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John Stuart Mill was born in London, the eldest of James and Harriet Burrow
Mill’s nine children. His father, a well-known philosopher and follower of Jeremy
Bentham, educated young John at home. Beginning with Greek at age 3 and Latin
at age 8, the younger Mill had read six of Plato’s dialogues by the age of 10. John
spent most of the day in the study with his father, who was writing a history of
India. Each morning, they would go on a walk and James would quiz his son on
what he had learned the previous day. During these walks, James would often dis-
course on various topics and then expect his son to prepare a summary of his
points for the following day. Given the severity of this schooling—and the fact
that his father showed no “signs of feeling”—it is not surprising that John later
concluded, “I never was a boy.”
The publication of the elder Mill’s work on India in 1818 resulted in his
receiving a government post as an Assistant Examiner at the East India House.
Five years later, James managed to arrange a similar position for his 17-year-old
son. John worked for the East India House for the next thirty-four years, eventu-
ally becoming chief of his department. In his early years as a clerk, John was, like
his father, a disciple of Bentham’s utilitarianism. John established the Utilitarian
Society, contributed articles to the Westminster Review,and was active in the
London Debating Society. He was developing a reputation as a polemicist for the
“philosophic radicals”—those who sought social changes along the lines of
Bentham’s theories.
But in 1826, at age 20, Mill suffered a breakdown and went through a period
of severe depression. He discovered to his horror that even if all the social
changes he advocated were enacted and all the ideas he was taught about happi-
ness were proven correct, it would not make himhappy. As he later wrote in his
Autobiography,“All my happiness was to have been found in the continualJOHN STUART MILL
1806–1873