The passage below belongs to one of the drafts of John Stuart Mill’s autobiography, and was not included in the final version. It is a description of a daily routine that any philosopher must envy: continual study, easy access to natural scenery, and the relaxation of social gatherings. As it is difficult to conceive of circumstances more favourable to the cultivation of the intellect, so it is cause for regret, that very few persons have ever been able to enjoy such a life.
‘The mode of life at Ford Abbey was the following. Mr. Bentham and my father studied and wrote in the same large room (a different room however in summer and in winter). My father commenced at about seven, summer and winter: and as Mr. Bentham did not make his appearance till some time after nine, I and the other children worked at our lessons in the same room during those two hours. The general hour of breakfast was nine, but Mr. Bentham always breakfasted at one o’clock among his books and papers, his breakfast being laid early in the morning on his study table. The party at the general breakfast consisted of my father and mother, Mr. Bentham’s amanuensis for the time being, and the visitors, if, as not unfrequently happened, any were staying in the house. Before his one o’clock breakfast Mr. Bentham regularly went out for the same invariable walk, a circuit of about half an hour, in which my father almost always joined him. The interval between breakfast and this walk my father employed in hearing lessons, which when weather permitted, was always done in walking about the grounds. The hours from one to six my father passed in study and this was the time regularly allotted to us children for learning lessons. Six was the dinner hour, and the remainder of the evening Mr. Bentham passed in social enjoyment, of which he had a keen relish. I was never present on these evenings except a few times when Mr. Bentham good-naturedly sent for me to teach me to play at chess.’
Notes in the Margins of the Days 