Because On Liberty was published in 1859, it is obvious that the ideas of John Stuart Mill regarding the freedom of citizens was not available to those who wrote our Constitution. It is not certain how much On Liberty influenced thought since publication, but it is on record that the book had at least five reprints. However, if anyone is interested in the topics of liberty of thought, liberty of individuals or the limits of the authority of society, this book will be helpful.

Not much is revealed about the life of Mill, but what is shared might shed some light on his character. He is reported to have said that the exclusive cultivation of the habit of analysis destroyed in him all capacity for emotion. For six months, he continued in a near suicidal state of depression. Eight years later, Mill suffered another breakdown.

For a while, he had a great sense of loneliness that lasted until he met an incomparable friend who changed his life. She happened to be the wife of a prosperous merchant and the mother of two small children. Mill surely must have developed a sense of his own liberty under this circumstance. He was strong on liberty while ignoring social obligation.

In the perpetual struggle between liberty and authority, we must be alert that the tyranny of the majority must be taken into account. As Mill sees it, Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough: there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling; against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them.

With regard to the limits of social control over the individual, Mill is blunt in asserting: The object of this essay is to assert one simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties or the moral coercion of public opinion.

That principle is that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.

It is human to accept custom and go with what ideas and values are popular at the moment. There will be no clashes about liberty and what is accepted. But Mill declares that the way to make life rich is to develop habits and skills to maintain a worldview.

Mill declares: He who lets the world, or his portion of it, choose his plan of life for him has no need of any other society than the ape-like one of imitation. He who chooses his plan for himself employs all his faculties. He must use observation to see, reasoning and judgment to foresee, activity to gather materials for decision, discrimination to decide, and when he has decided, firmness and self-control to hold on to his deliberate decision. This is a lot to ask of whole communities.

Mill is well aware that people who live by the foregoing program will be regarded as odd. Mill suggested that this is the price you pay for being a complete citizen. One should be proud for being odd.

Mill closes his book with this warning: A state which dwarfs its men in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished.

Mill deserves some respect for his thought and energy in bringing our attention to such an important issue.

We have lived in a period of history in which we have seen dictatorships that have started and been destroyed. Indeed, Mill lived in a country in which kings were losing their power and liberties to whole societies were expanding. We, too, must be active and alert in protecting our liberties if we have hopes of keeping them.

There are recurring attempts of some groups to take away the rights of others on the basis of religion, race or political reason. Liberties lost are very hard to recover. It took a world war to stop the advance of the idea that some races are superior to others and deserve special rights.

Allan Powell is a professor emeritus of philosophy at Hagerstown Community College.

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ALLAN POWELL: Some words about liberty - Herald-Mail Media