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William George Ward and The Catholic Revival
William George Ward and The Catholic Revival Author:Wilfrid Philip Ward Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II CORRESPONDENCE WITH JOHN STUART MILL AND SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON Turning now to Mr. Ward's concern with the problems of religious philosophy, some... more »thing must be said of his relations at this time with Mr. John Stuart MilL I have elsewhere spoken of Ward's essay in the British Critic of 1843 on Mill's Logic, and have cited Mr. Bain's testimony to Mill's appreciation of it . In July 1848 Ward reviewed his Political Economy in the Tablet at considerable length. A personal acquaintance and correspondence followed, which as time went on revealed a degree of sympathy most singular between men of such different opinions and antecedents. Poles asunder in premiss and conclusion, Ward and Mill, in their purely intellectual intercourse, as completely understood eacli other as two mathematicians who are engaged in proving a proposition in geometry. Given the relevant hypotheses, there can be no dispute as to the proof. They may differ as to facts, if they apply their geometry or trigonometry to practical measurements. The initial understanding as to distances, which may determine whether an angle be of 90 or of 60, or whether a triangle be equilateral or scalene, may involve points of dispute. Such things may have been ascertained by authorities which seem to one trustworthy, to another not so; but once the facts are agreed upon, the reasoning is clear to both alike. So, too, Ward and Mill,—utterly as they differed on the primary truths which were the data from which to reason,—in their method, and in the conclusions resting on a given hypothesis, reached an agreement which was very remarkable. The two active intellects moved on such similar lines as to make correspondence and controversy a fruitful source of intellectual pleasure. The mind of each was logical, abstract...« less