POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY wanting one of the principal ingredients of human happiness, and quite the chief ingredient of individual and social progress’ (L 185) Without individuality, human beings become mere machines, conforming to a pattern imposed from without But ‘human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides’ (L 188) If eccentricity is proscribed, damage is done not only to the individual constrained, but to society as a whole We may all have something to learn from unconventional characters ‘There is always need of persons not only to discover new truths, and point out when what were once truths are true no longer, but also to commence new practices, and set the example of more enlightened conduct, and better taste and sense in human life’ (L 193) Energetic and unorthodox characters are needed more than ever in an age when public opinion rules the world, and individuals are lost in the crowd Genius must be allowed to unfold itself in practice as well as in thought What exactly does Mill have in mind when he commends ‘experiments in living’? Sadly, he expounds his thesis by a series of eloquent metaphors rather than by offering examples of beneficial eccentricity When he comes to offer practical applications of his principles, he confines himself to denouncing laws restricting humdrum activities of everyday people, not statutes constraining the development of genius As examples of bad legislation, actual or hypothetical, he considers such things as prohibitions on the eating of pork and the drinking of spirituous liquors, or laws against travelling on the sabbath and restrictions on dancing and theatrical performances No doubt when Mill was encouraging nonconformity one example at the back of his mind was his own unconventional relationship with Harriet Taylor during the long years before their marriage But, oddly, the one example he actually gives of an experiment in living is one of which he heartily disapproved: the Mormon sanction of polygamy This experiment, he admitted, was in direct conflict with his libertarian principles, being ‘a mere riveting of the chains of one half of the community, and emancipation of the other from reciprocity of obligation towards them’ (L 224) However, since the world taught women that marriage was the one thing needful, he thought it understandable that many a woman should prefer being one of several wives to not being a wife at all Mill was not commending polygamy; merely urging 274