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Disc 3 Question: Mill says that human nature is not a machine but a tree (275). We have seen, in both Carlyle and Tennyson, the association of utilitarianism and laissez-faire economics with machines (esp the steam engine) as a criticism of the increasing mechanization of human life in Victorian society--as a signal of the lack of attention to spiritual, non-material aspects of life. What is Mill up to, rhetorically speaking, in relying on the organic metaphor of the tree? How does this fit into his larger point about Custom?

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