a change of character as well
as a wider calculation of personal interest.

The imperfection of this theory may be taken for granted. It has been
exposed by innumerable critics. It is more important to observe one
cause of the imperfection. Mill's argument contains an element of real
worth. It may be held to represent fairly the historical development
of morals. That morality is first conceived as an external law
deriving its sanctity from authority; that it is directed against
obviously hurtful conduct; and that it thus serves as a protection
under which the more genuine moral sentiments can develop themselves,
I believe to be in full accordance with sound theories of ethics. But
Mill was throughout hampered by the absence of any theory of
evolution. He had to represent a series of changes as taking place in
the individual which can only be conceived as the product of a long
and complex social change. He is forced to represent the growth of
morality as an accretion of new 'ends' due to association, not as an
intrinsic development of the character itself. He has to make morality
out of atomic sensations and ideas collected in clusters and trains
without any distinct reference to the organic constitution of the
individual or of society, and as somehow or other deducible from the
isolated human being, who remains a constant, though he collects into
groups governed by external sanctions. He sees that morality is
formed somehow or other, but he cannot show that it is either
reasonable or an essential fact of human nature. Here, again, we shall
see what problem was set to his son. Finally, if Mill did not explain
ethical theory satisfactorily, it must be added in common justice that
he was himself an excellent example of the qualities for which he
tried to account. A life of devotion to public objects and a
conscientious discharge of private duties is just the phenomenon for
which a cluster of 'ideas' and 'associations' seems to be an
inadequate account. How, it might have been asked, do you explain
James Mill? His main purpose, too, was to lay down a rule of duty,
almost mathematically ascertainable, and not to be disturbed by any
sentimentalism, mysticism, or rhetorical foppery. If, in the attempt
to free his hearers from such elements, he ran the risk of reducing
morality to a lower level and made it appear as unamiable as sound
morality can appear, it must be admitted that in this respect too his
theories reflected his