J.S. Mill: Philosophy in an Hour. Paul Strathern

reciprocated his love. Unfortunately she was also married – to an energetic and successful businessman, whose exceptional qualities of understanding turned out to be the match of Mill’s. John Taylor loved his wife but was quickly persuaded by his forceful partner that she loved John Stuart Mill. Harriet’s sense of loyalty to her husband – for whom she retained a deep fondness – made her assure him that while she insisted upon seeing her lover, there would be no ‘impropriety’ between them. Within a year Queen Victoria had ascended the British throne: meanwhile this very Victorian state of affairs would continue for another twenty years.

      Mill took to seeing Harriet Taylor regularly, sometimes even staying for the weekend when John Taylor was away on business. When such occasions did not arise, John Taylor would tactfully retire to his club after dinner, and his wife’s lover would turn up for a platonic evening of earnest philosophic discussion and poetry. Over the years John Taylor developed a certain irritability, John Stuart Mill developed a pronounced tic in one eyebrow, and Harriet herself was beset by a series of nervous complaints – but otherwise all remained swimmingly smooth on the surface. Exercising their powers of sublimation to the utmost, the well-tried trio succeeded in their chosen paths. Taylor made money in the chemical business, Mill became an exceptional philosopher, and Harriet played a major role in developing his ideas. (Mill later claimed that she co-wrote many of his major works.) Meanwhile the Victorian gossips had a field day. Mill would cut dead any friend who even so much as mentioned the name of his lover; Taylor took to enjoying bibulous institutional dinners; and Harriet developed a remarkable ability to faint.