# John Sterling — The Autobiography of John Stuart Mill character guide

> John Sterling in The Autobiography of John Stuart Mill by John Stuart Mill.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Sterling

**First appearance:** 0002-iii

## Snapshot

A writer and clergyman of restless, searching mind, whose friendship gave the young Mill a rare companion outside the utilitarian fold.

## Who they are

Sterling moves through Mill's early adulthood as a friend of warmth and spiritual hunger, the kind of intimate Mill's austere education had scarcely allowed him. Their bond offers relief from the relentless intellectual labor of Mill's days and hints at the emotional life he was only beginning to discover. He matters because he is part of what draws Mill out of isolation and into the fuller humanity his later thought would champion.

## In the story

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_autobiography_of_john_stuart_mill_se/chapters/vi)

Occasional contributor to the Review under Mill's editorship.

## Links

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