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Articles in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica (1825)

James Mill wrote a number of influential articles for the Encyclopedia Britannica in which he developed the Philosophic Radical view on law, government, education, colonies, and other topcis.

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James Mill’s Articles in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica (London: J. Innes, 1825).

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Key Quotes

““Of the laws of nature, on which the condition of man depends, that which is attended with the greatest number of consequences, is the necessity of labour for obtaining the means of subsistence, as well as the means of the greatest part of our pleasures. This is, no doubt, the primary cause of government; for, if nature had produced spontaneously all the objects which we desire, and in sufficient abundance for the desires of all, there would have been no source of dispute or of injury among men; nor would any man have possessed the means of ever acquiring authority over another.””

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“One thing is pretty clear, that all those individuals whose interests are indisputably included in those of other individuals, may be struck off without inconvenience. In this light may be viewed all children, up to a certain age, whose interests are involved in those of their parents. In this light, also, women may be regarded, the interests of almost all of whom are involved either in that of their fathers or that of their husbands.”

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“Whenever the powers of government are placed in any hands other than those of the community, whether those of one man, of a few, or of several, those principles of human nature which imply that government is at all necessary, imply that these persons will make use of them to defeat the very end for which government exists.

From James Mill’s “Government,” in Supplement to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. With Preliminary Dissertations on the History of the Science (Edinburgh, Archibald Constable and Company, 1824).

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