Abstract
[A man should] look upon all things with a benevolent, but upon great men and their works with a reverential spirit; rather to seek in them for what he may learn from them, than for opportunities of showing what they might have learned from him; to give such men the benefit of every possibility of their having spoken with a rational meaning; not easily or hastily to persuade himself that men like Plato, and Locke, and Rousseau, and Bentham, gave themselves a world of trouble in running after something which they thought was a reality, but which he Mr. A. B. can clearly see to be an unsubstantial phantom; to exhaust every other hypothesis, before supposing himself wiser than they; and even then to examine, with good will and without prejudice, if their error do not contain some germ of truth; and if any conclusion, such as a philosopher can adopt, may even yet be built upon the foundation on which they, it may be, have reared nothing but an edifice of sand.
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© 1966 Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Mill, J.S. (1966). Selected Readings. In: Robson, J.M. (eds) A Selection of his Works. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-81780-1_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-81780-1_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-81782-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-81780-1
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