Compromise is not a sign of the collapse of one’s moral conscience. It is a sign of its strength, for there is nothing more necessary to a moral conscience than the recognition that other people have one, too. A compromise is a knot tied tight between competing decencies. Harriet Taylor’s love for John Mill was bounded by John Taylor’s pathos and by his love for her. And, since no two moral consciences can go just alike, they have to only be imperfectly synchronized. Close enough is good enough—for now.
