are seven parts). He probably read this in Opera, Vol. II, pp. 112-556 (first part, pp. 112-35: last part, pp. 476-556). A15 (14); EL7

61. Anacreon. In both A and EL, Mill says merely that he read Anacreon. He probably used Anacreon Teius, poeta lyricus . . . (Greek and Latin), ed. Joshua Barnes (Cambridge: Jeffery, 1705), which is in SC. A15 (14); EL7

62. Sophocles, Electra. In A, Mill says he read “one or two plays of Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, though by these I profited little”; in EL, he specifically mentions this play (and nos. 63-5). It is not known which ed. he used. A15 (14); EL7

63. Euripides, Phoenissae. See no. 62. Mill probably read this in Αἱ του̑ Εὐριπίδου τραγωδίαι σωζόμεναι. Euripidis tragoediae quae supersunt (Greek and Latin), ed. Samuel Musgrave, 10 vols. (Glasgow: Foulis; Edinburgh: Laing; London: Bremner, 1797), which was formerly in SC; the play is in Vol. II, pp. 1-88. A15 (14); EL7

64. Aristophanes, Plutus. See no. 62. In his letter to Francis Place of 7 Dec., 1814 (see no 10), James Mill reports that John has recently read one (undesignated) play by Aristophanes. It is not known which ed. Mill used. A15 (14); EL7; BL Add. MS 35152, f. 119

65. Aristophanes, Clouds. See nos. 62 and 64. A15 (14); EL7

66. Demosthenes. In A, Mill says that in the period between his eighth and twelfth years he read “a great part of Demosthenes” (A15); later he refers to reading “some” of Demosthenes’ orations “several times over,” and writing “a full analysis of them” (A23; cf. App. C, no. 11); he also mentions reading Demosthenes (and Plato) in Greek aloud to his father (A25). In EL, he specifically refers to reading the Philipics in 1814, and says he read “a great many Orations of Demosthenes” in 1817. He reports also that he read “some more of Demosthenes” in 1818. See also no. 80. It is not known what ed. he used; Demosthenis et Aeschinis quae exstant omnia (Greek and Latin), 10 vols. (London: Priestley, 1827), which postdates the references, is in SC. A15 (14), 23 (22), 25 (24); EL7, 8

Dec., 1814. Aet. 8.

67. Plutarch, Περὶ παίδων ἀγωγη̑ς (“On the Education of Children”). In his letter to Francis Place of 7 Dec., 1814 (see no. 10), James Mill refers to John’s having just read (in Greek) “the treatise of Plutarch on education.” It is not mentioned in A or EL. BL Add. MS 35152, f. 119

1814. Aet. 7-8.

68. Euclid, Elements of Geometry. In A, Mill says he began Euclid, “still under” his father’s tuition, “soon after” the works listed in nos. 46-50: in EL, he says that in 1814 he was reading Euclid, and that in 1815, “after finishing the first six books, with the eleventh and twelfth” (the ones usually studied), he went on to the works mentioned in nos. 71 and 81-3. In his letter to Francis Place of 7 Dec., 1814 (see no. 10), James Mill says: “John is now an adept in the first 6 books of Euclid.” See also no. 101. It is not known which ed. of Euclid Mill used, but in EL he indicates that he later read “Playfair’s Trigonometry at the end of his Euclid”; i.e., John Playfair, Elements of Geometry: Containing the First Six Books of Euclid, with Two Books on the Geometry of Solids To Which Are Added, Elements of Plane and Spherical Trigonometry (Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute; London: Robinson, 1795). (The “two books on the geometry of solids” are equivalent to Books XI and XII of Euclid.) A15 (14); EL7-8; BL Add. MS 35152, f. 119

69. Leonhard Euler, Elements of Algebra (in English, 1797). In A, Mill refers only to the beginning of his study of algebra, the title is given in EL. In his letter to Francis Place of 7 Dec., 1814 (see no. 10), James Mill says that John “in algebra performs simple equations with great ease.” It is not known which ed. Mill used, although a likely one is the anonymous translation, 2 vols. (London: Johnson, 1797). A15 (14); EL7, BL Add. MS 35152, f. 119

70. John Bonnycastle, An Introduction to Algebra (1782). See no. 69. In EL, Mill says he used Bonnycastle “principally for the sake of the examples to perform.” It is not known which ed. he used. A15 (14); EL7

71. John West, Elements of Mathematics. Comprehending Geometry, Conic Sections, Mensuration, Spherics (1784). Writing of the period from his eighth to his twelfth year, Mill merely refers to his learning “elementary geometry and algebra thoroughly, the differential calculus and other portions of the higher mathematics far from thoroughly” (A15; ED14 has “not thoroughly” for “far from thoroughly”); in EL, he says he read “some of West’s Geometry” in 1814, and, having finished it in 1815, then went on to West’s “Conic Sections, Mensuration and Spherics.” He continued to work on West, taking it with him to France in 1820, where, on 27 June, he reports: “tried two propositions in West’s App’x. Solved one of them, which I have tried over for several years and have never been able to solve: found the other too difficult, but hope to solve it to-morrow.” On the 29th he tried some more “problems and theorems,” resolving three, including the recalcitrant one of the 27th. Two more that he had frequently tried before were resolved on 5 July, and he attempted more on the 6th. On the 13th he resolved two more (and George Bentham resolved “several”); on the 14th Mill worked out three more. On the 19th he reports that he “tried ineffectually some problems and theorems in West’s Appx.” A15 (14); EL7, J29, 35, 45, 46, 50

1815. Aet. 8-9.

72. Livy. Mill probably read Historiarum ab urbe condita, ed. Johannes Fredericus Gronovius, 3 vols. (Amsterdam: Elzevir, 1665, 1664), which (with James Mill’s bookplate) is in SC. Formerly in SC was the 10-vol. ed., ed. Joannes Clericus (Amsterdam: Wetstenius; Utrecht: van de Water, 1710). In A, covering 1813-17 generally, Mill mentions “the first five books of Livy (to which from my love of the subject I voluntarily added, in my hours of leisure, the remainder of the first decad)”; in EL, he lists the first five books for 1815, and later says, without specific date, “I have also read a great deal of Livy by myself.” But see no. 24; the “History of Rome” there cited implies that he was using Livy in 1812, though he says (see no. 46) he began to learn Latin only in his eighth year. A15 (14); EL7, 9

73. Ovid, Metamorphoses. In A, covering 1813-17 generally, Mill says he read “a considerable part” of the Metamorphoses; in EL, he writes, of 1815, “I read the first six books, I believe.” He also says that, as of 30 July, 1819, his sister Clara was reading Ovid (he does not mention Ovid in connection with Wilhelmina, who was more advanced). They probably used Opera omnia, 3 vols. (Amsterdam: Blaviana, 1683), which is in SC (the Metamorphoses is in Vol. II). A15 (14); EL7, 10

74. Virgil, Eclogues (Bucolics). At the time of the letter to Bentham (30 July, 1819), his sister Wilhelmina was, under Mill’s direction, reading the Eclogues. He continued on his own in France in the next year, reading “some” Virgil on the 10th and the 16th of June, two eclogues on each of the 26th and 28th, one on the 29th, and two more on the 30th. A15 (14); EL7, 10; J13, 15, 28, 29, 30

75. Virgil, Aeneid. In A, Mill refers to his reading the first six books in the period 1813-17; the specific year is given in EL. Cf. App. C, no. 24. A15 (14); EL7

76. Homer, Odyssey. In A, Mill says he read in Greek the Odyssey “through” in the period 1813-17; in EL (with an “I think” that may refer to the accuracy of the Greek list for 1815 as a whole), he says he read it in 1815. For the ed., see no. 49. A15 (14); EL7

77. Theocritus. Mill probably read him in Θεοκρίτου, Μόσχου, Βίωνος, Σιμμίου τὰ εὑρισκόμενα. Theocriti, Moschi, Bionis, Simmii quae extant (Greek and Latin), ed. D. Heincius (Heidelberg: Commelinian, 1604), or in Idyllia (Greek), ed. F. C. W. Jacobs (Gotha: Ettinger, 1789), both of which were formerly in SC. A15 (14); EL7

78. Pindar. Pindar is the only Classical author known to have been read by Mill in his formative years who is not mentioned by name in A; in EL, he says he read “some of Pindar” in 1815. He probably read him in Πάντα τὰ Πινδάρου σωζόμενα. Omnia Pindari quae extant. Cum interpretatione latina (Greek and Latin), 2 vols. (in 1) (Glasgow: Foulis, 1744), which is in SC. EL7

79. Aeschines. In A, covering 1813-17, Mill says he read “a great part” of Aeschines; in EL, he specifies for 1815 “the two Orations” of Aeschines (Contra Timarchum, and Demale gesta legatione). It is not known what ed. he used; Demosthenis et Aeschinis quae exstant omnia (Greek and Latin), 10 vols. (London: Priestley, 1827), which postdates the references, is in SC. A15 (14); EL7

80. Demosthenes, De corona (On the Crown). Specifically mentioned and dated in EL. See no. 66. EL7

81. Robert Simson, Sectionum conicarum libri v (1735). See no. 71. Title given in EL, which reads “Simpson’s Conic Sections.” Mill, who normally read mathematical texts in Latin, probably used this rather than the English translation (which included only the first three of the five books), Elements of the Conic Sections (Edinburgh: Elliot; London: Cadell, et al., 1775). A15 (14); EL7

82. John Kersey, The Elements of That Mathematical Art Commonly Called Algebra (1673-74). See no. 71. A15 (14); EL7

83. Isaac Newton, Arithmetica universalis; stve de compositione et resolutione arithmetica liber (1707). It is not known which ed. Mill used. See no. 71. A15 (14); EL7

1816. Aet. 9-10.

84. Horace, Ars poetica. Mill may have read it in Opera, ed. William Baxter, new ed. (Glasgow and Edinburgh: Mundell; London: Robinson, et al.: Cambridge: Lunn, 1796), which is in SC. Dated in EL to 1816; in A, to the period between his eighth and twelfth years. Though in ED he says he read “all Horace” at this time, in both A and EL he says all except the Epodes (which he presumably read later). See also App. C, no. 7. A15 (14); EL7

85. Horace, Carmen saeculare. See no. 84. A15 (14); EL7

86. Horace, Carmina (Odes). See no. 84. Four years later, while in France, Mill translated into French the first and third odes (see App. C, no. 24). A15 (14); EL7; J40, 48

87. Horace, Epistles. See no. 84. A15 (14); EL7

88. Horace, Satires. See no. 84. In 1820, when in France, Mill reports reading a Satire on 22 Dec. A15 (14); EL7; J89

89. Polybius, Histories. In A, Mill says he read in this period “several books of Polybius” (there are five); in ED, “the first two or three”; in EL, merely “Part of Polybius.” A15 (14); EL7

90. Xenophon, Hellenics. In EL, he says he read “all” of the work at this time. For the ed., see no. 2. A15 (14); EL7

91. Sophocles, Ajax. See no. 62. A15 (14); EL7

92. Sophocles, Philoctetes. See no. 62. A15 (14); EL7

93. Euripides, Medea. See no. 62. See also no. 63; Medea appears in the ed. there cited, Vol. II, pp. 90-155. A15 (14); EL7

94. Aristophanes, Frogs. See no. 62. See also no. 64. A15 (14); EL7

95. Anthologia graeca. In A, Mill says he read “part of the Anthology”; in EL, a “great part”; one may assume he read it all eventually. See also no. 152. He probably read it in Anthologia graeca sive poetarum graecorum lusus, ed. Friedrich Jacob, 13 vols. (Leipzig: Dyck, 1794-1814), which is in SC. A15 (14); EL7

96. Matthew Stewart, Propositiones geometricae, more veterum demonstratae, ad geometricum antiquam illustrandam et promovendam idoneae (1763). For comment, see no. 71. A15 (14); EL7

97. John Playfair, Elements of Geometry, . . . Elements of Plane and Spherical Trigonometry (1795). See nos. 68 and 71. A15 (14); EL7-8

98. William Wallace, “Geometry,” Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (1830), Vol. X, Pt. 1, pp. 185-240. The author is identified in Vol. I, Pt. 1; though the completed encyclopaedia was published in 1830, it had been issued in parts over a twenty-year period by David Brewster, its main mover and editor (the work is often called Brewster’s Edinburgh Encyclopaedia). See no. 71. A15 (14); EL8

99. Thomas Simpson, A Treatise of Algebra (1745). See no. 71. It is not known which ed. Mill used. A15 (14); EL8

1816. Aet. 10.

100. Thomas Thomson, A System of Chemistry, 4 vols. (Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, et al.; London: Robinson; Dublin: Gilbert and Hodges, 1802). Mill says: “I devoured treatises on Chemistry, especially that of my father’s early friend and schoolfellow Dr. Thomson, for years before I attended a lecture or saw an experiment” (A21). That he first read the work (presumably in the first ed., cited above) “years before” his visit to the Royal Military College, Bagshot, in Oct., 1818, when he saw experiments, is borne out by a letter to Thomson from James Mill, who reports that John, at age ten, “read your System of Chemistry with vast ardour”; again, at twelve, he “fastened with great greediness upon your book” (Alexander Bain, James Mill [London: Longmans, Green, 1882], pp. 157, 168). In EL, discussing his reading in 1819, Mill says he has read “the last edition” of Thomson’s work, that is, the 5th ed., 4 vols. (London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, Edinburgh: Blackwood, et al.; Dublin: Hodges and MacArthur, 1817), which was much revised. In 1820 he was again studying Thomson, while in France. (It is possible that he was then reading Thomson’s Elements of Chemistry [Edinburgh: Blackwood; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1810], which is in one vol., rather than the 4-vol. System.) The same enthusiasm is evident in his Journal, as he records reading Thomson on 25 and 30 June, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 9 July, sometimes as often as three times a day, and on two occasions making “out various chemical tables &c.” See App. C, no. 23. A21 (20); EL9; J28, 30, 35, 36, 39

1817. Aet. 10-11.

101. James Mill, The History of British India, 3 vols. (London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1817 [1818]). Mill’s reading of his father’s History might be dated much earlier; in a passage not used in A, he says in ED: “my father . . . used to give me the manuscript of part of his history of India to read. Almost as soon as I could hold a pen I must needs write a history of India too . . .” (ED16; cf. App. C, no. 1); this he soon abandoned for his “Roman history,” which dates from 1812 (printed above, pp. 541-8). (James Mill began his History in 1806.) In A, Mill says he read the completed manuscript aloud to his father while the latter corrected the proofs; in a letter of 7 Aug., 1817, from Ford Abbey, Francis Place wrote to his wife: “Mill is up between 5 and 6, he and John compare his proofs—Jn. reading the copy and his father the proof—Willie and Clara are in the Saloon before 7—and as soon as the proofs are done with Jn goes to the further end of the room to teach his sisters—when this has been done—and part of the time while it is doing he learns Geometry.” He adds that John “teaches the children” and does his own work also in the afternoon; John Flowerdew Colls, Bentham’s amanuensis at the time, was teaching the younger children writing. Mill indicates in his account how important the reading of his father’s History was to his education. The only ed. now in SC is the 3rd., 6 vols. (London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1826). ED16,A27 (26); BL Add. MS 35143, f. 285

102. Lucretius, De rerum natura. Mentioned in A as part of his reading between his eighth and his twelfth year; dated in EL to 1817. In A, Mill says he read then “two or three books of Lucretius” (there are six); in EL, he says “all Lucretius, except the last book.” By 30 July, 1819, his sister Wilhelmina, under his direction, had read the first and part of the second book. They probably read De rerum natura libri sex, ed. Gilbert Wakefield, 4 vols. (Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, et al.; Glasgow: Duncan, 1813), which is in SC. A15 (14); EL8, 10

103. Cicero, Letters to Atticus (Epistolarum ad T. Pomponium Atticum). Mill read this in Latin; it appears in Opera, Vol. VI, pp. 1-517 (see no. 59), his father (see A) translated the French notes from the Latin and French version, Lettres de Cicéron à Atticus, ed. Nicolas Hubert Mongault, 6 vols. (Paris: Delaulne, 1738), which is also in SC, and which Mill probably used as well (though he could not at the time read French). The French version is not mentioned in EL. A15 (14); EL8

104. Cicero, Topica, in Opera, Vol. I, pp. 694-722 (see no. 59). In A, Mill says he read “several” (ED, “some”) of Cicero’s “writings on oratory”; in EL, this title is given. A15 (14); EL8

105. Cicero, De partitione oratoria, in Opera, Vol. I, pp. 722-62 (see no. 59). This title given in EL. See no. 104. A15 (14); EL8

106. Aristotle, Rhetoric. In A, Mill says: “as the first expressly scientific treatise on any moral or psychological subject which I had read, and containing many of the best observations of the ancients on human nature and life, my father made me study [it] with peculiar care, and throw the matter of it into synoptic tables.” In EL, he says: “I read . . . all Aristotle’s Rhetoric, of which I made a synoptic table.” See App. C, no. 10. Mill may have read Ἀριστοτέλους τέχνης ῥητορικη̑ς βιβλία τρία. Aristotelis de rhetorica seu arte dicendi libri tres (Greek and Latin), ed. Theodore Goulston (London: Griffin, 1619), two copies of which are in SC. A15 (14); EL8

107. William Wallace, “Conic Sections,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 4th ed. (1810), Vol. VI, pp. 519-48 (+ 92 figures). See no. 71. It is much more likely that Mill refers to this rather than the very slight article in the 3rd ed. (1797), Vol. V, pp. 329-32. Cf. no. 109. He says: “I read in Conic Sections an article in the Encyclopædia Britannica.” The author is identified in the Preface to Vol. I of the 4th ed., pp. xvi-xvii. A15 (14); EL8

108. Leonhard Euler, Introductio in analysiu infinitorum (1748). Title given in EL. See no. 71. It is not known which ed. Mill studied. A15 (14); EL8

109. “Fluxions,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 4th ed. (1810), Vol. VIII, pp. 697-778 (+ 39 figures). It is much more likely that Mill refers to this rather than the less detailed article in the 3rd ed. (1797), Vol. VII, pp. 311-16. Cf. no. 107. See also no. 71. In 1817 Mill says: “I . . . began Fluxions, on which I read an article in the Encyclopædia Britannica” (EL8). This article is not specifically assigned to any author in the Preface to Vol. I of the 4th ed., where, however, it is said that “the articles Algebra, Conic Sections, Trigonometry, and several others in the mathematical and physical sciences were furnished by Mr. William Wallace of the Royal Military College, Great Marlow” (pp. xvi-xvii), and no mathematical articles are assigned to anyone else. But see also no. 135: has Mill confused the two articles? A15 (14); EL8

110. Thomas Simpson, The Doctrine and Application of Fluxions (1750). See no. 71. It is not known which ed. Mill read A15 (14); EL8

Oct., 1817. Aet. 11.

111. Isaac Newton, Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (1686). Ann. Lady Romilly, in a letter to Maria Edgeworth (6 Oct., 1817), commenting on life at Ford Abbey, where the Mills were living with Bentham, says that the young Mill was “observed twice when he came out of a room where he had been shut up with Newton’s principia before him, that he was but just awake.” She mentions also that “he has the care of the learned part of the education of his two eldest sisters who are making great progress in Latin and Greek under his tuition” (Samuel Henry Romilly, ed., Romilly-Edgeworth Letters, 1813-1818 [London: Murray, 1936], p. 177).

1817. Aet. 10-11.

112. John Keill, Introductiones ad veram physicam et veram astronomiam (1702, 1718). See no. 71. In EL, Mill refers to this as part of his study of “the application of mathematics”; there is no reference in A or ED to this study. It is not known which ed. Mill used. A15 (14); EL8

113. John Robison, Elements of Mechanical Philosophy (1804). See no. 112. EL reads “Robinson’s Mechanical Philosophy.” A15 (14); EL8

1813-17. Aet. 7-11.

114. James Thomson, “Winter” (1744). This is referred to (with all the items through no. 128) in A after Mill’s mention of his reading between his eighth and twelfth years (A15), and before his saying “From about the age of twelve” (A21), but the text is very vague as to date. “I also remember,” says Mill, “[my father’s] giving me Thomson’s ‘Winter’ to read, and afterwards making me attempt (without book) to write something myself on the same subject. The verses I wrote were of course the merest rubbish, nor did I ever attain any facility of versification, but the practice may have been useful in making it easier for me, at a later period, to acquire readiness of expression.” Cf. App. C, no. 8. A19 (18)

115. Joanna Baillie, Constantine Paleologus (1804). The date is not clear from Mill’s account; he says, “In a subsequent stage of boyhood” to that (itself vague) implied in no. 114, he wrote tragedies inspired by Baillie, but he probably read her at about this time. His comment suggests that he read other of Baillie’s plays, most likely in Miscellaneous Plays, 2nd ed. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme; Edinburgh: Constable, 1805), which is in SC. He says that it was her inspiration rather than Shakespeare’s that led him to write tragedies in his youth; Constantine Paleologus then appeared to him “one of the most glorious of human compositions,” and when he wrote A he still thought it (after rereading) “one of the best dramas of the last two centuries.” Cf. App. C, no. 13. A19n (26)

116. Shakespeare, plays. “Shakespeare my father had put into my hands,” Mill says, “chiefly for the sake of the historical plays, from which however I went on to the others.” A19 (18)

117. John Milton, poetry. Mill says his father admired Milton’s poetry; it may be inferred that he introduced him to it at an early age, though he says in a cancelled passage in ED: “Milton’s poetry he did admire but did not think me of an age to comprehend” (ED 18n). A19 (18)

118. Oliver Goldsmith, poetry. Mill indicates his father’s partiality for Goldsmith’s poetry; it may be inferred that he introduced him to it at an early age. A19 (18)

119. Robert Burns, poetry. James Mill was also partial to Burns, though he was at pains to dissociate himself from his Scottish background; it may be noted that the younger Mill here includes Burns in a list of “English” poets. A19 (18)

120. Thomas Gray, “The Bard” (1757). His father, Mill says, preferred “The Bard” to An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard; it may be inferred that he introduced him to them at an early age. He probably used The Works of Thomas Gray, with Memoirs of His Life and Writings by William Mason, ed. Thomas James Mathias, 2 vols. (London: Porter, 1814), which is in SC; in that ed. “The Bard” appears in Vol. I, pp. 25-32, and the Elegy in Vol. I, pp. 57-63. A19 (18)

121. Thomas Gray, An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard (1751). See no. 120. A19 (18)

122. William Cowper, poetry. At A19, Mill refers to his father’s partiality for Cowper’s poetry (again probably introduced to the boy at an early age); at A21, he gives his own reaction to Cowper’s shorter poems, which he read in a 2-vol. ed. (the first 2-vol. ed. was Poems, 2nd ed. [London: Johnson, 1786], called the 2nd ed. because both its vols. had been published separately in 1782). See also no. 123. A19, 21 (20)

123. William Cowper, “Account of the Author’s Treatment of Hares.” It is not known which version Mill read: it is not in the ed. cited in no. 122, but appears in Works, 10 vols. (London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1817), Vol. II, pp. 363-8; it first was published as “Unnoticed Properties of That Little Animal the Hare,” Gentleman’s Magazine, LIV (1784), 412-14. Nothing, says Mill, in Cowper’s poetry interested him as did “the prose account of his three hares.” A21 (20)

124. James Beattie, poetry. Mill refers to his father’s probable partiality for Beattie’s poetry; it may be inferred that he introduced him to it at an early age. A19 (18)

125. Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1590-96). The reference initially is to James Mill’s valuing Spenser: “I remember his reading to me (unlike his usual practice of making me read to him) the first book of the Fairie Queene: but I took little pleasure in it.” He probably read it in Works, ed. Henry John Todd, 8 vols. (London: Rivington, et al., 1805), which is in SC. A19 (18)

126. Walter Scott, metrical romances. One may infer that Mill read (“at [James Mill’s] recommendation and was intensely delighted with”) several of The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Marmion (1808), The Lady of the Lake (1810), etc. See also the comment quoted in no. 127. A19 (18)

127. John Dryden, poetry. Mill says Dryden’s poems were among his father’s books, but there is now no ed. in SC. James Mill had him read many of the poems, but, he says, “I never cared for any of them except Alexander’s Feast, which, as well as many of the songs in Walter Scott, I used to sing internally, to a music of my own: to some of the latter indeed I went so far as to compose airs, which I still remember.” See no. 126. A19 (18)

128. John Dryden, Alexander’s Feast (1697). See no. 127. A19 (18)

1818. Aet. 11-12.

129. Aristotle, Organon. “From about the age of twelve,” Mill says in A, he entered a “more advanced stage” of his “course of instruction; in which the main object was no longer the aids and appliances of thought, but the thoughts themselves. This commenced with Logic,” in which he “began at once with the Organon, and read it to the Analytics inclusive, but profited little by the Posterior Analytics, which belong to a branch of speculation” he was “not yet ripe for.” In EL, he indicates that in 1818 he read the first four books of the Organon, “all of which [he] tabulated in the same manner as [Aristotle’s] Rhetoric” (see no. 106); he notes that in 1819 he had carried his logical studies in Latin texts “as far as” he had gone in Aristotle. He probably used one or both of Ἀριστοτέλους ὄργανον. Aristotelis stagiritae peripateticorum principis organum (Greek and Latin), 2nd ed. (Frankfurt: Weschel Heirs, et al., 1597), and ibid., 3rd ed. (Geneva: ex typis Vignonianis, 1605), which are in SC. See also App. C, no. 12. A21 (20); EL8

130. Tacitus. Mill comments in ED that he does not think he “meddled” with Tacitus until his thirteenth year (ED14); he later says in A, of the period “from about the age of twelve” (A21), he read “the whole of Tacitus.” In EL, he says he read all of Tacitus, “except the dialogue concerning oratory,” in 1818. He also mentions writing two tragedies based on Tacitus (ED26); see App. C, nos. 13 and 15. ED14, A25 (24); EL8

131. Juvenal, Satires. In a cancelled passage of ED (14n), Mill indicates that some time in the period between his eighth and twelfth years he read “part of Juvenal”; in A, writing of the period “from about the age of twelve” (A21), he says he read “the whole” of Juvenal (A25). In EL, he says (of 1818) he read a “great part” of Juvenal. He probably read it in Decii Junii Juvenalis et A. Persii Flacci satyrae (London: Brindley, 1744), pp. 1-98, which is in SC (and which is, incidentally, one of the very few books small in format that he seems to have read). ED14n, A25; EL8

132. Quintilian, De institutione oratoria libri duodecim. In EL, Mill says he “began Quintilian” in 1818, and adds, in his account of 1819, “I am still reading Quintilian.” In a cancelled passage of ED (14n), he indicates that some time in the period between his eighth and twelfth years he read “a great part” of Quintilian; in A, writing of the period “from about the age of twelve” (A21), he says he read “the whole” of Quintilian, who, he adds, “owing to his obscure stile and to the scholastic details of which many parts of his treatise are made up, is little read and seldom sufficiently appreciated. His book is a kind of encyclopædia of the thoughts of the ancients on the whole field of education and culture; and I have retained through life many valuable ideas which I can distinctly trace to my reading of him, even at that early age.” (A25.) ED14n, A25 (24); EL8

133. William Emerson, The Elements of Optics (1768). Title given in EL; not mentioned in A. EL8

134. William Wallace, a treatise on trigonometry. Mill says the work, which we have not identified, was “intended for the use of cadets” at the Military College near Bagshot, which he visited during the year. Wallace was a friend of James Mill’s. It is possible, though not likely, that Mill is referring to Wallace’s “Trigonometry,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 4th ed. (1810), Vol. XX, pp. 477-88 (+ 28 figures); he had read Wallace’s “Conic Sections,” and “Fluxions” (which may be by Wallace) in that ed.: see nos. 107 and 109 (and also nos. 98 and 135). Title given in EL; not mentioned in A. EL8

135. William Wallace, “Fluxions,” Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (1830), Vol. IX, Pt. 2, pp. 382-467. Mill says he began the article in 1818; in 1819 he was “still reading” it. See no. 98. See also no. 109: has Mill confused the two articles? Title given in EL; not mentioned in A. EL8

1818-19. Aet. 12.

136. Thomas Campbell, “Lochiel’s Warning.” “In my thirteenth year,” says Mill, “I met with Campbell’s Poems, among which ‘Lochiel,’ ‘Hohenlinden,’ ‘The Exile of Erin,’ and some others, gave me sensations I had never before experienced from poetry. Here, too, I made nothing of the longer poems, except the striking opening of ‘Gertrude of Wyoming,’ which long kept its place in my feelings as the perfection of pathos.” It is not known which ed. of Campbell Mill read, but Gertrude of Wyoming, and Other Poems, 3rd ed. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, et al., 1810), is the first that contains all the poems Mill mentions. A21 (20)

137. Thomas Campbell, “Gertrude of Wyoming.” See no. 136. A21 (20)

138. Thomas Campbell, “Hohenlinden.” See no. 136. A21 (20)

139. Thomas Campbell, “The Exile of Erin.” See no. 136. A21 (20)

140. Jeremiah Joyce, Scientific Dialogues, Intended for the Instruction and Entertainment of Young People (1800ff.). It is difficult to date with confidence Mill’s reading of this work “During this part of my childhood,” he says (his last reference having been to “my thirteenth year”), “one of my greatest amusements was experimental science; in the theoretical, however, not the practical sense of the word; not trying experiments, . . . nor even seeing, but merely reading about them. I never remember being so wrapt up in any book, as I was in Joyce’s Scientific Dialogues. . . .” However, he next mentions having “devoured treatises on Chemistry,” especially Thomson’s, which we know he read at age ten (see no. 100). It is not known which ed. of Joyce’s 6-vol. work Mill read. The subjects covered are Mechanics, Astronomy, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Optics and Magnetism, and Electricity and Galvanism. He comments: “. . . I was rather recalcitrant to my father’s criticism of the bad reasoning respecting the first principles of physics which abounds in the early part of that work.” A21 (20)

1819. Aet. 12-13.

141. Samuel Smith, Aditus ad logicam (1613). Contemporaneously with Aristotle’s Organon (see no. 129), Mill says in A, he read “Latin treatises on the scholastic logic; giving each day to [my father], in our walks, a minute account of what I had read, and answering his numerous and searching questions.” This title is given in EL, where it is clear that he began Aristotle in the preceding year, and is continuing with him. For other such texts, see nos. 142-4, and 179. Mill presumably read Smith in the 7th ed. (Oxford: Hall, 1656), a copy of which (bound with no. 142) is in the London Library, autographed “J. Mill,” being part of Mill’s gift of his father’s books. A21 (20); EL8

142. Edward Brerewood, Elementa logicae (Oxford: Hall, 1657). See no. 141. A21 (20); EL8

143. Phillipus Du Trieu, Manuductio ad logicam (1618). See no. 141. Mill probably first used the 1662 ed. (Oxford: Oxlad and Pocock), which was formerly in SC. As he indicates later (A125), he and his friends had the work reprinted (London: printed McMillan, 1826) for their private study; this ed. too was formerly in SC. A21 (20); EL8

144. Franco Petri Burgersdijk, Institutionum logicarum libri duo (1637). The edition published in Cambridge by Field, 1660, is in SC. See no. 141. A21 (20); EL8

145. Thomas Hobbes, “Computatio sive logica” (1668). In A, after mentioning the way he had studied the previous items with his father, Mill says: “After this, I went, in a similar manner, through the ‘Computatio sive Logica’ of Hobbes, a work of a much higher order of thought than the books of the school logicians, and which [my father] estimated very highly; in my own opinion beyond its merits, great as these are.” In EL, Mill says: “I have also read Hobbes’ Logic.” The only ed. now in SC is that in Opera philosophica quae latine scripsit omnia, ed. William Molesworth, 5 vols. (London: Bohn, 1839-54), which long postdates the reference. A21 (20); EL8

146. Plato, Gorgias. In A, Mill says (vaguely as to time): “It was at this period that I read, for the first time, some of the most important dialogues of Plato, in particular the Gorgias, the Protagoras, and the Republic.” (He goes on to mention his father’s and his own indebtedness to Plato.) For the ed., see no. 11. Mill (and his father) later translated this dialogue: see CW, Vol. XI, pp. 97-150. A25 (24); EL8

147. Plato, Protagoras. See no. 146. Later translated by Mill: see CW, Vol. XI, pp. 39-61. A25 (24); EL8

148. Plato, Republic. See no. 146. In EL, Mill says in addition that he “made an abstract” of the Republic at this time (see App. C, no. 17). A25 (24); EL8

July, 1819. Aet. 13.

149. John Simpson, Select Exercises for Young Proficients in the Mathematicks (1752). In EL, Mill says he is, at the time of writing the letter (30 July, 1819), “performing without book the problems in Simpson’s Select Exercises.” EL8

1819. Aet. 12-13.

150. James Mill, Elements of Political Economy (1821). In 1819 James Mill took John “through a complete course of political economy.” It seems proper at this point to mention the work (not published until two years later), because in their walks at this time James Mill “expounded each day a portion” of economic theory, of which his son “gave him next day a written account,” which he insisted be rewritten “over and over again until it was clear, precise, and tolerably complete. In this manner,” Mill continues, “I went through the whole extent of the science; and the written outline of it which resulted from my daily compte rendu, served him afterwards as notes from which to write his Elements of Political Economy.” (See App. C, no. 18.) In EL, he says: “I am now [as of 30 July, 1819] learning political economy. I have made a kind of treatise from what my father has explained to me on that subject, and I am now reading Mr. Ricardo’s work and writing an abstract of it.” In A, he says that after his return from France, when the Elements was ready for printing, James Mill made him “perform an exercise on the manuscript, which Mr. Bentham practised on all his own writings—making what he called ‘marginal contents’; a short abstract of every paragraph, to enable the writer more easily to judge of, and improve, the order of the ideas, and the general character of the exposition” (A65). A31 (30), 65 (64); EL8

151. David Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817). In A, he continues the account cited in no. 150: “After this I read Ricardo, giving an account daily of what I read, and discussing, in the best manner I could, the collateral points which offered themselves in our progress.” See also no. 156, and App. C, no. 19. A31 (30); EL8

152. “The Greek Mythology.” In EL, discussing his teaching of his sisters Wilhelmina and Clara, Mill says they were, at the time of the letter, reading “the Roman Antiquities and the Greek Mythology.” The former is undoubtedly Dionysius of Halicarnassus (see no. 25), which they would be reading in Greek; the latter may be an unidentified compendium of myths in Greek, but it seems more likely to have been the Greek Anthology (see no. 95), the text of EL being based on a misreading. EL10

153. John Mair, An Introduction to Latin Syntax (1750). The sentence in EL quoted in no. 152 continues: “[Willie and Clara] are translating into English from Mair’s Introduction to Latin Syntax”—one may assume their teacher also learned from this popular eighteenth-century text, which was still much used in Mill’s time (e.g., 15th ed. [Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, et al., 1811]). It presents parallel columns in English and Latin. EL10

Latter half of 1819. Aet. 13.

154. David Ricardo, The High Price of Bullion (1810). Not given in EL (which concludes on 30 July, 1819). See nos. 150-1. In A, continuing his account of his father’s instructing him in political economy, Mill says: “On Money, as the most intricate part of the subject, he made me read in the same manner Ricardo’s admirable pamphlets, written during what was called the Bullion controversy.” A31 (30)

155. David Ricardo, Reply to Mr. Bosanquet’s Practical Observations on the Report of the Bullion Committee (1811). See no. 154. A31 (30)

156. Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). To the study of Ricardo (see nos. 151, 154-5) “succeeded Adam Smith; and in this reading it was one of my father’s main objects,” Mill says in A, “to make me apply to Smith’s more superficial view of political economy, the superior lights of Ricardo, and detect what was fallacious in Smith’s arguments, or erroneous in any of his conclusions.” In SC is the 3-vol. 8th ed. (1796), which Mill may have first used, as well as a gift copy of McCulloch’s ed. (4 vols. [1828]), and Rogers’ 2-vol. ed. (1869). When he concludes his discussion of the method his father used to teach him political economy. Mill goes on to say: “At this point concluded what can properly be called my lessons. When I was about fourteen I left England for more than a year” (A33); see the comment in no. 157 and in no. 213 (where the account in A resumes). A31 (30)

Before May, 1820. Aet. 13-14.

157. François Marie Arouet Voltaire, Essai sur les moeurs (1756). In his entry for 29 June, Mill noted that his lack of “any regular French book to read” would be remedied by loans of Voltaire’s works from Dr. Russell. On 4 July he borrowed the Essai, and read six chapters, beginning where he had “left off in England.” As he had begun French only shortly before his departure for France, he almost certainly was reading Voltaire in late winter or early spring, 1820. On each of 5, 6, 7, and 8 July he read five further chapters, and one on the 10th (there are 197 chapters). In SC is Oeuvres complètes, 66 vols. (Paris: Renouard, 1817-25), in which the Essai is in Vols. XIII-XVI. From here to no. 212, names and dates derive from Mill’s Journal and Notebook of his visit to France. It should be noted (see J21-2) that Mill took some books with him, though most of what he read in France he must have borrowed or (in some cases, probably) bought. J29, 34-7, 39

June, 1820. Aet. 14.

158. Claude François Xavier Millot, Elémens de l’histoire de France, depuis Clovis jusqu’ à Louis XV (1768). Mill says, 5 June: “Began, by [George Bentham’s] advice, to read Millot”; 6 June: “read some . . . of Millot.” J12

159. Jean de La Fontaine, Fables (1668). Some, if not all, of the fables read by Mill in French were La Fontaine’s. He says, 11 July. “I have learned fables by Lady Bentham’s advice, for besides that the pronunciation is much improved by repeating them aloud, the fables of Lafontain[e] and some others are expressed in language so remarkably pure and appropriate that nothing can more contrib[ute to] fix in my memory the rules of construction as [well as] the French words in their proper acceptation” (J42). In all, Mill refers to his memorizing nine or ten (a few of them “extremely long”) between 6 June and 1 Aug., 1820. J12, 13, 14, 28, 29, 32, 59

160. Lucian. Mill, who began to read Lucian when very young (see no. 7), read or reread many of his dialogues when in France. Most of the references are to specific dialogues, and these are given as separate items below (see nos. 165, 170, 173, 176, 178, 180, 182, 183, 188, 192, and 193); the non-specific ones are on 6, 14, 17, and 22 June (“several dialogues” read on the last date), 20 July (“some of Lucian’s short dialogues”), 1 Oct., 6 Dec., 1820, and 13 Jan., 1821 (“un morceau”). On 19 July, 1820, he summarizes his recent reading of Lucian, saying that he has read many of his dialogues “with great attention, and with extreme admiration: in particular the Hermotimus [no. 165], which is a masterpiece of ingenious reasoning, and two or three exquisitely witty dialogues, in the Vitarum Auctio [no. 170], the Cataplus [no. 178], Jupiter Tragoedus [no. 192], three which can scarcely be equalled, and, though in a less degree, the Necyomantia [no. 180], the Vocalium Judicium [no. 176], and some others. The four first mentioned, it is impossible not to admire.”

It has not been determined what ed. Mill was using in France, though it could hardly have been that in SC (see no. 7); the titles he uses give little clue. Though he was almost certainly reading them in Greek, he uses (as was common) Latin titles (when only a proper name is used, of course, one cannot tell which language lies behind the citation), except for those cited in nos. 170 (he twice gives the Greek title, and then, once, the Latin), and 173 (he uses the Greek subtitle); in no. 180, he uses the subtitle that appears in both Greek and Latin. In our listing we give the title Mill uses, with (where necessary) the Latin version, and (again where necessary) the English title used in the Loeb ed. (8 vols., trans. A. M. Harmon, et al. [London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1913ff.]). J12, 14, 19, 23, 50, 52, 75, 88, 92

161. Jean Racine, three plays. Mill comments: “I read plays chiefly by the advice of Mr. George and of Lady Bentham, who say that dialogues are better to be read, on account of their giving the 1st and 2nd person of the verbs, and for many other reasons” (J14). On 9 June he “took a volume of Racine” in his pocket and “read two plays”; on the 12th he read “another tragedy of Racine.” In SC is one ed. he can hardly have carried in his pockets. Oeuvres, ed. I. L. Geoffroy, 7 vols. (Paris: Le Normant, 1808). J13, 14

162. Voltaire, eight plays. See no. 161. Between 9 and 24 June Mill mentions reading eight plays (the number is inferential), twice specifying “a comedy,” and five times “a tragedy.” He can hardly have been using the 66-vol. set in SC (see no. 157). J13, 14, 15, 19, 21, 25

163. Pierre Corneille, two tragedies. See no. 161. On 10 June Mill says he read a tragedy by Corneille, and says the same on the 17th. Formerly there were in SC a 4-vol. ed. (1818), and one other volume. J13, 19

164. Jean Baptiste Poquelin Molière, two plays. See no. 161. Mill mentions reading a comedy by Molière on 11 June, and says on the 13th he was again reading Molière. J13, 14

165. Lucian, “Hermotimus.” See no. 160. Mill says that on 12 June he read part of the dialogue; he probably refers to it when he says he read some of Lucian on the 14th and 17th: he finished it on the 19th. J13, 14, 19, 21, 50

166. Le code Napoléon (1804). “In consequence of a conversation with Lady B.,” writes Mill on 15 June, “she recommended to me to read such parts as she should point out of the Code Napoleon. Accordingly I read some part, taking notes carefully”; on the 16th he says, “read something more of the Code Napoleon.” It is not known which ed. he used; a useful contemporary edition is that published in Paris by the Imprimerie impériale in 1807. J15

167. Adrien Marie Legendre, Eléments de géométrie (1794). A standard text, containing, as usual, eight books. On 17 June Mill says. “Madame de Chesnel [daughter of the Benthams] had shewn me last night Legendre’s Geometry: I began this morning to read a portion with the intention of learning the French mathematical terms.” He worked on it on the 27th and 28th (finding much to praise and a little to criticize), and finished the first book on 1 July. He read the definitions and five propositions of the second book on the 4th, five more propositions on the 5th, seven on the 7th, ten on the 8th, and eight more on the 12th, finishing the second book. J19, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 37, 44

168. An unidentified article in the Annales de Chimie, ou, Recueil de Mémoires Concernant la Chimie et les Arts Qui en Dépendent (1789-1815). Mill says only, on 19 June, “I read part of an article in the Annales de Chimie.” J21

169. Jean François Regnard, a comedy. See no. 161. On 21 June Mill writes: “Read a comedy by Regnard, and several other things—indeed I was reading French almost all day, as it was raining most of the time, and my books were all packed up.” J22

170. Lucian, “Βιω̑ν πρα̑σις” (“Vitarum auctio”; “Philosophies for Sale”). See no. 160. Mill says that on 22 June, after reading “several dialogues of Lucian,” he began this, which he finished on the 25th. J23, 28, 50

171. Arthur Young, Travels during the Years 1787, 1788, and 1789 (1792, 1794) On 23 June Mill mentions “the plain of the Garronne, which Arthur Young thought, in point of cultivation, the finest in the world.” Mill (who may be reporting the judgment at second hand, but who certainly read the work at some time and very likely before this date) exaggerates somewhat: in his discussion of the “Plain of the Garonne” (Vol. I, pp. 348-51), Young refers to “this rich plain” with its soil of “capital fertility,” “a soil, and even . . . a husbandry . . . amongst the best in Europe,” and says that the cultivation is more like that of “gardens than farms”; a more limited but parallel judgment is found at Vol. II, p. 66: “This noble vale of the Garonne, which is one of the richest districts of France, is also one of the most productive in hemp that is to be found in the kingdom.” J24

172. Charles Pierre Girault-Duvivier, Grammaire des grammaires (1812). Mill studied French grammar mainly from this work, both on his own and under the supervision of M. Sauvage, who had been hired to tutor him. Apart from the subtitle (where “traités” appears), the parts of the work are not identified as “treatises,” the word Mill repeatedly uses; however, he twice refers to the Grammaire des grammaires by title, and links other references by saying he has previously mentioned the work. In one case he refers to the Dictionnaire des difficultés (no. 195) almost certainly by mistake, as there is no “treatise on Construction” in that work, and there is in this. He refers (26 June) to reading “a treatise on the use of the Subjunctive Mood, in a very elaborate grammar” (Pt. II, Chap. v, Art. xx, §iii; Vol. I, pp. 506-17); on 28 June he read part, and on 1 July the remainder, of a “Treatise on Indefinite Pronouns” (Pt. II, Chap. iv, Art. v [which is divided into four subordinate chapters]; Vol. I, pp. 274-325); on 4 July he began, and continued on the 7th and 8th, “a treatise on the Use of various Adverbs” (Pt. II, Chap. vii, Art. vi; Vol. II, pp. 58-98); from this point on, under Sauvage’s guidance, he worked on “a treatise on Pronunciation” (Pt. I, Chaps. i-iii; Vol. I, pp. 5-76 [or perhaps only Chaps. ii-iii; pp. 21-76]) on 14, 23, 25, and 26 July, 1 and 2 Aug.; and on “a treatise on Construction” (Pt. II, Chap. xi; Vol. II, pp. 136-88 [and possibly Chap. xii; pp. 188-203]) on 14 and 26 July (on the latter date Mill gives the reference to the Dictionnaire des difficultés), and 1 Aug. Also, on 10 July, he worked on “some passages which [Sauvage] had marked out . . . in a French Grammar” (probably the same work, though it is just possible that he here meant the Dictionnaire des difficultés, in which passages could easily be marked out for study). J28, 29, 30, 34, 36, 37, 40, 45, 53, 54, 55, 59

173. Lucian, “Alectryon” (“Somnium, seu gallus”; “The Dream; or, The Cock”). See no. 160. Read, Mill says, on 26 June, J28

174. Silvestre François Lacroix, Traité du calcul différentiel et du calcul intégral (1798). Mill obviously does not record all his work on Lacroix, saying only, on 27 June: “Had not time to read to day any of Lacroix,” and on the 29th. “I have performed over and over all the problems in Lacroix’s Differential Calculus.” Though the size of the volumes makes the assumption unlikely, he may have been using the 2nd ed., 3 vols. (Paris: Courcier, 1810, 1814, 1819), which is in SC. J29

175. Jeremy Bentham, Chrestomathia (1816). On 28 June Mill says: “Studied Mr. Bentham’s Chrestomatic [sic] Tables, including the great Table of the division of human knowledge, or of Eudaemonics [Table V].” J29

176. Lucian, “Vocalium judicium” (“Judicium vocalium”; “The Consonants at Law”). See no. 160. Having begun this on 28 June, Mill says that he finished it on the 29th. J29, 50

177. Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, “some . . . little pieces.” Mill gives no further identification in his entry for 29 June. It is extremely improbable that he was using the large folio volumes of Oeuvres, new ed., 2 vols. (The Hague: Gosse and Neaulme, 1729), which are in SC. J29

178. Lucian, “Cataplus” (“Cataplus, sive tyrannus”; “The Downward Journey; or, The Tyrant”). See no. 160. Late in the day on 29 June, having finished Lucian’s “Vocalium judicium” (no. 176) in the morning, Mill began the “Cataplus,” and finished it on the 30th. He reread it on 20 July (calling it “one of my favourite dialogues”), and again on 26 Nov. J29, 30, 50, 52, 86

179. Robert Sanderson, Logicae artis compendium (1615). Mill comments, on 30 June: “read some of Sanderson’s Logic”; on 1 July: “read also some of Sanderson”; and on the 3rd: “read Sanderson.” He may well have been using the 2nd ed. (Oxford: Lichfield and Short, 1618), which is in SC. For similar texts, see nos. 141-4. J30, 32

July, 1820. Aet. 14.

180. Lucian, “Necyomantia” (“Menippus, sive necyomantia”; “Menippus; or, The Descent into Hades”). See no. 160. Mill began this dialogue on 1 July, continued with it on the 2nd, and finished it on the 5th. J30, 35, 50

181. Virgil, Georgics. While it seems unlikely that Mill had not begun the Georgics earlier, the first reference comes in France on 2 July, 1820, when he reports reading “99 lines of the Georgics of Virgil”; he mentions reading another forty-seven lines on the 4th, and forty-six more on the 7th. J30, 34, 36

182. Lucian, “Jupiter confutatus” (“Zeus Catechized”). See no. 160. In three separate stints during the morning of 7 July, Mill read this dialogue. J36

183. Lucian, “Prometheus.” See no. 160. Mill says that he began, and later continued reading, this dialogue on 8 July; there can be little doubt that he finished it before beginning another (see no. 188) on the 12th. J37

184. Jules Mascaron, Oraison funèbre de très-haut et très-puissant Prince Henri de laTour-d’Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne (1676). A commonly reprinted item. On 10 July Mill says: “Wrote a French critique on a passage of Mascaron’s Oraison Funèbre de Turenne”; on the 11th: “finished my French lesson by learning by heart the remainder of Mascaron’s Mort de Turenne, and of Laharpe’s Paral[lel] of Corneille and Racine.” J40, 44

185. Boileau-Despréaux, “Epistre VI, à Lamoignon” (1683). See no. 177. On 10 July Mill says: “Began to learn by heart part of Boileau Despréaux’s epistle to Lamoignon but had not time to finish it.” J40

186. Jean François de Laharpe, “parallel of Corneille and Racine.” After the comment on 11 July cited in no. 184, Mill says on the 12th: “wrote a commentary in French on Laharpe’s parallel of Corneille and Racine, . . . and turned part of Laharpe’s parallel into Lati[n].” He was probably using a text taken from Laharpe’s Cours de littérature (1799-1805). J44

187. Jean de La Bruyère, “parallel” of Corneille and Racine. On 12 July Mill says: “learned by hear[t] half Labruyère’s parallel of the same author[s]” (see no. 186), on the 13th he learned the remainder, and then (unusually for him) says, of the 14th, that he learnt “by heart perfectly the whole of Labruyère’s parallel.” He was probably using a text taken from “Des ouvrages de l’esprit,” in Les caractères; ou, Les moeurs de ce siècle (1688). J44, 45

188. Lucian, “Icaromenippus.” See no. 160. Beginning his reading on 12 July, Mill continued it on the 13th, and finished on the 19th. He reread it on 21 Dec. J44, 45, 50, 89

189. George Bentham, MS synoptic table of the classes of insects. Though a work of a different kind, this seems worth citing because Mill obviously owed a great deal to George Bentham’s introduction to biological sciences. On 12 July Mill says: “Studied a synoptic table (made by Mr. G.) of the classes of insects”; and again, on the 16th: “studied classification of Insects.” J44, 47

190. Jules de P. . . , review of Programme du cours du droit public, positif, et administratif, à la Faculté de Droit de Paris, pour l’année 1819-20, par M. le baron de Gérando (Paris: Baudoin, 1819). Revue Encyclopédique, VI (June, 1820), 496-512. (There is a one-paragraph notice of the same work, ibid., V [Feb., 1820], 347, signed “Ph. Ch.,” but Mill surely is referring to the longer review.) On 13 July he says: “Read part of a review of a work called Programme du Cours du Droit public à la faculté de droit à Paris, in a periodical publication entitled Revue Encyclopédique. Of this article, when I have finished it I will render you [James Mill] an account.” No such account is extant. J45

191. Charles Jean François Hénault, “parallel” of the reigns of Augustus and Louis XIV. Mill was presumably reading a text taken from the concluding three paragraphs of Hénault’s Nouvel abrégé chronologique de l’histoire de France (1744). On 15 July he began to learn the parallel “by heart,” learnt “more” of it on the 17th, “another part” on the 20th, and “the remainder” on the 22nd. J46, 48, 52, 53

192. Lucian, “Jupiter tragoedus” (“Zeus Rants”). See no. 160. Read, says Mill, on 17 July. J48, 50

193. Lucian, “Deorum concilium” (“The Parliament of the Gods”). See no. 160. Having read part of this on 21 July, Mill finished it on the 29th. J53, 57

194. Antoine Léonard Thomas, “character of Bossuet.” On 24 July Mill says he “learnt by heart part of Thomas’s literary character of Bossuet”; and on the 26th: “learnt by heart another portion of the character of Bossuet but better.” He was probably using a text extracted from “De Mascaron et de Bossuet,” Chap. xxxi of Thomas’s Essai sur les éloges (1773). J54

195. Pierre Claude Victoire Boiste, Dictionnaire des difficultés de la langue française (1800). On 26 July Mill says: “M. Sauvage . . . read with me another portion of the treatise on pronunciation as also of the treatise on construction in the Dictionaire des Difficultés.” There is, however, no such treatise in this small work (which is arranged as an alphabetical dictionary, with only a very few long entries—that on adjectives runs for ten pages, as does that on participles), and the “treatise on pronunciation” is not in this work, but in the Grammaire des grammaires, which Mill was studying thoroughly at this time, and which also contains a treatise on construction (see no. 172). It seems probable that Mill simply wrote down the wrong title at this point. However, it does not seem likely that he invented the name, and one may reasonably assume that he was using this handy text; he may even be referring to it on 10 July when he mentions working on passages in an unspecified grammar. (In the Grammaire des grammaires, Girault-Duvivier cites, as one of his authorities, Boiste’s Dictionnaire universel, contenant les principales difficultés de la langue françoise, from which the smaller work is extracted.) J55

196. Charles Lebeau, Latin poetry. On 28 July Mill says he “began to translate into French some Latin poetry of Lebeau.” He probably is referring to some of the shorter “Carmina” found in, for example, the first volume of Opera latina d. Caroli Lebeau (1782-83). See App. C, no. 24. J56

Aug., 1820. Aet. 14.

197. J. B. Joudu, Guide des voyageurs à Bagnères-de-Bigorre et dans les environs (1818). Mill says he finished reading this work on 21 Aug. J63

198. Arnaud Abadie, Itinéraire topographique et historique des Hautes-Pyrénées (1819). On 21 Aug. Mill begins a Description des Hautes Pyrénées; on the 26th he gives as an authority Itinéraire topographique et descriptif des Hautes-Pyrénées; and on 18 Oct. he gives the same title as a footnote to his account for 14 and 17 Sept. It would appear that Mill’s “Description” and “descriptif” are slips of the mind. See App. C, no. 29. J63, 65, 73

199. Jean Jacques Faget de Baure, Essais historiques sur le Béarn (1818). Mill says that, on 26 Aug., he used this work (with the previous item) as a source for his “Notes on ‘Usages des Béarnais et des Bigorrais.’ ” See App. C, no. 29. J65

Sept., 1820. Aet. 14.

200. Philippe Picot de Lapeyrouse, Histoire abrégée des plantes des Pyrénées, et itinéraire des botanistes dans ces montagnes (1813). On 18 Oct. Mill gives his father his authorities for statements in his Journal entry for 14 Sept.; one of these is “La Peyrouse, Histoire des Plantes des Pyrénées, Topographie.” On 20 Oct. he says: “J’arrangeai mes plantes, je fis une catalogue de celles qui croissent dans les Pyrenées: c’était pris de l’ouvrage de Lapeyrouse sur les plantes de ces montagnes.” A “Table Topographique” is found on pp. 661-700 of the ed. cited above. (Another ed. in 2 vols., with a Supplément à l’histoire abrégée . . . , appeared in 1818.) See App. C, no. 29. J73, 79

201. Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, de la Géographie et de l’Histoire. This periodical, published in Paris, was a continuation (beginning in 1819) of the earlier Annales des Voyages . . . (1808-14); though Mill uses the earlier title, his one specific reference, and the first he gives (on 25 Sept.), is to an article in the second series, and it appears likely that he was reading the work as a current periodical. On 25 Sept. he was reading “une description du labyrinthe d’Egypte dans les Annales des voyages”: i.e., Jean Antoine Letronne, “Essai sur le plan et la disposition générale du labyrinthe d’Egypte, d’après Hérodote, Diodore de Sicile et Strabon,” Nouvelles Annales, VI (1820), 133-54. And, without specifying which articles, he mentions reading in the Annales on 26 Sept., 24, 25, 26, 30, and 31 Oct., and 4 Nov. J74, 80, 81

Oct., 1820. Aet. 14.

202. Jean Marie Joseph Deville, Annales de la Bigorre (1818). Mill says that on 1 Oct. he was reading this work. George Bentham had bought it on 28 Aug. (See J121, which gives Bentham’s diary entry.) J75

203. Cicero, Pro Milone. Mill began translating this oration into French on 7 Oct. (probably the part recorded in his Notebook, f. 28r&v); on the 16th he says. “Je m’occupai . . . à lire l’oraison Milonienne de Ciceron,” and read more on the 17th and 21st; on the 23rd he remarks: “j’achevai lire l’Oraison de Ciceron.” In Opera (see no. 59), it appears in Vol. IV, pp. 220-62. Cf. App. C, no. 24. J76, 78, 79, 80

204. Henry Hunt, Memoirs (1820-22). (The work was issued and sold initially in parts.) On 18 Oct. Mill says: “Je m’occupai . . . à lire les Memoires de Hunt.” J79

Nov., 1820. Aet. 14.

205. Joseph Louis de Lagrange, Théorie des fonctions analytiques (1797). On 5 Nov., commenting on the “Cahiers” lent him by Jacques Etienne Bérard, Mill says that the one on differential calculus is based on Lagrange’s “Théorie des Fonctions”; one may infer at least that he knew of the work, though he may not have used it. J82

206. Jean Baptiste Biot, Traité analytique des courbes et des surfaces du second degré (1802; 2nd ed., 1805, retitled, Essai de géométrie analytique). On 8 Nov., says Mill, M. Lenthéric “me prêta . . . l’ouvrage de Biot sur ce sujet [Analytical Geometry]; je commençai le soir à l’étudier”; he worked on it on the 10th, 11th, 14th, 16th, 18th, and 19th, and then, after a gap, on 7 Jan., 1821. J82, 84, 91

207. Sylvestre François Lacroix, Elémens d’algèbre (an VIII). On 15 Nov. Mill says: “je lus un morceau de l’Algèbre de Lacroix.” J84

208. Boileau-Despréaux, “L’art poétique” (1674). On 22 Nov. Mill says: “j’appris par coeur un morceau de l’Art Poétique de Boileau”; on 26 Nov., “un peu”; and on 28 Nov. and 8 Dec., “un morceau.” For the ed. in his library, which it is most unlikely he was using in France, see no. 177. J85, 86, 88

Dec., 1820. Aet. 14.

209. French plays. See no. 161. On 20, 21, and 22 Dec. Mill says he read “une tragedie française”, on the 23rd: “Je lus . . . une pièce de théatre français”; on the 24th and again on the 25th: “Je lus des pièces de théâtre.” J89, 90

210. Jean Baptiste Say, Traité d’économie politique (1803). On 22 Dec. Mill says: “je commençai l’étude de l’Economie Politique de Say”; on the 23rd: “je lus un morceau de Say”; on the 27th: “je continuai la lecture de Say, en fesant des notes de ce que je trouvai à remarquer” (e.g., that Say “confond la valeur avec les richesses”); on the 29th: “je lus un morceau de Say”; on the 31st, and again on 1 Jan., 1821: “Je continuai la lecture de Say.” It seems likely that he obtained at that time the ed. in SC, 2 vols. (Paris: Deterville, 1819). Cf. App. C, no. 25. J89, 90

211. Cicero, Familiar Letters. On 23 Dec. Mill says: “Je lus quelques unes des lettres familières de Ciceron.” “J’achevai le premier livre,” he records on the 27th, and says he began the Second Book on the 28th, adding on the 29th: “Je lus quelques lettres de Cicéron.” In Opera (see no. 59), they appear in Vol. V. J89, 90

Jan., 1821. Aet. 14.

212. Pierre Simon de Laplace, Exposition du système du monde (1796). On 2 Jan., 1821, Mill says: “Je commençai l’étude du Système du Monde de Laplace”; his reading continued on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th, 18th, 20th, and 29th. It seems unlikely that he was using the 4th ed. (Paris: Courcier, 1813), which is in SC. J90, 91, 92, 93, 96

1821. Aet. 14-15.

213. Etienne Bonnot de Condillac, Traité des sensations (1754). As noted in no. 156, Mill says in A, “what can properly be called my lessons” concluded when he left for France. He continues, “after my return, though my studies went on under my father’s general direction, he was no longer my schoolmaster” (A33). In his account he then turns to matters “of a more general nature,” and does not resume his description of his reading until (at A65) he begins Chap. iii by saying: “For the first year or two after my visit to France, I continued my old studies, with the addition of some new ones.” He mentions his work on his father’s Elements (see no. 150), and then says: “Soon after, my father put into my hands Condillac’s Traité des Sensations, and the logical and metaphysical volumes of his Cours d’Etudes; the first (notwithstanding the superficial resemblance between Condillac’s psychological system and my father’s) quite as much for a warning as for an example.” Oeuvres complètes, 31 vols. (Paris: Dufart, 1803), is in SC; the Traité is Vol. IV in that ed. A65 (64)

214. Condillac, Cours d’études. See no. 213, where Mill is quoted as saying he read the logical and metaphysical volumes of the Cours. There are, however, no metaphysical volumes in the work known by that name, and Mill read some logical works also not there included. It seems very probable that at this period, or soon afterwards, he read Condillac’s De l’art de penser (Oeuvres complètes, Vol. IX), De l’art de raisonner (ibid., Vol. XI; this is in the Cours), Essai sur l’origine des connoissances humaines (ibid., Vols. I-II), La logique; ou, Les premiers developpemens de l’art de penser (ibid., Vol. XXX; also in Cours), and Traité des systêmes (ibid., Vol. III), in addition to the Traité des sensations, which he specifically cites. A65 (64)

1821-22, or 1822-23. Aet. 15 or 16.

215. François Emmanuel Toulongeon, Histoire de France, depuis la révolution de 1789 (1801-10). The reference is to “a history of the French Revolution” read by Mill in the winter of 1821-22, or that of 1822-23 (“I am not sure,” he says); of relevant works mentioned by him in his letters, only this was available at the time (see EL, CW, Vol. XII, p. 22). A65 (64)

Before no. 217. Aet. 15?

216. James Mill, “Jurisprudence.” Mill says: “To Bentham’s general views of the construction of a body of law I was not altogether a stranger, having read [presumably on its first appearance, or in MS] with attention that admirable compendium, my father’s article “Jurisprudence”: but I had read it with little profit, and scarcely any interest, no doubt from its extremely general and abstract character, and also because it concerned the form more than the substance of the corpus juris, the logic rather than the ethics of law.” (One may safely assume that Mill had also by this time read his father’s other articles for the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica: “Banks for Saving,” “Beggar,” “Benefit Societies,” “Caste,” “Colonies,” “Economists,” “Education,” “Government,” “Law of Nations,” “Liberty of the Press,” and “Prisons and Prison Discipline.”) A69 (68)

1821. Aet. 15.

217. Jeremy Bentham, Traités de législation civile et pénale, précédés de Principes généraux de législation, et d’une Vue d’un corps complet de droit: terminés par un Essai sur l’influence des tems et des lieux relativement aux lois, ed. Pierre Etienne Louis Dumont (1802). (See no. 218.) Mill says: “at the commencement” of his studies of law under John Austin in 1821-22, James Mill, “as a needful accompaniment to them, put into my hands Bentham’s principal speculations, as interpreted to the Continent, and indeed to all the world, by Dumont, in the Traité de Législation. The reading of this book was an epoch in my life; one of the turning points in my mental history.” A67 (66)

1821-22? Aet. 15-16?

218. Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789). At this point in A, Mill is writing of Dumont’s redaction in Traités (see no. 217); however, Mill quotes words in English that suggest a reference not to the translation, but to Bentham’s original work, which he must have read then or soon after. In his “Historical Preface to the Second Edition” (1828) of his Fragment on Government, Bentham says of his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation: “It has not been so [incomprehensible] to babes and sucklings. Two boys of sixteen have been giving a spontaneous reading to it: in the person of a tailor, it has found a spontaneous and unpaid Editor, who, having read it as an amateur, gives himself in this way a second reading of it.” (Works, Vol. I, p. 252.) The tailor is unquestionably Francis Place, the boys of sixteen very probably John Mill and Richard Doane. See also no. 223. Mill may have read this ed., or the 2-vol. ed. (1823). A67 (66)

1821-22. Aet. 15.

219. Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, Elementa juris civilis secundum ordinem institutionum (1726). “During the winter of 1821/2,” says Mill, “Mr. John Austin . . . kindly allowed me to read Roman law with him. . . . With Mr. Austin I read Heineccius on the Institutes, his Roman Antiquities, and part of his exposition of the Pandects.” In SC are Operum ad universam juris prudentiam, 8 vols. (Geneva: Cramer Heirs, et al., 1744-49), in which the Institutes is found in Vol. V; and the 1766 ed. (Leipzig: Fritsch). A67 (66)

220. Heineccius, Antiquitatum romanarum jurisprudentiam illustrantium syntagma secundum ordinem institutionum Justiniani digestum (1719). See no. 219; in the first ed. there cited, the Roman Antiquities is in Vol. IV, A67 (66)

221. Heineccius, Elementa juris civilis, secundum ordinem pandectarum (1731). See no. 219; in the first of the two eds. there cited, the Pandects is in Vol. V, A67 (66)

222. William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69). To Mill’s reading of Heineccius (see nos. 219-21), Austin added “a considerable portion of Blackstone.” The 5th ed., 4 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1773), is in SC. A67 (66)

After the Winter of 1821-22. Aet. 15+

223. Jeremy Bentham, A Fragment on Government (1776). At the conclusion of his account of his legal studies in 1821-22, Mill says: “After this I read, from time to time, the most important of the other works of Bentham which had then seen the light, either as written by himself or as edited by Dumont.” See nos. 224-8 and 238, and also nos. 175, 217, and 218. A71 (70)

224. Bentham, Panopticon (1791). See no. 223. A71 (70)

225. Bentham, A Table of the Springs of Action (1817). See no. 223. A71 (70)

226. Bentham, Tactique des assemblées législatives, suivie d’un Traité des sophismes politiques, ed. Dumont (1816). See no. 223. A71 (70)

227. Bentham, Théorie des peines et des récompenses, ed. Dumont (1811). See no. 223. A71 (70)

228. Bentham, Traité des preuves judiciaires, ed. Dumont (1823). See no. 223; although this appeared slightly later than the period Mill is writing of, he almost certainly had it in mind. A71 (70)

1822. Aet. 15-16.

229. John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689). Having digressed to mention his reading, “from time to time,” Bentham’s works, Mill presumably returns to the period immediately following his study of Roman law with Austin in 1821-22, saying: “under my father’s direction, my studies were carried into the higher branches of analytic psychology. I now read Locke’s Essay, and wrote out an account of it, consisting of a complete abstract of every chapter, with such remarks as occurred to me: which was read by, or (I think) to, my father, and discussed throughout.” (A71.) He indicates here that he read all of nos. 229-31 and 233-8 in the course of this year. He probably read Locke’s Essay in an ed. earlier than the only one now in SC, Works, new ed., 10 vols. (London: Tegg, et al., 1823), Vols. I-III. Cf. App. C, no. 32. A71 (70)

230. Claude Adrien Helvétius, De l’esprit (1758). See no. 229. Mill says he “performed the same process” with Helvétius as with Locke, having read Helvétius of his “own choice.” Cf. App. C, no. 33. A71 (70)

231. David Hartley, Observations on Man, His Frame, His Duty, and His Expectations (1749). See no. 229. “After Helvetius,” says Mill, “my father made me study what he deemed the really master-production in the philosophy of mind, Hartley’s Observations on Man. This book, though it did not, like the Traité de Législation, give a new colour to my existence, made a very similar impression on me in regard to its immediate subject.” A71 (70)

Summer, 1822ff. Aet. 16+.

232. James Mill. Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (1829). James Mill began the work in the summer of 1822, and “allowed” John to read “the manuscript, portion by portion, as it advanced.” A71 (70)

1822. Aet. 15-16.

233. George Berkeley. See no. 229. Mill says simply that he read, as he “felt inclined,” Berkeley among the “other principal English writers on mental philosophy.” A71 (70)

234. David Hume, Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects (1750-53). See no. 229. Mill simply mentions reading “Hume’s Essays.” (Cf. no. 233.) A 2-vol. ed. (London: Cadell; Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, et al., 1793) is in SC, but he more likely used the unidentified annotated ed. sold in Avignon to T. N. Page in 1906 (see App. I below). A71 (70)

235. Thomas Reid. See no. 229. Mill simply says he read “Reid.” (Cf. nos. 233-4.) A71 (70)

236. Dugald Stewart. See no. 229. Mill simply says he read “Dugald Stewart.” (Cf. nos. 233-5.) A71 (70)

237. Thomas Brown, Observations on . . . the Doctrine of Mr. Hume, Concerning . . . Cause and Effect (1805; 3rd ed., 1818, retitled, Inquiry into the Relation of Cause and Effect). See no. 229. Mill simply says he read “Brown on Cause and Effect.” Mill probably read the work in the 3rd ed. (Edinburgh: Constable, 1818), which is in SC, with “Brown on Cause & Effect” on the spine A71 (70)

238. George Grote (“Philip Beauchamp”), Analysis of the Influence of Natural Religion (1822). Edited from Bentham’s MSS. See no. 229. A work “which contributed materially to my development,” says Mill, remarking that it had been given to his father in MS, and consequently shown to him. “I made a marginal analysis of it as I had done of the Elements of Political Economy [no. 150]. Next to the Traité de Législation [no. 217], it was one of the books which by the searching character of its analysis produced the greatest effect upon me.” His judgment, on rereading it many years later, was still enthusiastic, though less committed. A73 (72)

239. William Paley, Natural Theology (1802). Though Mill does not mention reading this work, he must have done so to write the reply to it he describes in ED (not in A). That reply may be referred to in a letter to the Grotes of 14 Nov., 1822. See App. C, no. 36. ED74; EL, Vol. XII, p. 15

* * * * *

[* ]Autobiography, p. 5 above.

[† ]The text of this letter comes from Alexander Bain, John Stuart Mill (London: Longmans, Green, 1882), who says he was given a copy by one of Jeremy Bentham’s amanuenses. The wording being, therefore, several times removed from its original, we have made three emendations, in nos. 81, 113, and 152.

[‡ ]BL Add. MS 33564 (2), ff. 42v, and 32v.

[* ]To avoid duplication, we give here only (in most cases) the short title; fuller information is given in the Bibliographic Index, App. I below.

[† ]This collection is indicated in the entries by “SC.” Formed from the books placed in storage by Mill’s step-daughter and heir, Helen Taylor, when she moved to France, and then given to Somerville in 1906 after her return to England, the collection has suffered depredations over the years. Also, very few of the books that Mill had in his second home in Avignon can now be traced. Consequently the record of books actually owned and used is less complete than one would wish.