it, than a
recluse who reads the newspapers need be. There are, no doubt,
disadvantages in too long a separation from one's country--in not
occasionally renewing one's impressions of the light in which men and
things appear when seen from a position in the midst of them; but the
deliberate judgment formed at a distance, and undisturbed by
inequalities of perspective, is the most to be depended on, even for
application in practice. Alternating between the two positions, I
combined the advantages of both.' Those who knew him will perhaps agree
that he was more widely and precisely informed of the transactions of
the day, in every department of activity all over the world, than any
other person of their acquaintance. People should remember, further,
that though Mr. Mill saw comparatively little of men after a certain
time, yet he was for many years of his life in constant and active
relations with men. It was to his experience in the Indian Office that
he attributed some of his most serviceable qualities, especially this:
'I learnt how to obtain the best I could, when I could not obtain
everything; instead of being indignant or dispirited because I could not
have entirely my own way, to be pleased and encouraged when I could have
the smallest part of it; and when even that could not be, to bear with
complete equanimity the being overruled altogether' (pp. 85, 86). In
these words we seem almost to hear the modest and simple tones of the
writer's own voice.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Critical Miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 3), by
John Morley

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