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Everything seemed to be going swimmingly for John Stuart Mill (1806-73) in his Autobiography (and his life) until we arrive at Chapter Five. In the first four chapters of that work he narrates the unprecedented education he received due to the unremitting commitment of his father James to offer him the best classical education possible. Mill himself confesses that he didn't have a superior mind--he just had an amazingly-unusual opportunity. He started with Greek at age three or four, moving to Latin by age eight, with ample study of history and literature along the way. In addition, his father was well acquainted with some of the leading intellects in political economy (Ricardo), philosophy (Bentham) and law (Austin) of the age, so that young John Stuart had as conversation partners in his youth the great minds of his age. By the age of 17 he already was editing, along with Bentham, the fledgling Westminster Review. With his father's help he secured a position in the India office in the early 1820s, which he held for the next 35 years. Thus, the combination of an unparalleled education, regular exposure to the most progressive thinkers, and commitment to the philosophical system of the biggest "name" (Bentham and his utilitarianism) of his time launched JS Mill into the world.

A Shortcoming

The presence of his father lurked not just as a shadow over John Stuart's life as narrated in the Autobiography but as an all-consuming presence. From Book IV we have the following:

"But my father exercised a far greater personal ascendancy (i.e., than even Bentham). He was sought for the vigour and instructiveness of his conversation, and did use it largely as an instrument for the diffusion of his opinions. I have never known any man who could do such ample justice to his best thoughts in colloquial discussion. His perfect command over his great mental resources, the terseness and expressiveness of his language and the moral earnestness as well as intellectual force of his delivery, made him one of the most striking of all argumentative conversers: and he was full of anecdote, a hearty laugher, and, when with people whom he liked, a most lively and amusing companion. It was not solely, or even chiefly, in diffusing his merely intellectual convictions that his power showed itself: it was still more through the influence of a quality, of which I have only since learnt to appreciate the extreme rarity: that exalted public spirit, and regard above all things to the good of the whole, which warmed into life and activity every germ of similar virtue that existed in the minds he came in contact with: the desire he made them feel for his approbation, the shame at his disapproval; the moral support which his conversation and his very existence gave to those who were aiming to the same objects, and the encouragement he afforded to the fainthearted or desponding among them, by the firm confidence which (though the reverse of sanguine as to the results to be expected in any one particular case) he always felt in the power of reason, the general progress of improvement, and the good which individuals could do by judicious effort" (4.7).

What was the result for John Stuart of the overwhelming presence of such a person in his life? "I conceive that the description so often given of a Benthamite, as a mere reasoning machine, though extremely inapplicable to most of those who have been designated by that title, was during two or three years of my life not altogether untrue of me" (4.13). But then comes the zinger. Though his father seemed to provide everything that the young John Stuart needed, he was deficient in one respect:

"Add to this that, as already mentioned, my father’s teachings tended to the under-valuing of feeling. It was not that he was himself cold-hearted or insensible; I believe it was rather from the contrary quality; he thought that feeling could take care of itself; that there was sure to be enough of it if actions were properly cared about" (4.13).

As a result of this deficiency in his education, Mill notes that he undervalued such things as poetry and imagination, generally, as elements of human nature. Benthamites, it was supposed, were enemies of poetry, and even Bentham used to say that "all poetry is misrepresentation" (4.14). Using poetic words meant that the user had abandoned rational thinking. Mill, under the overmastering influence of his father and of Bentham, who was his godfather, unwittingly also abandoned the emotions.

Conclusion

It was JS Mill's inability to know how to deal with his feelings, because his father had emphasized them so little, that led to his nervous breakdown at age 20-21. His breakdown and subsequent mental reorientation will be the decisive experience of his young life. With this background, then, let's turn to his narration of that experience in Book V of the Autobiography.

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