Partly stimulated by and partly stimulating these men, John Mill began to think for himself and to initiate movements. It was he who in the winter of 1822-1823 founded the Utilitarian Society, the name of which was borrowed from Galt's _Annals of the Parish_. A little later he was brought, through the agency of a debating society, into contact with a wider circle. The battles were originally between the philosophic Radicals and the Tory lawyers; but afterwards they were joined by those whom Mill describes as the Coleridgians, Maurice and Sterling. It was under the attrition of these friendships and friendly discussions that Mill's mind was formed and polished after it passed from under the immediate control of his father. His interest from the start centred in philosophy. Before 1830 he had begun to write on logic, but his first important publication was the _System of Logic_ (1843). For some years he edited the _London Review_, afterwards entitled the _London and Westminster_. His _Political Economy_ appeared in 1848. In 1851 he married a widow, Mrs. Taylor, to whom he ascribes a share in some of his works scarcely inferior to his own. Her influence is especially strong in the essay _On Liberty_ (1859), though this was not published until after her death. About this time Mill took up the question of parliamentary reform, and in 1861 published his _Considerations on Representative Government_. Nearly contemporaneous in composition, though eight years later in publication, was the _Subjection of Women_; while _Utilitarianism_ (1862) was the result of a revision of papers written towards the close of Mill's married life. _Auguste Comte and Positivism_ (reprinted from _The Westminster Review_) and the _Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy_ both appeared in 1865. There remain to mention only the _Autobiography_ and a collection of essays, both posthumous. During these later years Mill's life was for a time more public than it had previously been. In 1865 the electors of Westminster asked him to be their representative, and he was elected without the ordinary incident of a canvass. In the election of 1868 however he was defeated, and the constituency never had an opportunity of redeeming its error. Mill's writings may be grouped under the heads of philosophical, economic, and political. The highly interesting but depressing and melancholy _Autobiography_ stands outside these classes. Perhaps it is his best composition from the point of view of literature; and certainly it is the most valuable document for a study of the growth of his school. The three divisions are not mutually exclusive, for, strictly speaking, the first would embrace the other two. In it an attempt is made to lay down general principles which are applied in them.