CHAPTER I It seems proper that I should prefix to the following biographical sketchsome mention of the reasons which have made me think it desirable that Ishould leave behind me such a memorial of so uneventful a life as mine.I do not for a moment imagine that any part of what I have to relate canbe interesting to the public as a narrative or as being connected withmyself. But I have thought that in an age in which education and itsimprovement are the subject of more, if not of profounder, study than atany former period of English history, it may be useful that there shouldbe some record of an education which was unusual and remarkable, andwhich, whatever else it may have done, has proved how much more than iscommonly supposed may be taught, and well taught, in those early yearswhich, in the common modes of what is called instruction, are littlebetter than wasted. It has also seemed to me that in an age of transitionin opinions, there may be somewhat both of interest and of benefit innoting the successive phases of any mind which was always pressing forward,equally ready to learn and to unlearn either from its own thoughts or fromthose of others. But a motive which weighs more with me than either ofthese, is a desire to make acknowledgment of the debts which myintellectual and moral development owes to other persons; some of them ofrecognised eminence, others less known than they deserve to be, and theone to whom most of all is due, one whom the world had no opportunity ofknowing. The reader whom these things do not interest, has only himself toblame if he reads farther, and I do not desire any other indulgence fromhim than that of bearing in mind that for him these pages were not written.
I was born in London, on the 20th of May, 1806, and was the eldest sonof James Mill, the author of the History of British India. My father,the son of a petty tradesman and (I believe) small farmer, at NorthwaterBridge, in the county of Angus, was, when a boy, recommended by hisabilities to the notice of Sir John Stuart, of Fettercairn, one of theBarons of the Exchequer in Scotland, and was, in consequence, sent tothe University of Edinburgh, at the expense of a fund established byLady Jane Stuart (the wife of Sir John Stuart) and some other ladiesfor educating young men for the Scottish Church. He there went throughthe usual course of study, and was licensed as a Preacher, but neverfollowed the profession; having satisfied himself that he could notbelieve the doctrines of that or any other Church. For a few years hewas a private tutor in various families in Scotland, among others thatof the Marquis of Tweeddale, but ended by taking up his residence inLondon, and devoting himself to authorship. Nor had he any other meansof support until 1819, when he obtained an appointment in the India House.
In this period of my father's life there are two things which it isimpossible not to be struck with: one of them unfortunately a verycommon circumstance, the other a most uncommon one. The first is, thatin his position, with no resource but the precarious one of writing inperiodicals, he married and had a large family; conduct than whichnothing could be more opposed, both as a matter of good sense and ofduty, to the opinions which, at least at a later period of life, hestrenuously upheld. The other circumstance, is the extraordinaryenergy which was required to lead the life he led, with thedisadvantages under which he laboured from the first, and with