 The systematic science treating the topic of how upbringing and environment affect the formation of individuals, Mill terms “ethology” (System, VIII: 861). Such a science, which would utilize the principles of psychology to allow us to determine the conditions most conducive or damaging to the production of characters we think desirable, “is still to be created” (System, VIII: 872–3). Nevertheless, much of Mill’s work can be seen as an attempt to start such a research programme, charting the effects of social conditions on the creation of character—his own character in the Autobiography, that of women in the Subjection, and those of democratic societies in On Liberty (Ball 2010).