careful bracing up
of every faculty to face the inevitable and make the best of it. At
bottom it is the theory of many of the bravest souls, who fare grimly
through life in the mood of leaders of forlorn hopes, denying pleasures,
yet very sensible of the stern delight of fortitude. We can have no
difficulty in understanding that, when the elder Mill lay dying, 'his
interest in all things and persons that had interested him through life
was undiminished, nor did the approach of death cause the smallest
wavering (as in so strong and firm a mind it was impossible that it
should), in his convictions on the subject of religion. His principal
satisfaction, after he knew that his end was near, seemed to be the
thought of what he had done to make the world better than he found it;
and his chief regret in not living longer, that he had not had time to
do more' (p. 203).[5]

[Footnote 5: For the mood in which death was faced by another person who
had renounced theology and the doctrine of a future state of
consciousness, see Miss Martineau's _Autobiography_, ii. 435, etc.]

Mr. Mill, however, went beyond this conception. He had a belief in
pleasures, and thought human life by no means a poor thing to those who
know how to make the best of it. It was essential both to the stability
of his utilitarian philosophy, and to the contentment of his own
temperament, that the reality of happiness should be vindicated, and he
did both vindicate and attain it. A highly pleasurable excitement that
should have no end, of course he did not think possible; but he regarded
the two constituents of a satisfied life, much tranquillity and some
excitement, as perfectly attainable by many men, and as ultimately
attainable by very many more. The ingredients of this satisfaction he
set forth as follows:--a willingness not to expect more from life than
life is capable of bestowing; an intelligent interest in the objects of
mental culture; genuine private affections; and a sincere interest in
the public good. What, on the other hand, are the hindrances which
prevent these elements from being in the possession of every one born in
a civilised country? Ignorance; bad laws or customs, debarring a man or
woman from the sources of happiness within reach; and 'the positive
evils of life, the great sources of physical and mental suffering--such
as indigence, disease, and the unkindness, worthlessness, or premature
loss of objects of affection.'[6] But every on