Quiz: On Liberty

All 35 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. According to “the Calvinistic theory” as Mill describes it, what is the one great offence of man?

   Idleness Pride of intellect Love of money Self-will
2. 2. Why does Mill call social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression?

   It always uses harsher penalties than the criminal law of the country It leaves fewer means of escape and penetrates deeper into daily life It is exercised only by a hereditary aristocracy It can be removed only by revolution
3. 3. Who, according to Mill, may rightly be punished for being drunk?

   Anyone found drunk in a public house or street No one, under any circumstances whatever A soldier or a policeman drunk on duty Anyone found drunk on a Sunday or holy day
4. 4. What sentence did the Cornish man in Mill’s 1857 example receive?

   A fine of twenty-one pounds and the loss of his trade Exclusion from juries and from voting for the rest of his life Twenty-one months’ imprisonment for words against Christianity Death, commuted to transportation for life to Australia
5. 5. Which modern reformer does Mill accuse of aiming at a despotism of society over the individual?

   Auguste Comte Wilhelm von Humboldt Robert Owen Jeremy Bentham
6. 6. What practice of Christians does Mill say most envenoms the hatred of “Mahomedans” against them?

   Working on Fridays Worshipping images Eating pork Drinking wine
7. 7. What did the “Maine Law” do?

   Forbade polygamy among the Mormons Made schooling compulsory for all children under twelve Forbade railway travel and amusements on Sundays Prohibited the sale of fermented drinks except for medicine
8. 8. According to Mill, what exposed the weakness of the idea that a people need no protection against their own power?

   The restoration of the French monarchy in 1815 The rise of a large democratic republic open to observation The defeat of the Chartists in 1848 The founding of the Roman republic
9. 9. Mill says it may be better to be a John Knox than an Alcibiades, but better still to be whom?

   Cromwell Pericles Socrates Luther
10. 10. On what ground does Mill rest his argument?

    The authority of scripture, as interpreted by each individual’s conscience Utility in the largest sense, based on man’s permanent interests as a progressive being An original social contract by which men surrendered part of their liberty Abstract natural rights, which every man holds quite independently of any utility
11. 11. Which regulation of the sale of poisons does Mill say may be enforced without violating liberty?

    Labelling the drug as dangerous Limiting sale to government shops Requiring a medical certificate in all cases Prohibiting sale entirely
12. 12. Which of these is not one of Mill’s four grounds for freedom of opinion?

    An unchallenged truth is held as a prejudice and its meaning fades A false opinion may contain a portion of truth that the received one lacks The silenced opinion may be true Suppressed opinions always triumph, so persecution is useless
13. 13. What two requisites for human development does Mill take from Wilhelm von Humboldt?

    Education, and secure private property Religion, and law Freedom, and variety of situations Wealth, and leisure
14. 14. On which “battle-field” does Mill say individual rights against society have been asserted on broad grounds of principle?

    Freedom of trade Freedom of the press in war The right to vote Religious belief
15. 15. Whose words form the epigraph of On Liberty?

    Alexis de Tocqueville Johann Gottlieb Fichte Samuel Taylor Coleridge Wilhelm von Humboldt
16. 16. Of what was Socrates convicted, as Mill reports?

    Treason and bribery Impiety and immorality, as a “corrupter of youth” Theft from the temple treasury Desertion in war
17. 17. How does Mill propose to enforce universal education?

    By a national system of state schools that every child is obliged to attend By requiring attendance at the parish church school until twelve By paying parents a bounty for each year that their child attends a school By public examinations of all children, with fines on fathers whose children fail
18. 18. What practice of Cicero does Mill commend to everyone who seeks the truth?

    Speaking without notes Refusing to argue with those of lower rank or less learning than himself Studying his adversary’s case as intensely as his own, or more Learning the laws of Greece and their reasons before those of Rome
19. 19. According to chapter 3, when may the opinion that corn-dealers starve the poor be punished?

    When it is delivered orally to an excited mob before a corn-dealer’s house Never, since the expression of any opinion whatever must be absolutely free Only in a time of famine, when the price of bread has risen very high Whenever it is printed in a newspaper that is read by the labouring classes
20. 20. In Mill’s image of early government, why must people stay on guard against the strongest “animal of prey”?

    Because he is chosen by lot each year Because he refuses to keep the weaker members down Because he may at any moment be overthrown by foreign enemies and rival kings Because the king of the vultures would prey on the flock like the lesser harpies
21. 21. Whom does Mill exclude from the application of his principle besides children?

    “Backward states of society”, ruled by an improving despotism All persons without property, who have no stake in the community Women and domestic servants, who he says lack independent judgment Members of established churches, who are bound by their own discipline
22. 22. Which of these does Mill not list as a cause of the growing similarity of people in England?

    Improvements in the means of communication The decline of religious belief The increase of commerce and manufactures Extension of education
23. 23. Where there is an ascendant class, where does Mill say much of a country’s morality comes from?

    From that class’s interests and its feelings of class superiority From the laws of ancient Greece and Rome From the general interests of society, rationally and impartially considered From the teachings of philosophers
24. 24. Why does Mill hold that a contract to sell oneself as a slave should be void?

    All contracts may be dissolved at the will of either party at any time they choose In abdicating his liberty he defeats the reason for leaving him free It injures third parties, since slavery lowers the wages of all free labour Scripture and the common law both forbid a man to sell his own body to another
25. 25. To what does Mill compare human nature, as opposed to a machine?

    A garden wall A tree A river A flock of sheep
26. 26. Which nation does Mill hold up as a “warning example” of a people made stationary by uniformity?

    Spain Russia China Turkey
27. 27. Why does Mill call Marcus Aurelius’s persecution of Christianity “one of the most tragical facts in all history”?

    He secretly believed it true but feared the anger of the Roman populace and the army The wisest, gentlest ruler persecuted it from duty, thinking it would dissolve society The Senate and the priests forced him into it against his will and his Stoic doubts He persecuted it out of personal cruelty and vanity, like Nero and Domitian before him
28. 28. What does Mill say about the Czar and the Russian bureaucracy?

    He governs through it absolutely, and it dares not delay his decrees He can send any official to Siberia but cannot govern without them or against them He fills it by competitive examination, open on equal terms to all his subjects He has abolished it in favour of councils elected by the nobles of each province
29. 29. According to Mill, if all mankind minus one held one opinion, would they be justified in silencing the one?

    Yes, if a legislature freely elected by the people sanctioned it Only if the one person were a foreigner or an atheist Yes, if the opinion were immoral or dangerous to society No more than he would be in silencing mankind
30. 30. What does Mill say marks “the chief danger of the time”?

    That trade is too free and too little regulated That the masses are becoming irreligious That so few now dare to be eccentric That governments are too weak to keep order
31. 31. What is the sole end, according to Mill’s principle, for which mankind may interfere with anyone’s liberty of action?

    The person’s own moral improvement Self-protection The preservation of established religion The greatest happiness of the majority
32. 32. What does Mill say the subject of the essay is not?

    The so-called Liberty of the Will Liberty of thought Society’s power over individuals Civil, or social, liberty
33. 33. How does Mill describe the woman to whom he dedicates the book?

    As the translator of Humboldt into English As his first teacher in Greek and Latin As a critic who opposed the book’s main argument As the inspirer, and in part the author, of his best writing
34. 34. According to Mill, which Mormon doctrine chiefly provokes hostility to them?

    Refusal of military service Common ownership of property Polygamy Rejection of the Bible
35. 35. Mill says George Barnwell would equally have been hanged if he had murdered his uncle for what purpose?

    To set himself up in business To inherit his uncle’s estate and lands In self-defence To pay his gambling and tavern debts