Early Essays

by John Stuart Mill

Excerpt from Early EssaysLondon Review, Westminster Review, etc., to unearth these. Two that will probably have most general interest are the reviews of Tennyson's poems and Carlyle's French Revolution. That Mill him self did not think it worth while to republish these is easily comprehensible. They were written simply as reviews, and their subjects lay apart from the sociological questions which towards the end of his life mainly engaged his attention. But for that very reason they have a special interest for the student of his character; and their intrinsic merits, and the fact that in both cases they show an early and in dependent appreciation of two of the greatest English writers of the nineteenth century, will do more than justify their republication. And a similar justification will apply to the other two essays on poetry.

Library Binding

First published May 1, 2000

About the author

John Stuart Mill, English philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential liberal thinker of the 19th century. He was an exponent of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham, although his conception of it was very different from Bentham's.