John Stuart Mill’s Letter to Bentham

TO JEREMY BENTHAM

My dear Sir,

Mr. Walker is a very intimate friend of mine, who lives at No. 31 in Berkeley Square. I have engaged him, as he is soon coming here, first to go to your house, and get for me the 3.d and 4.th volumes of Hooke’s Roman history. But I am recapitulating the 1.st and 2.d volumes, having finished them all except a few pages of the 2.d. I will be glad if you will let him have the 3.d and 4.th volumes.

I am yours sincerely

John Stuart Mill.

Newington Green,
Tuesday 1812.

A rather ordinary letter until one considers the date. Mill you see was born in 1806, thus making him six at the time of writing. The editors of Mill’s letters note that his essay on Hooke’s Roman history has survived and includes a footnote correcting Hooke’s Greek.