[Letter] 1830 August 7 [to] Mrs Austin, Park Road

                                   7th August 1830
 
       Dear Mrs Austin

             At your request I put into writing 
what I said to you the other night on the subject 
of Mr Austin’s lectures. What appears to me of most
importance is that he should not spend time in 
endeavouring to make the lectures which have been 
already delivered, better than they are. They stand 
greatly in need of curtailment, but I do not believe 
that there is a single member of the class who would 
wish them to be changed in any other respect. There 
is only one opinion expressed in the lectures which
I have heard controverted at all; & the manner 
of exposition has excited the admiration of every 
body. The only fault found is, that the different 
points are over explained; that they are dwelt 
upon longer & repeated oftener, than is necessary 
to a complete understanding of them. I am certain 
that all which the class would desire in respect 
to the earlier lectures is that they should be 
very much abridged & perhaps many of the 
historical details dispensed with altogether；not 
because those details are not considered useful 
& interesting, but because it is impossible to do every 
thing, and because there are other things which they 
are much more anxious to know.－Though the 
class were extremely delighted with the course 
as far as it went, they certainly were very much 
disappointed that Mr Austin did not get through 
a greater portion of the subject; & they anticipate 
with great pleasure the completion of it in the 
lectures on which he has obtained for them the 
privilege of attendance, at the conclusion of the 
next year’s course. The only thing which in 
my opinion could at all endanger the perma-
nent success & utility of the professorship, would 
be his not being able to include a view of all 
the essential parts of the science in his next 
series of lectures. Now the present class very 
well know that next to his health, the 
great cause of his getting through so little 
was his being obliged to prepare his lectures 
as he went on, not having them ready written. 
If he spends any time in improving his present 
lectures, more than is necessary for sufficiently 
shortening them, he will be in precisely the 
same difficulty, with the remainder of his 
subject, as he was this year with the whole of it. 
On the contrary, if he contents himself with using 
the scissors abundantly, & sets about the preparation 
of the subsequent lectures immediately, he will be 
several months in advance, & will be able, without 
that fatigue & harassing excitement which destroy 
his health, to prepare the lectures carefully, include 
a large portion of the subject in each, & avoid 
repetition & over explanation.
       I would not recommend his continuing the 
Tables at present, as those which are printed embrace 
the entire field of law, & it is of so much more
importance that he should complete his course of 
lectures next year.
       From the very high opinion which has been 
expressed of the last course by those to whom I 
have lent my notes, I have considerable hopes
that the class next year will be satisfactory 
in respect of numbers. But I should not be at 
all discouraged even if the number was small-
because it is only a complete course, which can 
do much to spread the reputation of the lecturer. 
If he should be able to complete the subject next 
year, I have not the least doubt that he will 
have a numerous class the year after.
      I deem it however of the greatest importance 
with a view to his class next year, that he 
should deliver an interesting introductory 
lecture. I knew his well grounded aversion to 
vague generalities, & I know as certainly as he 
does, that it is impossible to teach any thing 
that is worth knowing of a whole science, in 
a short general view. But it is not necessary 
that an introductory lecture should be an 
abridged view of the science. The best introduc-
tory lectures extant are not so: Brown’s intro-
ductory lecture to his course of metaphysics for 
example. The proper notion of an introductory
lecture seems to be that it should resemble 
the preface to a book, which gives the reasons for 
writing the book & the reasons for reading it. Es-
pecially on the moral sciences, whose rank as 
sciences or where scientific character itself is 
not generally recognized, there seems to be an 
ample field for remarks of a most useful 
description in opening a course of lectures. He 
might explain, what is meant by general juris-
prudence: in what respect a course of jurisprudence 
differs from a course of lectures on the law of any 
particular country, & also from lectures on the 
science or art of legislation: the grounds of the 
opinion, that there really is a science of general 
jurisprudence, & that it is worth studying: 
proof of the perverting & confusing effect of the study 
of law as it is commonly pursued, without
being accompanied by the study of jurisprudence: 
examples of the erroneous notions usually 
formed as to what jurisprudence is, & the silly 
talk of Blackstone, & others of our lawyers, when 
they erect the technical maxims of their own 
law into principles of jurisprudence. All these 
topics, with a hundred others of the same kind, which will occur to 
Mr Austin himself, would afford ample mate-
rials for a highly useful introductory lecture, 
& one which need not be chargeable with vague-
ness or generality. I am satisfied, & so are several 
others of the class, that if his introductory
lecture of last year had treated of these topics, 
        in the manner in which we
        all know he would have 
        treated them if at all, his 
        class would have been
        twice as numerous as it was. 
I am quite convinced that if he delivers a 
lecture of this kind next year, he will have 
a numerous class, & that if he does not, 
he will have a comparatively small one.
      But if he will not write such a lecture 
as this, let him not think of writing another 
but deliver the first lecture of the course itself, 
as his introductory lecture. The general remark 
last year in his class room after the close of his 
lecture on Law in general, was, that it was very 
unfortunate that he had not delivered that very 
lecture instead of his introductory one.
               Yours affectionately     J. S. Mill.


P.S.  The one opinion which, as I mentioned 
  in the letter, has been controverted, is 
  this: that every right of action 
  must be founded on an injury. 
  Excuse bad penmanship, as I write 
  unavoidably in haste.