DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34827#0371
1834-41.
AzAzA.
355
have got a regular attack of hypochondria, and that my de-
preciation of my work is more the effect than the cause of
my low spirits. Still, I feel something of my old disgust at
the task, and am all but resolved to give it up.
' I have hitherto carefully avoided reading any part of Milks
History until I had finished the same part in my own. I must
now adopt an opposite course, and carefully read Mill before I
decide to go on or not. I see that Mill is much more candid
in the English part of his History than I thought, or than I
found him in the native part; his harshness lying more in
sneers and sarcastic expressions than in colouring the facts, or
even judging of them. I believe he is mistaken in some of his
opinions, and that he goes too much into controversy instead
of giving results. This was natural while the great subjects of
Hastings' and Lord Cornwallis's system, and of Lord Wellesley's
policy, were still eagerly debated, and before they could be
judged by results. As the disciple of a school of philosophy
advancing new opinions, Mill was obliged to resort to argument
to establish his principles and destroy those opposed to him.
Mill's third fault is want of sympathy with great and noble
characters—indeed, with anybody except men suffering injus-
tice ; and, even in this most honourable, exception, it is rather
indignation at the oppression than tenderness for the sufferer
that Mill shows.
' These faults are accompanied with very great merits, and
the question for me is, first, whether I can remove the faults
sufficiently to make it worth while writing a new History; and
next, whether my merits will so nearly balance Mill's as to make
the removal of the faults turn the scale. One great defect of
Mill I have left out—his dry, uninteresting style ; but in this I
am content to pair off with him, lively narrative not being one
of the points in which I hope to excel.'
'Rowe, Decfw&eT" 9, 1841.—One good effect of my de-
spondency is its confirming my resolution not to go on with
my History. I have no talent for narrative, and that is enough
to have been fatal to historians as incomparably superior to me
A A ?,
AzAzA.
355
have got a regular attack of hypochondria, and that my de-
preciation of my work is more the effect than the cause of
my low spirits. Still, I feel something of my old disgust at
the task, and am all but resolved to give it up.
' I have hitherto carefully avoided reading any part of Milks
History until I had finished the same part in my own. I must
now adopt an opposite course, and carefully read Mill before I
decide to go on or not. I see that Mill is much more candid
in the English part of his History than I thought, or than I
found him in the native part; his harshness lying more in
sneers and sarcastic expressions than in colouring the facts, or
even judging of them. I believe he is mistaken in some of his
opinions, and that he goes too much into controversy instead
of giving results. This was natural while the great subjects of
Hastings' and Lord Cornwallis's system, and of Lord Wellesley's
policy, were still eagerly debated, and before they could be
judged by results. As the disciple of a school of philosophy
advancing new opinions, Mill was obliged to resort to argument
to establish his principles and destroy those opposed to him.
Mill's third fault is want of sympathy with great and noble
characters—indeed, with anybody except men suffering injus-
tice ; and, even in this most honourable, exception, it is rather
indignation at the oppression than tenderness for the sufferer
that Mill shows.
' These faults are accompanied with very great merits, and
the question for me is, first, whether I can remove the faults
sufficiently to make it worth while writing a new History; and
next, whether my merits will so nearly balance Mill's as to make
the removal of the faults turn the scale. One great defect of
Mill I have left out—his dry, uninteresting style ; but in this I
am content to pair off with him, lively narrative not being one
of the points in which I hope to excel.'
'Rowe, Decfw&eT" 9, 1841.—One good effect of my de-
spondency is its confirming my resolution not to go on with
my History. I have no talent for narrative, and that is enough
to have been fatal to historians as incomparably superior to me
A A ?,