《论自由·第三章·个性·论幸福的要素之一》第4节
He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty 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 to his deliberate decision. And these qualities he requires and exercises exactly in proportion as the part of his conduct which he determines according to his own judgment and feelings is a large one. It is possible that he might be guided in some good path, and kept out of harm's way, without any of these things. But what will be his comparative worth as a human being? It really is of importance, not only what men do, but also what manner of men they are that do it. Among the works of man, which human life is rightly employed in perfecting and beautifying, the first in importance surely is man himself. Supposing it were possible to get houses built, corn grown, battles fought, causes tried, and even churches erected and prayers said, by machinery--by automatons in human form--it would be a considerable loss to exchange for these automatons even the men and women who at present inhabit the more civilised parts of the world, and who assuredly are but starved specimens of what nature can and will produce. Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.
注释摘要
这段论述在密尔的论证链条中处于一个关键的递进位置。此前他已经阐明，思想自由之所以必要，是因为人的认识易错，真理需要在不同意见的碰撞中才能得到更完整的把握。现在他要把这个理由推广到行动领域，证明人不仅应当自由地持有意见，还应当被允许在自己的生活中实践这些意见，只要不伤害他人。他在这里面对着一个潜在的追问：即便允许人按照自己的想法生活，这本身有什么不可替代的价…