power of merely his own reason and the accumulated reason of those who have gone before him, wisely exercising the faculties of which he finds himself possessed, and seeking no guidance or support from invisible beacons and intangible props, may lead a blameless life, and be one of the greatest benefactors of his race.  No one who had any personal knowledge of him could fail to discern the singular purity of his character; and to those who knew him best that purity was most apparent.  He may have blundered and stumbled in his pursuit of truth; but it was part of his belief that stumbling and blundering are necessary means towards the finding of truth, and that honesty of purpose is the only indispensable requisite for the nearest approach towards truth of which each individual is capable.  That belief rendered him as charitable towards others as he was modest concerning his own attainments.  He never boasted; and he despised no one.  The only things really hateful to him were arrogance and injustice, and for these he was, to say the least, as willing and eager to find excuse as could be the most devout utterer of the prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  We had noted many instances, coming within our own very limited observation, of his remarkable, almost unparalleled magnanimity and generosity; but such details would here be almost out of place, and they who need such will doubtless before long receive much more convincing proof of his moral excellence.

We shall not here dilate on those minor qualities of mind and heart that made Mr. Mill’s society so charming to all who were fortunate enough to have any share in it; and these, especially in recent years, were many.  When the first burden of his grief at the loss of his wife had passed,—­perhaps partly as a relief from the solitude, save for one devoted companion, that would otherwise have been now forced upon him,—­he mixed more freely than he had done before in the society of all whose company could yield him any satisfaction or by whom his friendship was really valued.  His genial and graceful bearing towards every one who came near him must be within the knowledge of very many who will read this column; and they will remember, besides his transparent nobility of character, and the genial ways in which it exhibited itself, certain intellectual qualities for which he was remarkable.  We here refer, not to his higher abilities as a thinker, but to such powers of mind as displayed themselves in conversation.  Without any pedantry,—­without any sort of intentional notification to those with whom he conversed that he was the greatest logician, metaphysician, moralist, and economist of the day,—­his speech was always, even on the most trivial subjects, so clear and incisive, that it at once betrayed the intellectual vigor of the speaker.  Not less remarkable also than his uniform refinement of thought, and the deftness with which he at all times expressed it, were the grasp