To mark J.S. Mill’s birthday this
year, I have spent my afternoon and evening today reading about his botanical
work and giving the Mill Philosophy Circle website/blog a new look in keeping
with his love of nature and trees. He “was a fierce and lifelong advocate of access
to the woods and dales on the countryside”[i]
so I have changed the background design from an indoor scene to a woodland themed
background.
I imagine that on his birthday he
might start the day by playing the piano then going for a walk in the woods, collecting
samples of plants or even weeds which he thought were undervalued. J. S. Mill
was a forerunner of environmental conservation and valued biodiversity so never
overlooked flora and fauna because he thought everything in nature has
environmental, scientific and medical value[ii].
J.S. Mill discovered many new and rare species which he collected, labelled and
shared with the scientific community[iii].
His love of botany and trekking
around for samples began when George Bentham took him on Botanical field trips in
the Pyrenees when he was still very young[iv].
Over his lifetime, J.S. Mill discovered and preserved specimens locally, in the
UK and abroad. He was an avid traveller all around Europe, including Spain,
Austria, Italy and Greece[v].
The latter was of particular curiosity to him not only due to his interest in
Classical history and Greek Classical literature (which he read in the original
Ancient Greek) but also for the amazing new and exciting species he found there[vi].
He personally discovered seven new
species but this finding was retrospectively reduced to three when it was
claimed that some could be subsumed into the same category[vii].
I find this very surprising given that he was an expert botanist and natural
classifications recognise miniscule variations. J.S. Mill also spoke French
fluently and spent time periodically in France. Later he had a home in Avignon where
he and Harriet are buried. So I’m sure he’d be horrified at recent political
arguments and restrictions placed on the freedom of movement to travel, live
and work in Europe. Otherwise, he would argue, there is a danger of being narrow-minded
and prone to nationalistic arrogance which makes people inward-looking rather
than drawing inspiration, ideas and solutions from wherever they can be found
in the world.
[i] Richard Reeves, John Stuart Mill:
Victorian Firebrand (London: Atlantic Books, 2008), 234.
[ii] Reeves, 234.
[iii] Nicholas R. Pearce, ‘John Stuart Mill’s
Botanical Collections from Greece (a Private Passion)’, Phytologia Balcanica
12, no. 2 (August 2006): 149–64.
[iv] Reeves, John Stuart Mill, 33.
[v] Pearce, ‘John Stuart Mill’s Botanical
Collections from Greece (a Private Passion)’, 151.
[vi] Pearce, 152.
[vii] Pearce, 152.
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