• He reasons that everything new or original has no past.  Something cannot exist before it is created.  Thus, breeding with static practices will not conceive any new idea.  Unfortunately, according to Mill, the English people will fall into a “collective mediocrity,” as long as they conform to the narrow and inadequate scope of these institutions.  Therefore, Mill believes a custom-bound society is in direct conflict with progress.  Mill’s ideology, characteristic of the Victorian Age, not only points out the problem, he offers a solution.  He asserts that a society can remain progressive as long as it values individuality.  For, as Mill said, “The initiation of all wise or noble things, comes and must come from individuals; generally at first from some one individual.”  If the individual is allowed to progress into the future, then society shares its sons’ and daughters’ achievements. Robert Browning transitions between Mill’s hope for a prosperous future and Arnold’s lamentations over a lost past.