IRLF 
 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
LIFE OP 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 CORNISH, LAMPORT & CO. 
 
 267 PEARL-STREET. 
 
 1851. 
 
LIFE 
 
 BENJAMIN 
 
 ON THE BASIS OF 
 
 HIS A UTOBIOGRAPHY; 
 
 WITH ADDITIONS, BRINGING TIP THK NARKATIVK 
 TO THE END OF HIS LIFE. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 CORNISH, LAMPORT & CO 
 
 267 PEARL-STREET. 
 1851. 
 
Entered according to an Act of Congress, in 
 
 the year 1847, by 
 
 NAFIS & CORNISH, 
 
 in tne Clerk s Office of the District Court of 
 
 the Southern District oi New York. 
 
 E. B. Mearx, Stereotyper, 
 Philadelphia. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 DR. FRANKLIN is known in history 
 as the American philosopher and 
 statesman. Brought up a printer, 
 by industry, perseverance, and good 
 conduct, he rose to the highest posi* 
 tion in society } a first-rate rank 
 among scientific men j and the office 
 of ambassador from his country to 
 foreign courts. In all his conduct 
 in life, good sense was the prevailing 
 characteristic. He never lost, when 
 his higher destinies were fulfilled) the 
 original simplicity and plainness of 
 his manners, or the fine tone of be 
 nevolent feeling which marked his 
 character as a boy. Of all the nu 
 merous biographies of Franklin which 
 have appeared, none can bear com- 
 
 M368H5 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 parison with that which he wrote 
 himself ; and it is only to be regret 
 ted that he should have discontinued 
 it so long before the close of his 
 brilliant and eventful career. The 
 reader will find it not only the most 
 entertaining but the most useful of 
 memoirs, since it points out the way 
 in which modest merit may rise to 
 distinction. Many and many are 
 the men who have freely and openly 
 attributed their whole success in life 
 to an early perusal of Franklin s 
 memoirs of himself. 
 
 We cordially hope that the pres 
 ent edition of this remarkable book 
 may prove as useful as those which 
 have preceded it. The conclusion 
 of Franklin s Life in this volume, is of 
 course by another hand. We hope 
 and trust the additional facts may 
 prove also interesting and useful to 
 the reader. 
 
LIFE OF 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 I HAVE amused myself with 
 collecting some little anecdotes of 
 my family. You may remem 
 ber the inquiries I made when you 
 were with me in England, among 
 such of my relations as were then 
 living, and the journey I undertook 
 for that purpose. To be acquaint 
 ed with the particulars of my 
 parentage and life, many of which 
 are unknown to you, I flatter my 
 self will afford the same pleasure 
 to you as to me. I shall relate 
 them upon paper ; it will be an 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 agreeable employment of a week s 
 uninterrupted leisure, which I 
 promise myself during my present 
 retirement in the country. There 
 are also other motives which in 
 duce me to the undertaking. From 
 the bosom of poverty and obscurity, 
 in which I drew my first breath 
 and spent my earliest years, I 
 have raised myself to a state of 
 opulence, and to some degree of 
 celebrity in the world. A con- 
 stant good fortune has attended me 
 through every period of my life to 
 my present advanced age ; and my 
 descendants may be desirous of 
 learning what were the means of 
 which I made use, and which, 
 thanks to the assisting hand of 
 Providence, have proved so emi 
 nently successful. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 And here let me with all hu 
 mility acknowledge, that to Divine 
 Providence I am indebted for the 
 felicity I have hitherto enjoyed. 
 It is that power alone which has 
 furnished me with the means I 
 have employed, and that has 
 crowned them with success. My 
 faith in this respect leads me to 
 hope, though I cannot count upon it, 
 that the Divine goodness will still 
 be exercised towards me, either by 
 prolonging the duration of my 
 happiness to the close of life, or by 
 giving me fortitude to support any 
 melancholy reverse which may 
 happen to me as to so many others. 
 My future fortune is unknown but 
 to Him in whose hands is our des 
 tiny, and who can make our very 
 afflictions subservient to our benefit. 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 One of my uncles, desirous, like 
 myself, of collecting anecdotes of 
 our family, gave me some notes, 
 from which I have derived many 
 particulars respecting our ances 
 tors. From these I learn, that 
 they had lived in the same village 
 (Eaton, in Northamptonshire,) upon 
 a freehold of about thirty acres, for 
 the space at least of three hundred 
 years. How they had resided 
 there prior to that period, my uncle 
 had been unable to discover ; 
 probably ever since the institution 
 of surnames, when they took the 
 appellation of Franklin, which had 
 formerly been the name of a par 
 ticular order of individuals. 
 
 This petty estate would not have 
 sufficed for their subsistence, had 
 they not added the trade of black- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 
 smith, which was perpetuated in 
 the family down to my uncle s 
 time, the eldest son having been 
 uniformly brought up to this em 
 ployment ; a custom which both 
 he and my father observed with 
 respect to their eldest sons. 
 
 In the researches I made at Eaton, 
 I found no account of their births, 
 marriages, and deaths, earlier than 
 the year 1555, the parish register 
 not extending farther back than 
 that period. This register inform 
 ed me, that I was the youngest son 
 of the youngest branch of the 
 family, counting five generations. 
 My grandfather, Thomas, who was 
 born in 1598, lived at Eaton till he 
 was too old to continue his trade, 
 when he retired to Banbury in 
 Oxfordshire, where his son John, 
 
10 LIFE OF 
 
 who was a dyer, resided, and with 
 whom my father was apprenticed. 
 He died, and was buried there : we 
 saw his monument in 1758. His 
 eldest son lived in the family house 
 at Eaton, which he bequeathed, 
 with the land belonging to it, to 
 his only daughter, who, in concert 
 with her husband, Mr. Fisher, of 
 Wellingborough, afterwards sold it 
 to Mr. Ested, the present proprietor. 
 
 My grandfather had four survi 
 ving sons, Thomas, John, Benja 
 min, and Josias. I shall give you 
 such particulars of them as my 
 memory will furnish, not having my 
 papers here,..in which you will find 
 a more minute account, if they are 
 not lost during my absence. 
 
 Thomas had learned the trade 
 of blacksmith under his father; 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 11 
 
 but possessing a good natural un 
 derstanding, he improved it by 
 study, at the solicitation of a gen 
 tleman of the name of Palmer, 
 who was at that time the principal 
 inhabitant of the village, ^and who 
 encouraged, in like manner, all my 
 uncles to improve their minds. 
 Thomas thus rendered himself 
 competent to the functions of a 
 country attorney, soon became an 
 essential personage in the affairs of 
 the village, and was one of the 
 chief movers of every public en 
 terprise, as well relative to the 
 country, as the town of North 
 ampton. A variety of remarkable 
 incidents were told us of him at 
 Eaton. After enjoying the esteem 
 an<l patronage of Lord Halifax, he 
 died, January 6th, 1702, precisely 
 
12 
 
 four years before I was born. The 
 recital that was made us of his 
 life and character, by some aged 
 persons of the village, struck you, 
 I remember, as extraordinary, 
 from its analogy to what you knew 
 of myself. " Had he died," said 
 you, "just four years later, one 
 might have supposed a transmigra 
 tion of souls." 
 
 John, to the best of my belief, 
 was brought up to the trade of a 
 wool-dyer. 
 
 Benjamin served his apprentice 
 ship in London to a silk-dyer. He 
 was an industrious man : I re 
 member him well ; for, while I 
 was a child, he joined my father 
 at Boston, and lived for some years 
 in the house with us. A particul ir 
 affection had always subsisted be- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 13 
 
 tween my father and him, and I 
 was his god-son. He arrived to a 
 great age. He left behind him 
 two quarto volumes of poems in 
 manuscript, consisting of little fu 
 gitive pieces, addressed to his friends. 
 He had invented a short-hand, 
 which he taught me, but having 
 never made use of it, I have now 
 forgotten it. He was a man of 
 piety, and a constant attendant on 
 the best preachers, whose sermons 
 he took a pleasure in writing down, 
 according to the expeditory method 
 he had devised, Many volumes 
 were thus collected by him. He 
 was extremely fond of politics ; too 
 much so, perhaps, for his situation. 
 I lately found, in London, a col 
 lection which he had made of all 
 the principal pamphlets relative to 
 
14 LIFE OF 
 
 public affairs, from the year 1641 
 to 1717. Many volumes are 
 wanting, as appears by the scries 
 of numbers ; but there still remain 
 eight in folio, and twenty -four in 
 quarto and octavo. The collection 
 had fallen into the hands of a second 
 hand bookseller, who knowing me, 
 by having sold me some books, 
 brought it to me. My uncle, it 
 seems, had left it behind him on 
 his departure for America, about 
 fifty years ago. I found various 
 notes of his writing in the margin. 
 Our humble family had early 
 embraced the Reformation. They 
 remained faithfully attached during 
 the reign of Queen Mary, when 
 they were in danger of being mo 
 lested, on account of their zeal 
 against Popery, They had an 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 16 
 
 English Bible, and, to conceal it 
 the more securely, they conceived 
 the project of fastening it open, 
 with packthreads across the leaves, 
 on the inside of the lid of a close- 
 stool. When my great-grand 
 father wished to read to his family, 
 he reversed the lid of the close-stool 
 upon his knees, and passed the 
 leaves from one side to the other, 
 which were held down on each by 
 the packthread. One of the chil 
 dren was stationed at the door, to 
 give notice if he saw the proctor 
 (an officer of the Spiritual Court) 
 make his appearance : in that case, 
 the lid was restored to its place, 
 with the Bible concealed under it, 
 as before. 
 
 The whole family preserved at 
 tachment to the Church of Eng- 
 
16 LIFE OF 
 
 land till towards the close of the 
 reign of Charles II., when certain 
 ministers, who had been ejected as 
 non-conformists, having held con 
 venticles in Northamptonshire, they 
 were joined by Benjamin and 
 Josias, who adhered to them ever 
 after. The rest of the family con 
 tinued in the Episcopal Church. 
 
 My father, Josias, married early 
 in life. He went, with his wife 
 and three children, to New Eng 
 land, about the year 1682. Con 
 venticles being at that time pro 
 hibited by law, and frequently dis 
 turbed, some considerable persons 
 of his acquaintance determined to 
 go to America, where they hoped 
 to enjoy the free exercise of their 
 religion, and my father was pre 
 vailed on to accompany them. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 17 
 
 My father had also, by the same 
 wife, four children born in America, 
 and ten others by a second wife, 
 making in all seventeen. I re 
 member to have seen thirteen 
 seated together at his table, who 
 all arrived to years of maturity, 
 and were married. I was the last 
 of the sons, and the youngest child 
 excepting two daughters. I was 
 born at Boston, in New England. 
 My mother, the second wife, was 
 Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter 
 Folger, one of the first colonists of 
 New England, of whom Cotton 
 Mather makes honourable mention 
 in his Ecclesiastical History of 
 that province, as " a pious learned 
 Englishman." 
 
 My brothers were all put ap 
 prentice to different trades. With 
 
18 LIFE OF 
 
 respect to myself, I was sent, at 
 the age of eight years, to a gram 
 mar school. My father destined 
 me for the church, and already 
 regarded me as the chaplain of the 
 family. The promptitude with 
 which, from my infancy, I had 
 learned to read, for I do not re 
 member to have been ever without 
 this acquirement, and the en 
 couragement of his friends, who 
 assured him that I should one day 
 certainly become a man of letters, 
 confirmed him in this design. My 
 uncle Benjamin approved also of 
 the scheme, and promised to give 
 me all his volumes of sermons, 
 written, as I have said, in the 
 short-hand of his invention, if I 
 would take the pains to learn it. 
 I remained, however, scarcely a 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 19 
 
 year at grammar school, although, 
 in this short interval, I had risen 
 from the middle to the head of my 
 class, from thence to the class im 
 mediately above, and was to pass, 
 at the end of the year, to the one 
 next in order. But my father, 
 burthencd with a numerous family, 
 found that he was incapable, with 
 out subjecting himself to diffi 
 culties, of providing for the ex 
 pense of a collegiate education ; 
 and considering, besides, as I heard 
 him say to his friends, that persons 
 so educated were often poorly pro 
 vided for, he renounced his first 
 intentions, took me from the gram 
 mar school, and sent me to a 
 school for writing and arithmetic, 
 kept by a Mr. George Brownwell, 
 who was a skilful master, and 
 
20 
 
 succeeded very well in his profes 
 sion by employing gentle means 
 only, and such as were calculated 
 to encourage his scholars. Under 
 him I soon acquired an excellent 
 hand, but I failed in arithmetic, 
 and made therein no great progress. 
 At ten years of age, I was called 
 home, to assist my father in his 
 occupation, which was that of 
 soap-boiler and tallow-chandler, a 
 business to which he had served 
 no apprenticeship, but which he 
 embraced on his arrival in New- 
 England, because he found his own, 
 that of a dyer, in too little request 
 to enable him to maintain his family. 
 I was, accordingly, employed in 
 cutting the wicks, filling the moulds, 
 taking care of the shop, carrying 
 messages, &c. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 21 
 
 This business displeased me, 
 and I felt a strong inclination for a 
 sea life ; but my father set his face 
 against it. The vicinity of the 
 water, however, gave me frequent 
 opportunities of venturing myself 
 both upon and within it, and I soon 
 acquired the art of swimming and 
 -of managing a boat. When em 
 barked with other children, the 
 helm was commonly deputed to me, 
 particularly on difficult occasions ; 
 and, in every other project, I was 
 almost always the leader of the 
 troop, whom I sometimes involved 
 in embarrassments. I shall give 
 an instance of this, which demon 
 strates an early disposition of mind 
 for public enterprises, though the 
 one in question was not conducted 
 by justice. 
 
22 LIFE OF 
 
 The mill-pond was terminated 
 on one side by a marsh, upon the 
 borders of which we were accus 
 tomed to take our stand, at high 
 water, to angle for small fish. By 
 dint of walking, we had converted 
 the place into a perfect quagmire. 
 My proposal was to erect a wharf 
 that should afford us firm footing, 
 and I pointed to my companions a 
 large heap of stones, intended for 
 building a new house near the 
 marsh, and which were well adapted 
 for our purpose. Accordingly, 
 when the workmen retired in the 
 evening, I assembled a number of 
 my play-fellows, and by labouring 
 diligently, like ants, sometimes four 
 of us uniting our strength to carry 
 a single stone, we removed them 
 all, and constructed our little quay. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 23 
 
 The workmen were surprised the 
 next morning at not finding their 
 stones, which had been conveyed 
 to our wharf. Inquiries were 
 made respecting the authors of this 
 conveyance ; we were discovered, 
 complaints were exhibited against 
 us, many of us underwent correc 
 tion on the part of our parents, 
 and though I strenuously defended 
 the utility of the work, my father 
 at length convinced me, that no 
 thing which was not strictly honest, 
 could be usefuL 
 
 It will not, perhaps, be uninter 
 esting to you to know what sort of 
 a man my father was. He had an 
 excellent constitution, was of a 
 middle size, but well made and 
 strong, and exjtremely active in 
 whatever he undertook. He de- 
 
24 LIFE OF 
 
 signed with a degree of neatness, 
 and knew a little of music. His 
 voice was sonorous and agreeable, 
 so that when he sung a psalm or 
 hyrnn with accompaniment of his 
 violin, as was his frequent practice 
 in an evening, when the labours of 
 the day were finished, it was truly 
 delightful to hear him. He was 
 versed also in mechanics, and could, 
 upon occasion, use the tools of a 
 variety of trades. But his greatest 
 excellence was, a sound understand 
 ing and solid judgment in matters 
 of prudence, both in public and 
 private life. In the former, indeed, 
 he never engaged, because his nu 
 merous family, and the mediocrity 
 of his fortune, kept him unremit 
 tingly employed *in the duties of 
 his profession. But I very well 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 25 
 
 remember, that the leading men of 
 the place used frequently to come 
 and ask his advice respecting affairs 
 of the town, or of the church to 
 which he belonged, and that they 
 paid much deference to his opinion. 
 Individuals were also in the habit 
 of consulting him in their private 
 affairs, and he was often chosen 
 arbiter between contending parties. 
 He was fond of having at his 
 table, as often as possible, some 
 friends or well informed neighbours, 
 capable of rational conversation, 
 and he was always careful to in 
 troduce useful or ingenious topics 
 of discourse which might tend to 
 form the minds of his children. 
 By this means, he early attracted 
 our attention to what was just, 
 prudent, and beneficial in the con- 
 
26 LIFE OF 
 
 duct of life. He never talked of 
 the meats which appeared upon the 
 table, never discussed whether they 
 were well or ill dressed, of a good 
 or bad flavour, high-seasoned or 
 otherwise preferable or inferior to 
 this or that dish of a similar kind. 
 Thus, accustomed, from my in 
 fancy, to the utmost inattention as 
 to these objects, I have always 
 been perfectly regardless of what 
 kind of food, was before me ; and 
 I pay so little attention to it, even 
 now, that it would be a hard matter 
 for me to recollect, a few hours 
 after I had dined, of what my din 
 ner had consisted. When travel 
 ling, I have often particularly ex 
 perienced the advantage of this 
 habit ; for it has often happened to 
 me to be in company with persons 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 27 
 
 who, having a more delicate, be 
 cause a more exercised taste, have 
 suffered in many cases considerable 
 inconvenience ; while, as to myself, 
 I have had nothing to desire. 
 
 My mother was likewise pos 
 sessed of an excellent constitution. 
 She suckled all her ten children, 
 and I never heard either her or my 
 father complain of any other dis 
 order than that of which they 
 died ; my father at the age of 
 eighty-seven, and my mother at 
 eighty -five. They are buried at 
 Bosjon, where a few years ago 
 I placed a marble over their grave. 
 I continued employed in my 
 father s trade for the space of two 
 years ; that is to say, till I arrived 
 at twelve years of age. About 
 this time my brother John, who 
 
28 LIFE OF 
 
 had served his apprenticeship in 
 London, having quitted my father, 
 and being married and settled in 
 business on his own account at 
 Rhode Island, I was destined to 
 all appearance to supply his place 
 and be a candle-maker all my 
 life : but my dislike of this occu 
 pation continuing, my father was 
 apprehensive, that, if a more agree 
 able one were not offered me, I 
 might play the truant and escape 
 to sea ; as, to his great mortifi 
 cation, my brother Josias had done. 
 He therefore took me sometimes 
 to see masons, coopers, braziers, 
 joiners, and other mechanics, em 
 ployed at their work, in order to 
 discover the bent of my inclination, 
 and fix it if he could upon some 
 occupation that might retain me 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 29 
 
 on shore. I have since, in con 
 sequence of these visits, derived 
 no small pleasure from seeing 
 skilful workmen handle their tools ; 
 and it has proved of considerable 
 benefit, to have acquired thereby 
 sufficient knowledge to be able to 
 make little things for myself, when 
 I have had no mechanic at hand, 
 and to construct small machines 
 for my experiments, while the idea 
 I have conceived "has been fresh 
 and strongly impressed on my 
 imagination. 
 
 My father at length decided that 
 I should be a cutler, and I was 
 placed for some days upon trial 
 with my cousin Samuel, son of 
 my uncle Benjamin, who had 
 learned his trade in London, and 
 had established himself at Boston. 
 
30 LIFE OF 
 
 But the premium he required for 
 my apprenticeship displeasing my 
 father, I was recalled home. 
 
 From my earliest years I had 
 been passionately fond of reading, 
 and laid out in books all the money 
 I could procure. I was particu 
 larly pleased with accounts of 
 voyages. My first acquisition was 
 Bunyan s collection in small sepa 
 rate volumes. These I afterwards 
 sold in order to buy an historical 
 collection which consisted of small 
 cheap volumes, amounting in all to 
 about forty or fifty. My father s 
 little library was principally made 
 up of books of practical and po 
 lemical theology. I read the 
 greatest part of them. I have 
 since often regretted, that at that 
 time when I had so great a thirst 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 31 
 
 for knowledge, more eligible books 
 had not fallen into my hands, as it 
 was then a point decided that I 
 should not be educated for the 
 church. There was also among 
 my father s books Plutarch s Lives, 
 in which I read continually, and I 
 still regard as advantageously em 
 ployed the time I devoted to them. 
 I found besides a work of De 
 Fou s, entitled, an Essay on Pro 
 jects, from which, perhaps, I de 
 rived impressions that have since 
 influenced some of the principal 
 events of my life. 
 
 My inclination for books at last 
 determined my father to make me 
 a printer, though he had already a 
 son in that profession. My brother 
 had returned from England in 
 1717, with a press and types, in 
 
32 LIFE OF 
 
 order to establish a printing-house 
 ,at Boston. This business pleased 
 me much better than that of my 
 father, though I had still a predi 
 lection for the sea. To prevent 
 the effects which might result from 
 this inclination, my father was im 
 patient to see me engaged with my 
 brother. I held back for some 
 time ; at length however I suffered 
 myself to be persuaded, and signed 
 my indentures, being then only 
 twelve years of age. It was 
 agreed that I should serve as ap 
 prentice to the age of twenty-one, 
 and should receive journeymen s 
 wages only during the last year. 
 
 In a very short time I made 
 great proficiency in this business, 
 and became very serviceable to 
 my brother. I had now an op- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 35 
 
 portunity of procuring better books. 
 The acquaintance I necessarily 
 formed with booksellers appren 
 tices, enabled me to borrow a 
 volume now and then, which I 
 never failed to return punctually 
 and without injury. How often 
 has it happened to ine to pass the 
 greater part of the night in reading 
 by my bed-side, when the book 
 had been lent me in the evening, 
 and was to be returned the next 
 morning, lest it might be missed or 
 wanted ! 
 
 At length, Matthew Adams, an 
 ingenious tradesman, who had a 
 handsome collection of books, and 
 who frequented our printing-house, 
 took notice of me. He invited me 
 to see his library, and had the 
 goodness to lend me any books I 
 
36 LIFE OF 
 
 was desirous of reading. I then 
 took a strange fancy for poetry, 
 and composed several little pieces. 
 My brother, thinking he might find 
 his account in it, encouraged me, 
 and engaged me to write two bal 
 lads. One, called the Light-house 
 Tragedy, containing an account 
 of the shipwreck of Captain Wor- 
 thilake and his two daughters ; the 
 other was a sailor s song on the 
 capture of the noted pirate called 
 Black-Beard. They were wretch 
 ed verses in point of style, mere 
 blind-man s ditties. When printed 
 he despatched me about the town 
 to sell them. The first had a pro 
 digious run, because the event was 
 recent and had made a great noise. 
 My vanity was flattered by this 
 success ; but my father checked 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 37 
 
 my exultation, by ridiculing my 
 productions, and telling me that 
 versifiers were always poor. I 
 thus escaped the misfortune of 
 being probably a very wretched 
 poet. 
 
 There was in the town another 
 young man, a great lover of books, 
 of the name of John Collins, with 
 whom I was intimately connected. 
 We frequently engaged in dispute, 
 and were indeed so fond of argu 
 mentation, that nothing was so 
 agreeable to us as a war of words. 
 This contentious temper, I would 
 observe by the bye, is in danger 
 of becoming a very bad habit, and 
 frequently renders a man s com 
 pany insupportable, as being no 
 otherwise capable of indulgence 
 than by indiscriminate- contradic- 
 
38 LIFE OF 
 
 tion. Independently of the acri 
 mony and discord it introduces into 
 conversation, it is often productive 
 of dislike, and even hatred, between 
 persons to whom friendship is in 
 dispensably necessary. I acquired 
 it by reading, while I lived with 
 my father, in books of religious 
 controversy. I have since re 
 marked, that men of sense and 
 good education seldom fall into this 
 error. 
 
 When about sixteen years of age, 
 a work of Try on fell into my hands, 
 in which he recommends vegetable 
 diet. I determined .to observe it. 
 My brother, being a bachelor, did 
 not keep house, but boarded with 
 his apprentices in a neighbouring 
 family. My refusing to eat animal 
 food was found inconvenient, and I 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 39 
 
 was often scolded for my singularity. 
 I attended to the mode in which 
 Tryon prepared some of his dishes, 
 particularly how to boil potatoes 
 and rice, and make hasty puddings. 
 I then said to my brother, that if 
 he would allow me per week half 
 what he paid for my board, I would 
 undertake to maintain myself. The 
 offer was instantly embraced, and 
 I soon found that of what he gave 
 me, I was able to save half. This 
 was a new fund for the purchase 
 of books, and other advantages re 
 sulted to me from the plan. When 
 my brother and his workmen left 
 the printing-house to go to dinner, 
 I remained behind, and despatched 
 my frugal meal, which frequently 
 consisted of a biscuit only, or a 
 slice of bread and a bunch of 
 
40 LIFE OF 
 
 raisins, or a bun from the pastry 
 cook s, with a glass of water; I 
 had the rest of the time, till their 
 return, for study, and my progress 
 therein was proportioned to that 
 clearness of ideas, and quickness 
 of conception, which are the fruit 
 of temperance in eating and drink 
 ing. 
 
 It was about this period that, 
 having one day been put to the 
 blush for my ignorance in the art 
 of calculation, which I had twice 
 failed to learn while at school, I 
 took up Cocker s Treatise of A rith- 
 metic, and went through it by my 
 self with the greatest ease ; I also 
 read a book of navigation, by Seller 
 and Sturmy, and made myself 
 master of the little geometry it 
 contains; but I never proceeded 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 41 
 
 far in this science. Nearly at the 
 same time, I read Locke on the 
 Human Understanding, and the Art 
 of Thinking, by Messrs. Du Port- 
 Royal. 
 
 While labouring to form and 
 improve my style I met with an 
 English Grammar, which I believe 
 was Greenwood s, having at the 
 end of it two little essays on rhetoric 
 and logic. In the latter I found a 
 model of disputation after the 
 manner of Socrates. Shortly after 
 I procured Xenophon s work, enti 
 tled, Memorable Things of Socrates, 
 in which are various examples of 
 the same method. Charmed to a 
 degree of enthusiasm with this 
 mode of disputing, I adopted it, 
 and renouncing blunt contradiction, 
 and direct and positive argument, 
 
42 LIFE OF 
 
 I assumed tho character of an 
 humble questioner. I found So- 
 crates s method to be both the 
 safest for myself, as well as the 
 most embarrassing to those against 
 whom I employed it. It soon 
 afforded me singular pleasure : I 
 incessantly practised it, and became 
 very adroit in obtaining, even from 
 persons of superior understanding, 
 concessions of which they did not 
 foresee the consequences. Thus I 
 involved them in difficulties from 
 which they were unable to extri 
 cate themselves, and sometimes 
 obtained victories, which neither 
 my cause nor my arguments me 
 rited. 
 
 In 1720, or 1721, my brother 
 began to print a new public paper. 
 It was the second that made its 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 43 
 
 appearance in America, and was 
 entitled " The New England Cour- 
 ant." The only one that existed be 
 fore was the " Boston News-Letter." 
 Some of his friends, 1 remember, 
 would have dissuaded him from 
 this undertaking, as a thing that 
 was not likely to succeed ; a single 
 newspaper being, in their opinion, 
 sufficient for all America. At pre 
 sent, however, in 1777, there are 
 no less than twenty-five. But he 
 carried his project into execution, 
 and I was employed in distributing 
 the copies to his customers, after 
 having assisted in composing and 
 working them off. 
 
 Among his friends he had a 
 number of literary characters, who, 
 as an amusement, wrote short es 
 says for the paper, which gave it 
 
44 LIFE OF 
 
 reputation and increased its sale. 
 These gentlemen came frequently 
 to our house. I heard the conver 
 sation that passed, and the accounts 
 they gave of the favourable recep 
 tion of their writings with the pub 
 lic. I was tempted to try my hand 
 among them ; but, being still a 
 child as it were, I was fearful .that 
 my brother might be unwilling to 
 print in his paper any performance 
 of which he should know me to be 
 the author. I therefore contrived 
 to disguise my hand, and having 
 written an anonymous piece, I 
 placed it at night under the door of 
 the printing-house, where it was 
 found the next morning. My 
 brother communicated it to his 
 friends, when they came as usual 
 to see him, who read it, commented 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 45 
 
 upon it within my hearing, and I 
 had the exquisite pleasure to find 
 that it met with approbation, and 
 that, in the various conjectures they 
 made respecting the author, no one 
 was mentioned who did not enjoy 
 a high reputation in the country 
 for talents and genius. I now sup 
 posed myself fortunate in my judges, 
 and began to suspect that they were 
 not. such excellent writers as I had 
 hitherto supposed them. Be that 
 as it may, encouraged by this little 
 adventure, I wrote and sent to the 
 press, in the same way, many other 
 pieces, which were equally appro 
 ved ; keeping the secret till my 
 slender stock of information and 
 knowledge for such performances 
 was completely exhausted, when I 
 made myself known. 
 
46 LIFE OF 
 
 My brother, upon this discovery, 
 began to entertain a little more re 
 spect for me ; but he still regarded 
 himself as my master, and treated 
 me like an apprentice. He thought 
 himself entitled to the same ser 
 vices from me as from any other 
 person. On the contrary, I con 
 ceived that in many instances, he 
 was too rigorous, and that, on the 
 part of a brother, I had a right to 
 expect greater indulgence. Our 
 disputes were frequently brought 
 before my father, and either my 
 brother was generally in the wrong, 
 or I was the better pleader of the 
 two, for judgment was commonly 
 given in my favour. But my 
 brother was passionate, and often 
 had recourse to blows ; a circum 
 stance which 1 took in very ill 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 47 
 
 part. This severe and tyrannical 
 treatment contributed, I believe, to 
 imprint on my rnind that aversion 
 to arbitrary power, which during 
 my whole life I have ever pre 
 served. My apprenticeship be 
 came insupportable to me, and I 
 continually sighed for an oppor 
 tunity of shortening it, which at 
 length unexpectedly offered. 
 
 An article inserted in our paper, 
 upon some political subject which 
 I have now forgotten, gave offence 
 to the assembly. My brother was 
 taken into custody, censured, and 
 ordered into confinement for a 
 month, because, as I presume, he 
 would not discover the author. I 
 was also taken up, and examined 
 before the council ; but, though I 
 gave them no satisfaction, they 
 
48 LIFE OF 
 
 contented themselves with repri 
 manding, and then dismissed me ; 
 considering me, probably, as bound, 
 in quality of apprentice, to keep 
 my master s secrets. 
 
 The imprisonment of my bro 
 ther kindled my resentment, not 
 withstanding our private quarrels. 
 During its continuance, the man 
 agement of the paper was entrusted 
 to me, and I was bold enough to 
 insert some pasquindes against the 
 governors, which highly pleased 
 my brother, while others began to 
 look upon me in an unfavourable 
 point of view, considering me as a 
 young wit, inclined to satire and 
 lampoon. 
 
 My brother s enlargement was 
 accompanied with an arbitrary or 
 der from the House of Assembly, 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 49 
 
 " That James Franklin should no 
 longer print the newspaper entitled, 
 The New England Courant." In 
 this conjuncture, we held a con 
 sultation of our friends, at the print 
 ing-house, in order to determine 
 what was proper to be done. Some 
 proposed to evade the order, by 
 changing the title of the paper; 
 but my brother foreseeing incon 
 veniences that would result from 
 this step, thought it better that it 
 should in future be printed in the 
 name of Benjamin Franklin ; and 
 to avoid the censure of the Assem 
 bly, who might charge him with 
 printing the paper himself, under 
 the name of his apprentice, it was 
 resolved that my old indentures 
 should be given up to me, with a 
 full and entire discharge written on 
 
50 LIFE OF 
 
 the back, in order to be produced 
 upon an emergency ; but that, to 
 secure to my brother the benefit of 
 my service, I should sign a new 
 contract, which should be kept 
 secret during the remainder of the 
 term. This was -a very shallow 
 arrangement. It was, however, 
 carried into immediate execution, 
 and the paper continued, in con 
 sequence, to make its appearance 
 for some months in my name. At 
 length, a new difference arising 
 between my brother and me, I 
 ventured to take advantage of my 
 liberty, presuming that he would 
 not dare to produce the new con 
 tract. It was undoubtedly dis 
 honourable to avail myself of this 
 circumstance, and I reckon this 
 action as one of the first errors of 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 51 
 
 my life ; but I was little capable of 
 estimating it at its true value, em 
 bittered as my mind had been by 
 the recollection of the blows I had 
 received. Exclusively of his pas 
 sionate treatment of me, my brother 
 was by no means a man of an ill 
 temper, and perhaps my manners 
 had too much of impertinence not 
 to afford it a very natural pretext. 
 When he knew that it was my 
 determination to quit .him, he wish 
 ed to prevent my finding employ 
 ment elsewhere. He went to all 
 the printing-houses in the town, 
 and prejudiced the masters against 
 me, who accordingly refused to 
 employ me. The idea then sug 
 gested itself to me of going to 
 New York, the nearest town in 
 which there was a printing-office. 
 
52 LIFE OF 
 
 Farther reflections confirmed me 
 in the design of leaving Boston, 
 where I had already rendered my 
 self an object of suspicion to the 
 governing party. It was probable, 
 from the arbitrary proceedings of 
 the Assembly in the affair of my 
 brother, that, by remaining, I should 
 soon have been exposed to difficul 
 ties, which I had the greater reason 
 to apprehend, as, from my indiscreet 
 disputes upon the subject of religion, 
 I begun to be regarded by pious 
 souls with horror, either as an 
 apostate or an atheist. I came, 
 therefore, to a resolution ; but my 
 father, in this instance, siding with 
 my brother, I presumed that if I 
 attempted to depart openly, mea 
 sures would be taken to prevent 
 me. My friend Collins undertook 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 55 
 
 to favour my flight. He agreed 
 for my passage with the captain of 
 a New York sloop, to whom he re 
 presented me as a young man of 
 his acquaintance, who had an affair 
 with a girl of bad character, whose 
 parents wished to compel me to 
 marry her, and that, of consequence, 
 I could neither make my appear 
 ance nor go off publicly. I sold 
 part of my books to procure a 
 small sum of money, and went 
 privately on board the sloop. By 
 favour of a good wind, I found 
 myself in three days at New York, 
 nearly three hundred miles from 
 my home, at the age only of 
 seventeen years, without knowing 
 an individual in the place, and with 
 very little money in my pocket. 
 The inclination I had felt for a 
 
56 LIFE OF 
 
 seafaring life was entirely subsided, 
 or I should now have been able to 
 gratify it ; but having another trade, 
 and believing myself to be a toler 
 able workman, I hesitated not to 
 offer my services to the old Mr. 
 William Bradford, who had been 
 the first printer in Pennsylvania, 
 but had quitted that province on 
 account of a quarrel with George 
 Keith, the governor. He could 
 not give me employment himself, 
 having little to do, and already as 
 many hands as he wanted ; but he 
 told me that his son, a printer at 
 Philadelphia, had lately lost his 
 principal workman, Aquila Rose, 
 who was dead, and that if I would 
 go thither, he believed that he would 
 engage me. Philadelphia was one 
 hundred miles farther. I hesitated 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 57 
 
 not to embark, in a boat in order to 
 repair by the shortest cut of the 
 sea to Amboy, leaving my trunk 
 and effects to come after me by the 
 usual and more tedious conveyance. 
 In crossing the bay we met with a 
 squall, which shattered to pieces 
 our rotten sails, prevented us from 
 entering the Kill, and threw us up 
 on Long-Island. 
 
 During the squall, a drunken 
 Dutchman, who, like myself, was 
 a passenger in the boat, fell into 
 the sea ; I seized him by the fore- 
 top, saved him and drew him on 
 board. This immersion sobered 
 him a little, so that he fell asleep, 
 after having taken from" his pocket 
 a volume, which he requested me 
 to dry. This volume I found to 
 be my old favourite work, Bunyan s 
 
58 LIFE OF 
 
 Voyages, in Dutch, a beautiful im 
 pression on fine paper, with copper 
 plate engravings, a dress in which 
 I had never seen it in its original 
 language. I have since learned, 
 that it has been translated into 
 almost all the languages of Europe, 
 and, next to the Bible, I am per 
 suaded it is one of the books which 
 has had the greatest spread. Hon 
 est John is the first that I know of 
 who has mixed narrative and dia 
 logue together ; a mode of writing 
 very engaging to the reader, who, 
 in the most interesting passages, 
 finds himself admitted, as it were, 
 into the company, and present at 
 the conversation. De Foe has 
 imitated it with success in his Ro 
 binson Crusoe, his Moll Flanders, 
 and other works. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 59 
 
 In approaching the island we 
 found that we had made a part of 
 the coast where it was not possible 
 to land, on account of the strong 
 breakers, produced by the rocky 
 shore. We cast anchor, and 
 veered the cable toward the shore. 
 Some men, who stood upon the 
 brink, hallooed to us, while we did 
 the same on our part; but the 
 wind was so high, and the waves 
 so noisy, that we could neither of 
 us hear each other. There were 
 some canoes upon the bank, and 
 we called out to them, and made 
 signs to prevail on them to come 
 and take us up; but either they 
 did no* understand us, or they 
 deemed our request impracticable, 
 and with Irew. Night came on, 
 and nothing remained for us but to 
 
60 LIFE OF 
 
 wait the subsiding of the wind; 
 till when we determined, that is, 
 the pilot and I, to sleep if possible. 
 For that purpose, we went below 
 the hatches, along with the Dutch 
 man, who was drenched with water. 
 The sea broke over the boat, and 
 reached us in our retreat, so that 
 we are presently as completely 
 drenched as he. 
 
 We had very little repose during 
 the whole night ; but the wind 
 abating the next day, we succeeded 
 in reaching Am boy before it was 
 dark, after having passed thirty 
 hours without provisions, and with 
 no other drink than a bottle of bad 
 rum, the water upon which we 
 rowed being salt. In the evening 
 I went to bed with a very violent 
 fever. I had somewhere read that 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 61 
 
 cold water, drank plentifully, was 
 a remedy in such cases. I fol 
 lowed the prescription, was in a 
 profuse sweat for the greater part 
 of the night, and the fever left me. 
 The next day I crossed the river 
 in a ferryboat, and continued my 
 journey on foot. I had fifty miles 
 to walk, in order to reach Burling 
 ton, where I was told I should find 
 passage- boats that would convey 
 me to Philadelphia. It rained hard 
 the whole day, so that I was wet 
 to the skin. Finding myself fa 
 tigued about noon, I stopped at a 
 paltry inn, where I passed the rest 
 of the day, and the whole night, 
 beginning to regret that I had quit 
 ted my home. I made, besides, so 
 wretched a figure, that I was sus 
 pected to be some run-away ser- 
 
62 LIFE OF 
 
 vant. This I discovered by the 
 questions that were asked me, and 
 I felt that I was every moment in 
 danger of being taken up as such. 
 The next day, however, I continued 
 my journey, and arrived in the 
 evening at an inn, eight or ten 
 miles from Burlington, that was 
 kept by one Dr. Brown. 
 
 This man entered into conver 
 sation with me, while I took some 
 refreshment, and perceiving that I 
 had read a little, he expressed 
 towards me considerable interest 
 and friendship. Our acquaintance 
 continued during the remainder of 
 his life. I believe him to have 
 been what is called an v itinerant 
 doctor, for there was no town in 
 England, or indeed in Europe, of 
 which he could not give a particular 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 63 
 
 account. I spent the night here, 
 and reached Burlington the next 
 morning. On my arrival, I had 
 the mortification to learn, that the 
 ordinary passage-boats had sailed 
 a little before. This was on a 
 Saturday, and there would be no 
 other till the Tuesday following. 
 I returned to the house of an old 
 woman in the town, who had sold 
 me some gingerbread to eat on my 
 passage, and I asked her advice. 
 She invited me to take up my 
 abode with her till an opportunity 
 offered for me to embark. Fa 
 tigued with having travelled so far 
 on foot, I accepted her invitation. 
 When she understood that I was a 
 printer, she would have persuaded 
 me to stay at Burlington, and set 
 up my trade, but she was little 
 
64 LIFE OF 
 
 aware of the capital that would be 
 necessary for such a purpose. I 
 was treated, while at her house, 
 with true hospitality. She gave 
 me, with the utmost good-will, a 
 dinner of beef-steaks, and would 
 accept of nothing in return but a 
 pint of ale. 
 
 Here I imagined myself to be 
 fixed till the Tuesday in the ensuing 
 week ; but walking out in the eve 
 ning, by the river side, I saw a 
 boat, with a number of persons in 
 it, approach. It was , going to 
 Philadelphia, and the company took 
 me in. As there was no wind, we 
 could only make way with our 
 oars. About midnight, not per 
 ceiving the town, some of the 
 company were of opinion that we 
 must have passed it, and were un- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 65 
 
 willing to row any farther, the rest 
 not knowing where we were, it was 
 resolved that we should stop. We 
 drew towards the shore, entered a 
 creek, and landed near some old 
 palisades, which served us for fire 
 wood, it being a cold night in Octo 
 ber. Here we stayed till day, when 
 one of the company found the place 
 in which we were to be Cooper s 
 Creek, a little above Philadelphia, 
 which in reality we perceived the 
 moment we were out of the creek. 
 We arrived on Sunday about eight 
 or nine o clock in the morning, and 
 landed on Market Street wharf. 
 
 I have entered into the particulars 
 of my voyage, and shall, in like 
 manner, describe my first entrance 
 into this city, that you may be able 
 to compare beginnings so little aus- 
 
66 
 
 picious, with the figure I have 
 since made. 
 
 On my arrival at Philadelphia, 
 I was in my work ing- dress, my 
 best clothes being to come by sea. 
 I was covered with dirt, my pockets 
 were filled with shirts and stock 
 ings, I was unacquainted with a 
 single soul in the place, and knew 
 not where to seek for a lodging. 
 Fatigued with walking, rowing, and 
 having passed the night without 
 sleep, I was extremely hungry, and 
 all my money consisted of a Dutch 
 dollar, and about a shilling s worth 
 of coppers, which I gave to the 
 boatmen for my passage. As I 
 had assisted them in rowing, they 
 refused it at first, but I insisted on 
 their taking it. A man is some 
 times more generous when he has 
 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 69 
 
 little, than when he has much mo 
 ney, probably because, in the first 
 case, he is desirous of concealing 
 his poverty. 
 
 I walked towards the top of the 
 street, looking eagerly on both 
 sides, till I came to Market street, 
 where I met a child with a loaf of 
 bread. Often had I made my din 
 ner on dry bread. I inquired where 
 he had bought it, and went straight 
 to the baker s shop which he point 
 ed out to me. I asked for some 
 biscuits, expecting to find such as 
 we had at Boston ; but they made, 
 it seems, none of that sort in Phila 
 delphia I then asked for a three 
 penny loaf; they made no loaves 
 of that price. Finding myself 
 ignorant of the prices as well as of 
 the different kinds of bread, I de- 
 
70 LIFE OF 
 
 sired him to let me have three 
 penny worth of bread of some kind 
 or other. He gave me three large 
 rolls. I was surprised at receiving 
 so much ; I took them, however, 
 and having no room in my pockets, 
 I walked on with a roll under each 
 arm, eating the third. In this 
 manner I went through Market 
 street to Fourth street, and passed 
 the house of Mr. Read, the father 
 of my future wife. She was stand 
 ing at the door, observed me, and 
 thought with reason, that I made a 
 very singular and grotesque appear 
 ance. 
 
 I then turned the corner, and 
 went through Chcsnut street, eating 
 my roll all the way ; and having 
 made this round, I found myself 
 again on Market street wharf, near 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 71 
 
 the boat in which I had arrived. I 
 stepped into it to take a draught of 
 river-water, and finding myself 
 satisfied with my first roll, I gave 
 the other two to a woman and her 
 child, who had come down the 
 river with us in the hoat, and was 
 waiting to continue her journey. 
 Thus refreshed, I regained the street, 
 which was now full of well dressed 
 people, all going the same way. I 
 joined them, and was thus led to a 
 large Quaker meeting-house, near 
 the market-place. I sat down with 
 the rest, and after looking round 
 me for some time, hearing nothing 
 said, and being drowsy from my 
 last night s labour and want of rest, 
 I fell into a sound sleep. In this 
 state I continued till the assembly 
 dispersed, when one of the congre- 
 
72 LIFE OF 
 
 gation had the goodness to wake 
 me. This was, consequently, the 
 first house I entered, or in which I 
 slept at Philadelphia. 
 
 I began again to walk along the 
 streets by the river side, and look 
 ing attentively in the face of every 
 one I met, I at length perceived a 
 young Quaker, whose countenance 
 pleased me. I accosted him, and 
 begged him to inform me where a 
 stranger might find a lodging. We 
 were then near the sign of the 
 Three Mariners. They receive 
 travellers here, said he, but it is not 
 a house that bears a good character ; 
 if you will go with me, I will show 
 you a better one. He conducted 
 me to the Crooked Billet in Water 
 street. There I ordered something 
 for dinner, and during my meal, a 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 73 
 
 number^ of curious questions were 
 put to me ; my youth and appear 
 ance exciting the suspicion of my 
 being a run-away. After dinner 
 my drowsiness returned, and I 
 threw myself upon a bed without 
 taking off my clothes, and slept 
 till six in the evening, when I was 
 called to supper. I afterwards 
 went to bed at a very early hour, 
 and did not wake till the next 
 morning. 
 
 As soon as I got up, I put myself 
 in as decent a trim as I could, and 
 went to the house of Andrew Brad 
 ford, the printer. I found his father 
 in the shop, whom I had seen at 
 New York. Having travelled on 
 horseback, he had arrived at Phila 
 delphia before me. He introduced 
 me to his son, who received me 
 
74 LIFE OF 
 
 with civility, and gave -me some 
 breakfast ; but told me hc3 had no 
 occasion for a journeyman, having 
 lately procured one. He added, 
 that there was another printer newly 
 settled in the town, of the name of 
 Keimer, who might perhaps employ 
 me; and in case of a refusal, I 
 should be welcome to lodge at his 
 house, and he would give me a 
 little work now and then, till some 
 thing better should offer. 
 
 The old man offered to introduce 
 me to the new printer. When we 
 were at his house, " Neighbour, 
 (said he) I bring you a young man 
 in the printing business, perhaps 
 you may have need of his services." 
 Keimer asked me some questions, 
 put a composing-stick in my hand 
 to see how I could work, and then 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 75 
 
 said, that at present he had nothing 
 for me to do, but that he should 
 soon be able to employ me. At 
 the same time, taking old Bradford 
 for an inhabitant of the town well 
 disposed towards him, he commu 
 nicated his project to him, and the 
 prospect he had of success. Brad 
 ford was careful not to discover 
 that he was the father of the other 
 printer ; and from what Keirner 
 had said, that he hoped shortly to 
 be in possession of the greater part 
 of the business of the town, led 
 him, by artful questions, and by 
 starting some difficulties, to disclose 
 all his views, what his hopes were 
 founded upon, and how he intended 
 to proceed. I was present, and 
 heard it all. I instantly saw that 
 one of the two was a cunning old 
 
76 LIFE OF 
 
 fox, and the other a perfect novice. 
 Bradford left me with Keimer, who 
 was strangely surprised when I 
 informed him who the old man was. 
 I found Keimer s printing ma 
 terials to consist of an old damaged 
 press, and a small font of worn- 
 out English letters, with which he 
 was himself at work upon an Elegy 
 on Aquila Rose, whom . I have 
 mentioned above, an ingenious 
 young man, and of an excellent 
 character, highly esteemed in the 
 town, secretary to the assembly, 
 and a very tolerable poet. Keimer 
 also made verses, but they were 
 indifferent ones. He could not be 
 said to write in verse, for his me 
 thod was, to take and set the lines 
 as they flowed from his muse ; and, 
 as lie worked without copy, had 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 77 
 
 but one set of letter-cases, and the 
 elegy would probably occupy all 
 his type, it was impossible for any 
 one to assist him. I endeavoured 
 to put his press in order, which he 
 had not yet used, and of which in 
 deed he understood nothing; and 
 having -promised to come and work 
 off his elegy as soon as it should 
 be ready, I returned to the house 
 of Bradford, who gave me some 
 trifle to do for the present, for which 
 I had my board and lodging. 
 
 In a few days Keimer sent for me 
 to print off his elegy. He had now 
 procured another set of letter-cases, 
 and had a pamphlet to reprint, up 
 on which he set me to work. He 
 could not endure that, I should lodge 
 at Bradford s. He had indeed a 
 house, but it was unfurnished, so 
 
I 78 LIFE OF 
 
 that he could not take me in. He 
 procured me a lodging at Mr. 
 Read s, his landlord, whom I have 
 already mentioned. My trunk and 
 effects being now arrived, I thought j 
 of making, in the eyes of Miss j 
 Read, a more respectable appear 
 ance than when chance" exhibited 
 I me to her view, eating my roll, 
 | and wandering in the streets. 
 
 From this period I began to 
 contract acquaintance with such 
 young people of the town as were 
 fond of reading, and spent rny 
 evenings with them agreeably, 
 while at the same time, I gained 
 money by my industry, and, thanks 
 to my frugality, lived contented. 
 I thus forgot Boston as much as 
 possible, and wished every one to 
 be ignorant of the place of my 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 79 
 
 | residence, except my friend Collins, 
 j to whom I wrote, and who kept 
 j my secret. 
 
 An incident however occurred, 
 ! which sent me home sooner than I 
 I had proposed. I had a brother-in- 
 : law, of the name of Robert Holmes, 
 j master of a trading sloop from 
 Boston to Delaware. Being a!t 
 ; Newcastle, forty miles below Phila- 
 1 delphia, he heard of me, and 
 | wrote to inform me of the chagrin 
 which my sudden departure from 
 Boston had occasioned my parents, 
 and of the affection which they 
 still entertained for me, assuring 
 me that, if I would return, every 
 thing should be adjusted to my 
 satisfaction ; and he was very 
 pressing in his entreaties. I an 
 swered his letter, thanked him for 
 
80 LIFE OF 
 
 his advice, and explained the rea 
 sons which had induced me to quit 
 Boston, with such force and clear 
 ness, that he was convinced I had 
 been less to blame than he had 
 imagined. 
 
 Sir William Keith," governor of 
 the province, was at Newcastle at 
 the time. Captain Holmes, being 
 by chance in his company when 
 he received my letter, took occasion 
 to speak of me, and showed it him. 
 The governor read it, and appeared 
 surprised when he learned my age. 
 He thought me, he said, a young 
 man of very promising talents, 
 and that, of consequence, I ought 
 fo be encouraged ; that there were 
 at Philadelphia none but very 
 ignorant printers, and that if I 
 were to set up for myself, he had 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 81 
 
 no doubt of my success ; that, for 
 his own part, he would procure me 
 all the public business, and would 
 render me every other service in 
 his power. My brother-in-law re 
 lated all this to me afterwards at 
 Boston, but I knew nothing of it 
 at the time ; when one day, Keimer 
 and I being at work together near 
 the window, we saw the governor* 
 and another gentleman, Colonel 
 French, of Newcastle, handsomely 
 dressed, cross the street, and make 
 directly for our house. We heard 
 them at the door, and Keimer, be 
 lieving it to be a visit to himself, 
 went immediately down ; but the 
 governor inquired for me, came up 
 stairs, and with a condescension 
 and politeness to which I had not at 
 all been accustomed, paid me many 
 
82 LIFE OF 
 
 complimen s, desired to be acquaint 
 ed with m< , obligingly reproached 
 me for not having made myself 
 known to lim on my arrival in 
 the town, an I wished me to accom 
 pany him to a tavern, where he 
 and Colonel French were going to 
 taste some ex -client Madeira wine. 
 I was, I coi fess, somewhat suij 
 prised, and K( mcr appeared thun 
 derstruck. I x ent, however, with 
 the governor a id the colonel to a 
 tavern at the coi ncr of Third street, 
 where, while we were drinking the 
 Madeira, he proposed to me to 
 establish a printing-house. He set 
 forth the probabilities of success, 
 and himself and Colonel French 
 assured me, that I should have 
 their protection and influence in 
 obtaining the printing of the pub- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 83 
 
 lie papers of both governments ; 
 and as I appeared to doubt whether 
 my father would assist me in this 
 enterprise, Sir William said that 
 he would give me a* letter to him, 
 in which he would, represent the 
 advantages of the scheme in a 
 light which he had no doubt would 
 determine him. It was thus con 
 cluded, that I should return to 
 Boston by the first vessel, with the 
 letter of recommendation from the 
 governor to my father. Mean 
 while the project was to be kept 
 secret, and I continued to work for 
 Keimcr as before. 
 
 The governor sent every now 
 and then to invite me to dine with 
 him. I considered this as a very 
 grcnt honour, and I was the more 
 sensible of it, as he conversed with 
 
84 LIFE OF 
 
 me in the most affable, familiar, 
 and friendly manner imaginable. 
 
 Towards the end of April, 1724, 
 a small vessel was ready to sail 
 for Boston. I took leave of Keimer, 
 upon the pretext of going to see 
 my parents. The governor gave 
 me a long letter, in which he said 
 many flattering things of me to my 
 father, and strongly recommended 
 the project of my settling at Phila 
 delphia, as a thing which could not 
 fail to make my fortune. 
 
 Going down the bay, we struck 
 on a flat, and sprung a leak. The 
 weather was very tempestuous, and 
 we were obliged to pump without 
 intermission ; I took my turn. We 
 arrived, however, safe and sound 
 at Boston, after about a fortnight s 
 passage. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 85 
 
 I had been absent seven complete 
 months, and my relations, during 
 that interval, had received no in 
 telligence of me, for rny brother-in- 
 law, Holmes, was not yet returned, 
 and had not written about me. My 
 unexpected appearance surprised 
 the family, but they were all de 
 lighted at seeing me again, and, 
 except my brother, welcomed me 
 home. I went to him at the print 
 ing-office. I was better dressed 
 than I had ever been while in his 
 service ; I had a complete suit of 
 clothes, new and neat, a watch in 
 my pocket, and my purse was 
 furnished with nearly five pounds 
 sterling in money. He gave me 
 no very civil reception, and having 
 eyed me from head to foot, resumed 
 his work. 
 
86 LIFE or 
 
 The workmen asked me with 
 eagerness where I had been, what 
 sort of a country it was, and how 
 I liked it. I spoke in the highest 
 terms of Philadelphia, the happy 
 life we led there, and expressed my 
 intention of going back again. One 
 of them asked what sort of money 
 we had ; I displayed before them a 
 handful of silver, which I drew 
 from my pocket. " This was a curi 
 osity to which they were not accus 
 tomed, paper being the current 
 money at Boston. I failed not 
 after this to let them see my watch ; 
 and at last, my brother continuing 
 sullen and out of humour, I gave 
 them a shilling to drink, and took 
 my leave. This visit stung my 
 brother to the soul, for when, shortly 
 after, my mother spoke to him of 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 87 
 
 a reconciliation, and a desire of 
 seeing us upon good terms, he told 
 her that I had so insulted him be 
 fore his men, that he never would 
 forget or forgive it ; in this, how 
 ever, he was mistaken. 
 
 The governor s letter appeared 
 to excite in my father some surprise, 
 but he said little. After some days, 
 Captain Holmes being returned, he 
 showed it him, asking him if he 
 knew Keith, and what sort of a 
 man he was ; adding, that, in his 
 opinion, it proved very little dis 
 cernment to- think of setting up a 
 boy in business, who for three 
 years to come would not be of an 
 age to be ranked in the class of 
 men. Holmes said everything he 
 could in favour of the scheme ; 
 but my father firmly maintained 
 
88 LIFE OF 
 
 its absurdity, and at last gave a 
 positive refusal. He wrote, how 
 ever, a civil letter to Sir William, 
 thanking him for the protection he 
 had so obligingly offered me, but 
 refusing to assist me for the pres 
 ent, because he thought me too 
 young to be intrusted with the 
 conduct of so important an enter 
 prise, and which would require so 
 considerable a sum of money. 
 
 My old comrade Collins, who 
 was a clerk in the post-office, 
 charmed with the account I gave 
 of my new residence, expressed a 
 desire of going thither ; and, while 
 I waited my father s determination, 
 he set off before me, by land, for 
 Rhode Island, leaving his books, 
 which formed a handsome col 
 lection in mathematics and natural 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 89 
 
 philosophy, to be conveyed with 
 I mine to New York, where he pur 
 posed to wait for me. 
 
 My father, though he could not 
 approve Sir William s proposal, 
 was yet pleased that I had obtained 
 so advantageous a recommendation 
 as that of a person of his rank ; 
 and that my industry and economy 
 had enabled me to equip myself so 
 handsomely in so short a period. 
 Seeing no appearance of accom 
 modating matters between my 
 brother and me, he consented to 
 my return to Philadelphia, advised 
 me to be civil to every body, to 
 endeavour to obtain general esteem, 
 and avoid satire and sarcasm, to 
 which he thought I was too much 
 inclined ; adding, that with perse 
 verance and prudent economy, I 
 
90 LIFE OF 
 
 might, by the time I became of 
 age, save enough to establish my 
 self in business ; and that if a 
 small sum should then be wanting, 
 he would undertake to supply it. 
 
 This was all I could obtain from 
 him, except some trifling presents, 
 in token of friendship, from him 
 and my mother. I embarked once 
 more for New York, furnished at 
 this time with their approbation 
 and blessing. The sloop having 
 touched at Newport, in Rhode 
 Island, I paid a visit to my brother 
 John, who had for some years 
 been settled there, and was married. 
 He had always been attached to 
 me, and received me with great 
 affection. One of his friends, 
 whose name was Vernon, having 
 a debt of about thirty -six pounds 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 91 
 
 due to him in Pennsylvania, begged 
 me to receive it for him, and keep 
 the money till I should hear from 
 him; accordingly he gave me an 
 order for that purpose. This affair 
 occasioned me, in the sequel, much 
 uneasiness. 
 
 At Newport we took on board 
 a number of passengers, among 
 whom were two young women, 
 and a grave and sensible Quaker 
 lady, with her servants. I had 
 shown an obliging forwardness in 
 rendering the Quaker some trifling 
 services, which led her, probably, 
 to feel some interest in my welfare ; 
 for when she saw a familiarity 
 take place, and every day increase, 
 between the two young women 
 and me, she took me aside, and 
 said, " Young man, I am in pain 
 
92 LIFE OF 
 
 for thee. Thou hast no parent to 
 watch over thy conduct, and thou 
 seemest to be ignorant of the world, 
 and the snares to which youth is 
 exposed. Rely upon, what I tell 
 thee; these are women of bad 
 characters; I perceive it in all 
 their actions. If thou dost not 
 take care, they will lead thee into 
 danger. They are strangers to 
 thee, and I advise thee, by the 
 friendly interest I take in thy pre 
 servation, to form no connexion 
 with them." As I appeared at 
 first not to think quite so ill of 
 them as she did, she related many 
 things she had seen and heard, 
 which had escaped my attention, 
 but which cgnvinced me she was in 
 the right. I thanked her for her 
 advice, and promised to follow it. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 93 
 
 When we arrived at New York, 
 they informed me where they lodged, 
 and invited me to come and see 
 them. I did not, however, go, and 
 it was well I did not ; for, the next 
 day, the captain missing a silver 
 spoon, and some other things which 
 had been taken from the cabin, aijd 
 knowing these women to be pros 
 titutes, procured a search warrant, 
 found the stolen goods upgn them, 
 and had them punished. And thus, 
 after having been saved from one 
 rock concealed under water, upon 
 which the vessel had struck during 
 our passage, I escaped another of 
 a still more dangerous nature. 
 
 At New York I found my friend 
 Collins, who had arrived some time 
 before. We had been intimate 
 from our infancy, and had the 
 
94 LIFE OF 
 
 same books together ; but he had 
 the advantage of being able to de 
 vote more time to reading and study, 
 and an astonishing disposition for 
 mathematics, in which he left me 
 far behind. When at Boston, I had 
 been accustomed to pass with him 
 almost all my leisure hours. He 
 was then a sober and industrious 
 lad ; his knowledge had gained him 
 a very general esteem, and he 
 seemed to promise to make an ad 
 vantageous figure in society. But, 
 during my absence he had unfor 
 tunately addicted himself to brandy, 
 and I learned, as well from himself as 
 from the report of others, that every 
 day since his arrival at New York 
 he had been intoxicated, and had 
 acted in a very extravagant manner. 
 He had also played, and lost all his 
 
BENJAMIN FRAKKLIN. 97 
 
 money, so that I was obliged to pay 
 all his expenses at the inn, and to 
 maintain him during the rest of the 
 journey ; a burden that was very 
 inconvenient to me. 
 
 The Governor of New York, 
 whose name was Burnet, hearing 
 the captain say that a young man 
 who was a passenger in the ship 
 had a great number of books, beg 
 ged him to bring me to his house* 
 I accordingly went, and should 
 have taken Collins with me had he 
 been sober. The governor treated 
 me with great civility, showed me 
 his library, which was a very con 
 siderable one, and we talked for 
 some time upon books and authors. 
 This was the second governor who 
 had honoured me with his attention ; 
 and to a poor boy, as I then was, 
 
98 LIFE OF 
 
 these little adventures did not fail 
 to be pleasing. 
 
 We arrived at Philadelphia. On 
 the way I received Vernon s mo 
 ney, without which we should have 
 i been unable to have finished our 
 journey. 
 
 Collins wished to get employment 
 as a merchant s clerk, but either 
 his breath or his countenance be 
 trayed his bad habit ; for though 
 I he had recommendations, he met 
 i with no success, and continued to 
 I eat and lodge with me at my ex- 
 | pense. Knowing that I had Ver- 
 | non s money, he was continually 
 asking me to lend him some of it, 
 promising to repay me as soon as 
 he should get employment. At 
 last., he had drawn so much of this 
 money, that I was extremely alarm- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 99 
 
 ed at what might become of me, 
 should he fail to make good the de 
 ficiency. His habit of drinking 
 did not at all diminish, and was a 
 frequent source of discord between 
 us ; for when he had drank a little 
 too much, he was very headstrong. 
 Being one day in a boat together, 
 on the Delaware with some other 
 young persons, he refused to take 
 his turn in rowing. " You shall row 
 for me," said he, " till we get home." 
 " No," I replied, " we will not row for 
 you." " You shall," said he, " or re 
 main upon the water all night As 
 you please." " Let us row," said 
 the rest of the company ; " what 
 signifies whether he assists or not?" 
 But already angry with him for his 
 conduct in other respects, I persisted 
 in my refusal. He then swore he 
 
100 LIFE OF 
 
 would make me row, or would 
 throw me out of the boat ; and he 
 made up to me. As soon as he 
 was within my reach, I took him 
 by the collar, gave him a violent 
 thrust, and threw him head-fore 
 most into the river. I knew that 
 he was a good swimmer, and was 
 therefore under no apprehensions 
 for his life. 
 
 Before he could turn himself, we 
 were able, by a few strokes of our 
 oars, to place ourselves out of his 
 reach ; and* whenever he touched 
 the boat, we asked him if he would 
 row, striking his hands with the 
 oars to make him let go his hold. 
 He was nearly suffocated with rage, 
 but obstinately refused making any 
 promise to row. Perceiving at 
 length that his strength began to be 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. lOl 
 
 exhausted, we took him into the 
 boat, and conveyed him home in 
 the evening, completely drenched. 
 The utmost coldness subsisted be 
 tween us after this adventure. At 
 last, the captain of a West India 
 ship, who was commissioned to 
 procure a tutor for the children of 
 a gentleman at Barbadoes, meeting 
 with Collins, offered him the place. 
 He accepted it, and took his leave 
 of me, promising to discharge the 
 debt he owed me with the first mo 
 ney he should receive ; but I have 
 heard nothing of him since. 
 The violation of the trust re 
 posed in me by Vernon, was one 
 of the first great errors of my life ; 
 and it proves that my father was 
 not mistaken when he supposed mo 
 too young to be intrusted with the 
 
102 LIFE OF 
 
 management of important affairs. 
 But Sir William, upon reading his 
 letter, thought him too prudent. 
 There was a difference, he said, 
 between individuals ; years of ma 
 turity were not always accompanied 
 with discretion, neither was youth 
 in every instance devoid of it. 
 Since your father, added he, will 
 not set you up in business, I will 
 do it myself. Make out a list of 
 what will be wanted from England, 
 and I will send for the articles. 
 You shall repay me when you can. 
 I am determined to have a good 
 printer here, and I am .sure you 
 will succeed. This was said with 
 so much seeming cordiality, that I 
 suspected not for an instant the 
 sincerity of the offer. I had hither 
 to kept the project with which Sir 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 103 
 
 William had inspired me, of set 
 tling in business, a secret at Phila 
 delphia, and I still continued to do 
 so. Had my reliance on the go 
 vernor been known, some friends, 
 better acquainted with his character 
 than myself, would doubtless have 
 advised me not to trust him ; for I 
 afterwards learned that he was 
 universally known to be liberal of 
 promises, which he had no intention 
 to perform. But having never so 
 licited him, how could I suppose 
 his offers to be deceitful ? On the 
 contrary, I believed him to be the 
 best man in the world. 
 
 I gave him an inventory of a 
 small printing-office, the expense of 
 which I had calculated at about 
 one hundred pounds sterling. He 
 expressed his approbation ; but 
 
104 LIFE OF 
 
 asked if my presence in England, 
 that I might choose the characters 
 myself, and see that every article 
 was good in its kind, would not be 
 an advantage? You will also be 
 able, said he, to form some ac 
 quaintance there, and establish a 
 correspondence with stationers and 
 booksellers. This I acknowledged 
 was desirable. That being the case, 
 added he, hold yourself in readiness 
 to go with the Annis. This was 
 the annual vessel, and the only 
 one, at that time, which made regu 
 lar voyages between the ports of 
 London and Philadelphia. But the 
 Annis was not to sail for some 
 months. I therefore continued to 
 work with Keimcr, unhappy re 
 specting the sum which Collins had 
 drawn from me, and almost in 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 105 
 
 continual agony at the thoughts of 
 Vcrnon, who fortunately made no 
 demand of his money till several 
 years after. 
 
 In the account of my first voy 
 age from Boston to Philadelphia, I 
 omitted, I believe, a trifling circum 
 stance, which will not perhaps be 
 out of place here. During a calm 
 which stopped us above Block- 
 Island, the crew employed them 
 selves in fishing for cod, of which 
 they caught a great number. I had 
 hitherto adhered to my resolution 
 of not eating any thing that had 
 possessed life ; and I considered on 
 this occasion, agreeably to the 
 maxims of my master Tryon, the 
 capture of every fish as a sort of 
 murder, committed without provo 
 cation, since these animals had 
 
106 LIFE OF 
 
 neither done, nor were capable of 
 doing, the smallest injury to any 
 one that should justify the measure. 
 This mode of reasoning I conceived 
 to be unanswerable. Meanwhile I 
 had formerly been extremely fond 
 of fish, and when one of these cod 
 was taken out of the frying-pan, I 
 thought its flavour delicious. I 
 hesitated some time between prin 
 ciple and inclination, till at last 
 recollecting, that when the cod had 
 been opened, some small fish had 
 been found in his belly, I said to 
 myself, if you eat one another, I 
 see no reason why we may not eat 
 you. I accordingly dined on the cod, 
 with no small degree of pleasure, 
 and have since continued to cat like 
 the rest of mankind, returning only 
 occasionally to my vegetable plan. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 107 
 
 I continued to live upon good 
 terms with Keimer, who had not 
 the smallest suspicion of my in 
 tended establishment. He still re 
 tained a portion of his former 
 enthusiasm, and being fond of 
 argument, we frequently disputed 
 together. I was so much in the 
 habit of using my Socratic method, 
 and had so frequently puzzled him 
 by my questions, which appeared 
 at first very distant from the point 
 in debate, yet, nevertheless, led to 
 it by degrees, involving him in 
 difficulties and contradictions from 
 which he was unable to extricate 
 himself, that he became at last 
 ridiculously cautious, and would 
 scarcely answer the most plain 
 and familiar question without pre- 
 j viously asking me, What would 
 
108 LIFE OF 
 
 you infer from that? Hence he 
 formed so high an opinion of my 
 talents for refutation, that he 
 seriously proposed to me to become 
 his colleague in the establishment 
 of a new religious sect. He was 
 to propagate the doctrine by preach 
 ing, and I to refute every opponent. 
 When he explained to me his 
 tenets, I found many absurdities 
 which I refused to admit, unless he 
 would agree in turn to adopt some 
 of my opinions. Keimer wore his 
 beard long, because Moses had 
 somewhere said, " Thou shalt not 
 mar the corners of thy beard." He 
 likewise observed the Sabbath, and 
 these were with him two very 
 essential points. I consented to 
 adopt them, provided he would ab 
 stain from animal food. " I doubt," 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 109 
 
 said he, " whether my constitution 
 will be able to support it." I as 
 sured him, on the contrary, that he 
 would find himself the better for it. 
 He was naturally a glutton, and I 
 wished to amuse myself by starving 
 him. He consented to make trial 
 of this regimen, if I would bear 
 him company, and in reality we 
 continued it for three months. A 
 woman in the neighbourhood pre 
 pared and brought us our victuals, 
 to whom I gave a list of forty 
 dishes, in the composition of which 
 there entered neither flesh nor fish. 
 This fancy was the more agreeable 
 to me, as it turned to good account, 
 for the whole expense of our living 
 did not exceed for each eighteen 
 pence a week. 
 
 I continued it .cheerfully, but 
 
110 LIFE OF 
 
 poor Keimer suffered terribly. 
 Tired of the project, he sighed for 
 " the flesh-pots of Egypt." At 
 length he ordered a roast pig, and 
 invited me and two of our female 
 acquaintance to dine with him ; but 
 the pig being ready a little too 
 soon, he could not resist the temp 
 tation, and eat it all up before we 
 arrived. 
 
 During the circumstances I have 
 related, I had paid some attentions 
 to Miss Read. I entertained for 
 her the utmost esteem and affec 
 tion ; and I had reason to believe 
 that these sentiments were mutual. 
 But we were both young, scarcely 
 more than eighteen years of age ; 
 and as I was on the point of under 
 taking a lo.ng voyage, her mother 
 thought it prudent to prevent mat- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Ill 
 
 ters being carried too fur for the 
 present, judging that if marriage 
 was our object, there would be 
 more propriety in it. after my 
 return, when, as at least I expected, 
 I should be established in my busi 
 ness. Perhaps, also, she thought 
 that my expectations were not so 
 well founded as I imagined. 
 
 My most intimate acquaintance 
 at this time were Charles Osborne, 
 Joseph Watson, and James Ralph. 
 It was a custom with us to take a 
 walk on Sundays in the woods that 
 bordered on the SchuylkilK Here 
 we read together, and afterwards 
 conversed on what we read. Ralph 
 was disposed to give himself up 
 entirely to poetry. He flattered 
 himself that he should arrive at 
 great eminence in the art, and even 
 
112 LIFE OF 
 
 acquire a fortune. The sublimest 
 poets, he pretended, when they 
 first began to write, committed as 
 many faults as himself. Osborne 
 endeavoured to dissuade him from 
 it by assuring him that he had no 
 genius for poetry, and advised him 
 to stick to the trade in which he 
 had been brought up. " In the road 
 of commerce," said he, " you will be 
 sure, by diligence and assiduity, 
 though you have no capital, of so 
 far succeeding as to be employed 
 as a factor, and may thus, in time, 
 acquire the means of setting up 
 for yourself." I concurred in these 
 sentiments, but at the same time 
 expressed my approbation of amu 
 sing ourselves sometimes with 
 poetry, with a view to improve our 
 style. In consequence of this it 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 113 
 
 was proposed, that, at our next 
 meeting, each of us should bring a 
 copy of verses of his own compo 
 sition. Our object in this compe 
 tition was, to benefit each other by 
 our mutual remarks, criticisms, and 
 corrections ; and, as style and ex 
 pression were all we had in view, 
 we excluded every idea of inven 
 tion, by agreeing that our task 
 should be a version of the eigh 
 teenth psalm, in which is described 
 the descent of the Deity. 
 
 The time of our meeting drew 
 near, when Ralph called upon me, 
 and told me his piece was ready. 
 I informed him that I had been idle, 
 and, not much liking the task, had 
 done nothing. He showed me his 
 piece, and asked what I thought of 
 it. I expressed myself in terms of 
 
114 LIFE OF 
 
 warm approbation, because it really 
 appeared to have considerable merit. 
 He then said, " Osborne will never 
 acknowledge the smallest degree of 
 excellence in any production of 
 mine. Envy alone dictates to him 
 a thousand animadversions. Of 
 you he is not so jealous ; I wish, 
 therefore, you would take the verses 
 and produce them as your own. I 
 will pretend not to have had leisure 
 to write any thing. We shall then 
 see in what manner he will speak 
 of them." I agreed to this little 
 artifice, and immediately transcribed 
 the verses, to prevent all suspicion. 
 We met. Watson s performance 
 was the first that was read. It had 
 some beauties, but many faults. 
 We next read Osborne s, which 
 was much better. Ralph did it 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 115 
 
 justice, remarking a few imperfec 
 tions, and applauding such parts as 
 were excellent. He had himself 
 nothing to show. It was now my 
 turn. I made some difficulty, seem 
 ed as if I wished to be excused, 
 pretended that I had no time to 
 make corrections, &c. No excuse, 
 however, was admissible, and the 
 piece must be produced. It was 
 read and re-read. Watson and 
 Osborne immediately resigned the 
 palm, and united in applauding it. 
 Ralph alone made a few remarks, 
 and proposed some alterations ; but 
 I defended my text. Osborne 
 agreed with me, and told Ralph he 
 was no more able to criticise than 
 he was able to write. 
 
 When Osborne was alone with 
 me, he expressed himself still more 
 
116 LIFE OF 
 
 strongly in favour of what he con 
 sidered as my performance. He 
 pretended that he had put some 
 constraint on himself before, ap 
 prehensive of my construing his 
 commendation into flattery. But 
 who would have supposed, said he, 
 Franklin to be capable of such a 
 composition ? What painting, what 
 energy, what fire ! He has sur 
 passed the original ! In his com 
 mon conversation he appears not 
 to have choice of words; he hesi 
 tates, and is at a loss ; and yet, 
 good God, how he writes ! 
 
 At our next meeting, Ralph dis 
 covered the trick we had played 
 Osborne, who was rallied without 
 mercy. 
 
 The governor appeared to be 
 fond of my company, and frequently 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 117 
 
 invited me to his house. He 
 always spoke of his intention of 
 {settling me in business, as a point 
 that was decided. I was to take 
 with me letters of recommendation 
 to a number of friends, and particu 
 larly a letter of credit, in order 
 to obtain the necessary sum for the 
 purchase of my press, types, and 
 paper. He appointed various times 
 for me to come for these letters, 
 which would certainly be ready,* 
 and when I came, always put me 
 off to another day. 
 
 These successive delays con 
 tinued till the vessel, whose de 
 parture had been several times de 
 ferred, was on the point of setting 
 sail, when I again went to Sir Wil 
 liam s house, to receive my letters 
 and take leave of him. I saw his 
 
118 LIFE OF 
 
 secretary, Dr. Bard, who told me 
 that the governor was extremely 
 busy writing, but that he would be 
 down at Newcastle before the 
 vessel, and that the letters would 
 be delivered to me there. 
 
 Ralph, though he was married, 
 and had a child, determined to 
 accompany me in this voyage. 
 His object was supposed to be the 
 establishing a correspondence with 
 some mercantile houses, in order 
 to sell goods by commission ; but 
 I afterwards learned, that having 
 reason to be dissatisfied with the 
 parents of his wife, he proposed to 
 himself to leave her on their hands, 
 and never to return to America 
 again. 
 
 Having taken leave of my 
 friends, and interchanged promises 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 119 
 
 of fidelity with Miss Read, I quit 
 ted Philadelphia. At Newcastle 
 the vessel came to anchor. The 
 governor was arrived, and I went 
 to his lodgings. His secretary re 
 ceived me with great civility, told 
 me, on the part of the governor, 
 that he could not see me then, as 
 he was engaged in affairs of the 
 utmost importance ; but that he 
 would send the letters on board, 
 and that he wished me, with all 
 his heart, a good voyage and 
 speedy return. I returned some 
 what astonished, but still without 
 entertaining the slightest suspicion. 
 Mr. Hamilton, a celebrated bar 
 rister of Philadelphia, had taken a 
 passage to England for himself and 
 his son ; and, in conjunction with 
 Mr. Denham, a Quaker, and 
 
120 LIFE OF 
 
 Messrs. Oijiam and Russel, pro 
 prietors of a forge in Maryland, 
 had agreed for the whole cabin, so 
 that Ralph and I were obliged to 
 take up our lodging with the crew. 
 Being unknown to everybody in 
 the ship, we were looked upon as 
 the common order of people ; but 
 Mr. Hamilton and his son (it was 
 James, who was afterwards go 
 vernor,) left us at Newcastle, and 
 returned to Philadelphia, whither 
 he was recalled, at a very greaf 
 expense, to plead the cause of a 
 vessel that had been seized ; and 
 just as we were about to sail, 
 Colonel Finch came on board, and 
 showed me many civilities. The 
 passengers, upon this, paid me 
 more attention, and I was invited, 
 together with my friend Ralph, to 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 121 
 
 occupy the place in the cabin which 
 the return of the Mr. Hamiltons 
 had made vacant, an offer which 
 we vejjy readily accepted. 
 
 Having learned that the des 
 patches of the governor had been 
 brought on board by Colonel Finch, 
 J asked the captain for the letters 
 that were to* be intrusted to my 
 care. He told me that they were 
 all put together i*i the bag, which 
 he could not open at present : but 
 before we reached England, he 
 would give me an opportunity of 
 taking them out. I was satisfied 
 with this answer, and we pursued 
 our voyage. 
 
 The company in the cabin were 
 all very sociable, and we were all 
 perfectly well off as to provisions, as 
 we took the advantage of the whole 
 
122 LIFE OF 
 
 of Mr. Hamilton s, who had laid 
 in a very plentiful stock. During 
 the passage, Mr. Denham con 
 tracted a friendship for me, which 
 ended only with his life : in other 
 respects, the voyage was by no 
 means an agreeable one, as we had 
 much bad weather. 
 
 When we arrived in the river 
 Thames, the captain was as good 
 as his word, and ^allowed me to 
 search the bag for the governor s 
 letters. I could not find a single 
 one with my name written on it, as 
 committed to my care ; but I se 
 lected six or seven, which I judged, 
 from the direction, to be those that 
 were intended for me, particularly 
 one to Mr. Basket, the king s prin 
 ter, and another to a stationer, who 
 was the first person I called upon. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 123 
 
 I delivered him the letter as coming 
 from Governor Keith. " I have 
 no acquaintance (said he) with any 
 such person ;" and opening the let 
 ter, "Oh, it is from Riddlesden, 
 (he exclaimed) I have lately dis 
 covered him to be a very arrant 
 knave, and I wish to have nothing 
 to do either with him or his letters." 
 He instantly put the letter in my 
 hand, turned upon his heel, and 
 left me to serve some customers. 
 
 I was astonished at finding these 
 letters were not from the governor. 
 Reflecting, and putting circum 
 stances together, I then began to 
 doubt his sincerity. I rejoined my 
 friend Denham, and related the 
 whole affair to him. He let me 
 at once into Keith s character, told 
 me there was not the least proba- 
 
124 LIFE OF 
 
 bility of his having written a single 
 letter ; that no one who knew him 
 ever placed any reliance on him, 
 and laughed at my credulity in 
 supposing that the governor would 
 give me a letter of credit, when he 
 had no credit for himself. As J 
 showed some uneasiness respecting 
 what step I should take, he advised 
 me to try to get employment in the 
 house of some printer. You may 
 there, said he, improve yourself in 
 business, and you will be able to 
 settle yourself the more advantage 
 ously when you return to America. 
 But what are we to think of a 
 governor who could play so scurvy 
 a trick, and thus grossly deceive a 
 poor young lad, wholly destitute of 
 experience ? It was a practice with 
 him. Wishing to please every 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 125 
 
 body, and having little to bestow, 
 he was lavish of promises. He 
 was, in other respects, sensible and 
 judicious, a very tolerable writer, 
 and a good governor for the people, 
 though not so for the proprietaries, 
 whose instructions he frequently 
 disregarded. Many of our best 
 laws were his work, and established 
 during his administration. 
 
 Ralph and I were inseparable 
 companions. We took a lodging 
 together at three shillings and six 
 pence a week, which w r as as much 
 as we could afford. He met with 
 some relations in London, but they 
 were poor, and not able to assist 
 him. He now, for the first time, 
 informed me of his intention to re 
 main in England, and that he had 
 no thoughts of ever returning to 
 
126 LIFE OF 
 
 Philadelphia. He was totally with 
 out money, the little he had been 
 able to raise having barely sufficed 
 for his passage. I had still fifteen 
 pistoles remaining, and to me he 
 had from time to time recourse, 
 .while he tried to get employment. 
 
 At first, believing himself pos 
 sessed of talents for the stage, he 
 thought of turning actor; but Wllkcs, 
 to whom he applied, frankly ad 
 vised him to renounce the idea, as 
 it was impossible to succeed. He 
 next proposed to Roberts, a book 
 seller in Pater-nostcr-Row, to write 
 a weekly paper in the manner of 
 the Spectator, upon terms to which 
 Roberts would not listen. Lastly, 
 he endeavoured to procure employ 
 ment a-s a copyist, and applied to 
 the lawyers and stationers about 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 127 
 
 the Temple, but he could find no 
 vacancy. 
 
 As to myself, I immediately got 
 engaged at Palmer s, at that time a 
 noted printer in Bartholomew-Close, 
 with whom I continued nearly a 
 year. 1 applied very assiduously 
 to my work, but I expended with 
 Ralph almost all that I earned. 
 Plays, and other places of amuse 
 ment, which we frequented together, 
 having exhausted my pistoles, we 
 lived after this from hand to mouth. 
 He appeared to have entirely for 
 gotten his wife and child, as 1 also, 
 by degrees, forgot my engagements 
 with Miss Read, to whom I never 
 wrote more than one letter, and 
 that merely to inform her that I 
 was not likely to return soon. This 
 was another grand error of my 
 
128 LIFE OF 
 
 life, which I should be desirous of 
 correcting, were I to begin my 
 career again. 
 
 I was employed at Palmer s on 
 the second edition of Woolaston s 
 Religion of Nature. Some of his 
 arguments appearing to me not to 
 be well founded, I wrote a small 
 metaphysical treatise, in which I 
 animadverted on those passages. 
 It was entitled, A Dissertation on 
 Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure 
 and Pain. I dedicated it to my 
 friend Ralph, and printed a small 
 number of copies. Palmer upon 
 this treated me with more considera 
 tion, and regarded me as a young 
 man of talents, though he seriously 
 took me to task for the principles 
 of my pamphlet, which he looked 
 upon as abominable. The printing 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 129 
 
 of this work was another error of 
 my life. 
 
 While I lodged in Little Britain, 
 I formed an acquaintance with a 
 bookseller of the name of Wilcox, 
 whose shop was next door to me. 
 Circulating libraries were not then 
 in use. He had an immense col 
 lection of books of all sorts. We 
 agreed that, for a reasonable retri 
 bution, of which I have now for 
 gotten the price, I should have free 
 access to his library, and take 
 what books I pleased, which I was 
 to return when I had read them. 
 I considered this agreement as a 
 very great advantage, and I de 
 rived from it as much benefit as 
 was in my power. 
 
 My pamphlet falling into the 
 hands of a surgeon of the name 
 
130 LIFE or 
 
 of Lyons, author of a book entitled 
 Infallibility of Human Judgment, 
 was the occasion of a considerable 
 intimacy between us. He ex 
 pressed great esteem for me, came 
 frequently to see me, in order to 
 converse upon metaphysical sub 
 jects, and introduced me to Dr. 
 Mandeville, author of the Fables 
 of the Bees, who had instituted a 
 club at a tavern in Cheapside, of 
 which he was the soul ; he was a 
 facetious and very amusing char 
 acter. He also introduced me, at 
 Batson s Coffee-house, to Dr. Pem- 
 berton, who promised to give me 
 an opportunity of seeing Sir Isaac 
 Newton, which I very ardently de 
 sired ; but he never kept his word. 
 I had brought some curiosities 
 from America, the principal of 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 131 
 
 which was a purse made of the 
 asbestos, which fire only purifies. 
 Sir Hans Sloane hearing of it, 
 called upon me, and invited me to 
 his house in Bloomsbury-square, 
 where, after showing me every 
 thing that was curious, he pre 
 vailed on me to add this piece to 
 his collection, for which he paid me 
 very handsomely. 
 
 I now began to think of laying 
 by some money. The printing- 
 house of Watts, near Lincoln s 
 Inn-Fields, being a still more con* 
 siderable one than that in which I 
 worked, it was ^probable I might 
 find it more advantageous to be 
 employed there. I offered myself 
 and was accepted, and in this house 
 I continued during the remainder 
 of my stay in London. 
 
132 LIFE OF 
 
 On my entrance, I worked at 
 first as a pressman j conceiving 
 that I had need of bodily exercise, 
 to which I had been accustomed in 
 America, where the printers work 
 alternately as compositors and at 
 the press. I drank nothing but 
 water. The other workmen, to 
 the amount of about fifty, were 
 great drinkers of beer ; I carried, 
 occasionally, a large form of letters 
 in each hand up and down stairs, 
 while the rest employed both hands 
 to carry one. They were sur 
 prised to sec) by this and many 
 other examples, that the American 
 Aquatic, as they used to call me, 
 was stronger than those who drank 
 porter. The beer-boy had suffi 
 cient employment during the whole 
 day in serving that house alone. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 133 
 
 My fellow pressman drank every 
 day a pint of beer before break- 
 fast, a pint with bread and cheese 
 for breakfast, one between break 
 fast and dinner, one at dinner, one 
 again about six o clock in the af 
 ternoon, and another after he had 
 finished his day s work. This 
 custom appeared to me abominable; 
 but he had need, he said, of all 
 his beer, in order to acquire 
 strength to work. 
 
 I endeavoured to convince him 
 that bodily strength furnished by 
 beer, could only be in proportion 
 to the solid part of the barley dis 
 solved in the water of which the 
 beer was composed ; that there 
 was a larger portion of flour in a 
 penny loaf, and that consequently 
 if he eat this loaf, and drank a pint 
 
134 LIFE OF 
 
 of water with it, he would derive 
 more strength from it than from a 
 pint of beer. This reasoning, 
 however, did not prevent him from 
 drinking his accustomed quantity 
 of beer, and paying every Saturday 
 night a score of four or five shil 
 lings a week for this beverage ; an 
 expense from which I was totally 
 exempt. Thus do these poor devils 
 continue all their lives in a state 
 of voluntary wretchedness and 
 poverty. 
 
 At the end of a few weeks, 
 Watts having occasion for me 
 above stairs as a compositor, I 
 quitted the press. The compositors 
 demanded of, me garnish-money 
 afresh. This I considered as an 
 imposition, already paid below. 
 The master was of the same 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 135 
 
 opinion, and desired me not to 
 comply. I thus remained two or 
 three weeks out of the fraternity. 
 I was consequently looked upon 
 as excommunicated, and whenever 
 I was absent, no little trick that 
 malice could suggest was left un 
 practised upon me. I found my 
 letters mixed, my pages transposed, 
 my matter broken, &c., &c., all 
 which was attributed to the spirit 
 that haunted the Chapel,* and tor 
 mented those who were not regularly 
 admitted. I was at last obliged to 
 submit to pay, notwithstanding the 
 protection of the master; con- 
 
 * Printing-houses in general, are thus 
 denominated by the workmen, as the first 
 office set up in England, by Caxton, was 
 in a Chapel in Westminster. The spirit 
 they call Ralph. 
 
136 LIFE OF 
 
 vinced of the folly of not keeping 
 up a good understanding with those 
 among whom we were destined to 
 live. 
 
 After this, I lived in the utmost 
 harmony with my fellow-labourers, 
 and soon acquired considerable in 
 fluence among them. I proposed 
 some alterations in the laws of the 
 Chapel, which I carried without 
 opposition. My example prevailed 
 with several of them to renounce 
 their abominable practice of bread 
 and cheese with beer; and they 
 procured, like me, from a neigh 
 bouring house, a good bason of 
 warm gruel, in which was a small 
 slice of butter, with toasted bread 
 and nutmeg. This was a much 
 better breakfast, which did not cost 
 more than a pint of beer, namely, 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 137 
 
 three half- pence, and at the same 
 time preserved the head clearer. 
 Those Who continued to gorge 
 themselves with beer, often lost 
 their credit with the publican, from 
 neglecting to pay their score. They 
 had then recourse to me, to become 
 security for them, their light, as 
 they used to call it, being out. I 
 attended at the pay-table every 
 Saturday evening, to take up the 
 little sums which I had made my 
 self answerable for, and which 
 sometimes amounted to near thirty 
 shillings a week. 
 
 This circumstance, added to my 
 reputation of being a good gabber, 
 or in other words, skilful in the art 
 of burlesque, kept up my impor 
 tance in the Chapel. I had, besides, 
 recommended myself to the esteem 
 
138 LIFE OF 
 
 of my master, by my assiduous 
 application to business, never ob 
 serving Saint Monday. My ex 
 traordinary quickness in composing 
 always procured me such work as 
 was most urgent, and which is 
 commonly best paid ; and thus my 
 time passed away in a very pleas 
 ant manner. 
 
 My lodging in Little Britain be 
 ing too far from the printing-house, 
 I took another in Duke-street, op 
 posite the Roman Chapel. It was 
 the back of an Italian warehouse. 
 The house was kept by a widow, 
 who had a daughter, a servant, and 
 a shop-boy, but the latter slept out 
 of the house. After sending to the 
 people with whom I lodged in Lit 
 tle Britain, to inquire into my 
 character, she agreed to take me at 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 139 
 
 the same price, three-and-sixpence 
 a week, contenting herself, she 
 said, with so little, because of the 
 security she would derive, as they 
 were all women, from having a 
 man to lodge in the same house. 
 
 At the printing-house I contracted 
 an intimacy with a sensible young 
 man, of the name of Wygate, who, 
 as his parents were in good circum 
 stances, had received a better edu 
 cation than is common with printers. 
 He was a tolerable Latin scholar, 
 spoke French fluently, and was 
 fond of reading. I taught him, as 
 well as a friend of his, to swim, by 
 taking them twice only in the river, 
 after which they stood in need of 
 no farther assistance. We one day 
 made a party to go by water to 
 Chelsea, in order to see the College, 
 
140 LIFE OF 
 
 and Don Saltero s curiosities. On 
 our return, at the request of the 
 company, whose curiosity Wygate 
 had excited, I undressed myself, and 
 leaped into the river. I swam from 
 near Chelsea the whole way to 
 Blackfriars-Bridge, exhibiting, du 
 ring my course, a variety of feats 
 of activity and address, both upon 
 the surface of the water, as well as 
 under it. This sight occasioned 
 much astonishment and pleasure to 
 those to whom it was new. In my 
 youth I took great delight in this ex 
 ercise. I knew, and could execute, 
 all the evolutions and positions of 
 Thevenot, and I added to them 
 some of my own mvention, in 
 which I endeavoured to unite grace 
 fulness and utility. I took a plea 
 sure in displaying them all upon this 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 141 
 
 occasion, and was highly flattered 
 with the admiration they excited. 
 
 Wygate, besides being desirous 
 of perfecting himself in this art, 
 was the more attached to me from 
 there being, in other respects, a con 
 formity in our tastes and studies. 
 He at length proposed to me to make 
 the tour of Europe with him, main 
 taining ourselves at the same time 
 by working at our profession. I 
 was on the point of consenting, 
 when I mentioned it to my friend 
 Denham, with whom I was glad to 
 pass an hour whenever I had leisure. 
 He dissuaded me from the project* 
 and advised me to return to Phila 
 delphia, which he was about to do 
 himself. I must relate in this place 
 a trait of this worthy man s char 
 acter.- 
 
142 LIFfi OF 
 
 He had formerly been in business 
 at Bristol, but failing, he compound 
 ed with his creditors, and departed 
 for America, where, by assiduous 
 application as a merchant, ho ac 
 quired in a few years a very con 
 siderable fortune. Returning to 
 England in the same vessel with 
 myself, as I have related above, he 
 invited all his old creditors to a 
 feast. When assembled, he thanked 
 them for the readiness with which 
 they had received his small compo 
 sition ; and while they expected 
 nothing more than a simple enter 
 tainment, each found under his 
 plate, when it came to be removed, 
 a draft upon a banker for the resi 
 due of his debt, with interest. 
 
 He told me it was his intention 
 to carry back with him to Philadel- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 143 
 
 pbia a great quantity of goods, in 
 order to open a store ; and he offer 
 ed to take me with him in the 
 capacity of a clerk, to keep his 
 books, in which he would instruct 
 me, copy letters, and superintend 
 the store. He added, that, as soon 
 as I had acquired a knowledge of 
 mercantile transactions, he would 
 improve my situation, by sending 
 me with a cargo of corn and flour 
 to the American islands, and other 
 lucurative commissions ; so that, 
 with good management and econ 
 omy might, in time, begin business 
 with advantage for myself. * 
 
 I relished these proposals Lon 
 don began to tire me ; the agreeable 
 hours I had passed at Philadelphia 
 presented themselves to my mind, 
 and I wished to see them revive. 
 
144 LIFE OF 
 
 I consequently engaged myself to 
 Mr. Denham, at a salary of fifty 
 pounds a year. This was indeed 
 less than I earned as a compositor ; 
 but then I had a fairer prospect. I 
 took leave, therefore, as I believed, 
 for ever, of printing, and gave my* 
 self up entirely to my new occupa 
 tion, spending all my time either in 
 going from house to house with 
 Mr. Denham, to purchase goods, or 
 in packing them up, or in expedi 
 ting the workmen, ozc. &c. When 
 every thing, however, was on 
 board, I had at last a few days lei 
 sure.* 
 
 I thus passed about eighteen 
 months in London, working almost 
 without intermission at my trade, 
 avoiding all expense on my own 
 account, except going now and then 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 145 
 
 to the play, and purchasing a few 
 books. But my friend Ralph kept 
 me poor. He owed me about 
 twenty-seven pounds, which was so 
 much money lost, and when con 
 sidered as taken from my little 
 savings, was a very great sum. I 
 had, notwithstanding this, a regard 
 for him, as he possessed many 
 amiable qualities. But though I 
 had done nothing for myself in 
 point of fortune, I had increased 
 my stock of knowledge, either by 
 the many excellent books I had 
 read, or the conversation of learned 
 and literary persons with whom I 
 was acquainted. 
 
 We sailed from Gravesend the 
 twenty-third of July, 1726, and 
 landed at Philadelphia on the 
 eleventh of the following October. 
 
 10 
 
146 LIFE OF 
 
 Keith had been deprived of his 
 office of governor, and was suc 
 ceeded by Major Gordon. I met 
 him walking in the streets as a 
 private individual. He appeared a 
 little ashamed at seeing me, but 
 passed on without saying anything. 
 I should have been equally 
 ashamed myself at meeting Miss 
 Read, had not her family, justly 
 despairing of my return after read 
 ing my letter, advised her to give 
 me up, and marry a potter, of the 
 name of Rogers, to which she 
 consented ; but he never made her 
 happy, and she soon separated from 
 him, refusing to cohabit with him, 
 or even bear his name, on account 
 of a report which prevailed of his 
 having another wife. His skill in 
 his profession had seduced Miss 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 147 
 
 Read s parents ; but he was as bad 
 a subject as he was excellent as a 
 workman. He involved himself in 
 debt and fled, in the year 1727 or 
 1728, to the West Indies, where he 
 died. 
 
 Mr. Denham took a warehouse 
 in Water street, where we exhibit 
 ed our commodities. ^ I applied 
 myself closely, studied accounts, 
 and became in a short time very 
 expert in trade. We lodged and 
 eat together. He was sincerely 
 attached to me, and acted towards 
 me as if he had been my father. 
 On my side, I respected and loved 
 him. My situation was happy, but 
 it was a happiness of no long du 
 ration. 
 
 Early in February, 1727, when 
 I entered into my twenty-second 
 
148 LIFE OF 
 
 year, we were both taken ill. T 
 was attacked with a pleurisy, which 
 had nearly carried me off; I suf 
 fered terribly, and considered it as 
 all over with me. I felt, indeed, a 
 sort of disappointment when I found 
 myself likely to recover, and re 
 gretted that I had still to experience, 
 soon or later, the same disagreeable 
 scene again. 
 
 I have forgotten what was Mr. 
 Den ham s disorder, but it was a 
 tedious one, and he at last sunk 
 under it. He left me a small 
 legacy in his will, as a testimony 
 of his friendship ; and I was once 
 more abandoned to myself in the 
 wide world, the warehouse being 
 confided to the care of the testa 
 mentary executor, who dismissed 
 me. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 149 
 
 My brother-in-law, Holmes, who 
 happened to be at Philadelphia, ad 
 vised me to return to my former 
 profession ; and Keimer offered me 
 a very considerable salary if I 
 would undertake the management 
 of his printing-office, that he might 
 devote himself entirely to the su 
 perintendence of his shop. His 
 wife and relations in London had 
 given me a bad character of him. 
 and I was loth, for the present, to 
 have any concern with him. I en 
 deavoured to get employment as a 
 clerk to a merchant ; but not 
 readily finding a situation, I was 
 induced to accept Keimer s proposal. 
 
 I soon perceived that Keimer s 
 infention in engaging me at a price 
 so much above what he was accus 
 tomed to give, was, that I might 
 
150 LIFE OF 
 
 form all his raw journeymen and 
 apprentices, who scarcely cost him 
 anything, and who, being inden 
 tured, would, as soon as they should 
 be sufficiently instructed, enable 
 him to do without me. I neverthe 
 less adhered to my agreement. I 
 put his office in order, which was 
 in the utmost confusion, and brought 
 his people, by degrees, to execute 
 their work in a more proper man 
 ner. 
 
 I increased my acquaintance 
 with persons of knowledge and in 
 formation in the town. Keimer 
 himself treated me with great ci 
 vility and apparent esteem ; and I 
 had nothing to give me uneasiness 
 but my debt to Vernon, which I 
 was unable to pay, my savings as 
 yet being very little. He had the 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 153 
 
 goodness, however, not to ask me 
 for the money. 
 
 Pur press was frequently in 
 want of the necessary quantity of 
 letter, and there was no such trade 
 as that of letter- founder in America. 
 I had seen the practice of this art 
 at the house of James, in London, 
 but at the same time paid very lit 
 tle attention to it. I, however, 
 contrived to fabricate a mould. I 
 made use of such letters as we 
 had for punches, founded new 
 letters of lead in matrices of clay, 
 and thus supplied, in a tolerable 
 manner, the wants that were most 
 pressing. 
 
 I also, upon occasion, engraved 
 various ornaments, made ink, gave 
 an eye to the shop; in short, I 
 was, in every respect, the factotum. 
 
154 LIFE or 
 
 But useful as I made myself, I 
 perceived that my services became 
 every day of less importance, in 
 proportion as the other men im 
 proved ; and when Keimer paid me 
 my second quarter s wages, he 
 game me to understand that they 
 were too heavy, and that he thought 
 I ought to make an abatement. 
 He became by degrees less civil, 
 and assumed more the tone of 
 master. He frequently found fault, 
 was difficult to please, and seemed 
 always on the point of coming to 
 an open quarrel with me. 
 
 I continued, however, to bear it 
 patiently, conceiving that his ill- 
 humour was partly occasioned by 
 the derangement and embarrass 
 ment of his affairs. At last a 
 slight incident broke our con- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 155 
 
 nexion. Hearing a noise in the 
 neighbourhood, I put my head out 
 of the window to see what was the 
 matter. Keimer being in the street, 
 observed me, and, in a loud and 
 angry tone, told me to mind my 
 work ; adding some reproachful 
 words, which piqued me the more 
 as they were uttered in the street, 
 and the neighbours, whom the same 
 noise had attracted to the windows, 
 were witnesses of the manner in 
 which I was treated. He immedi 
 ately came up to the printing-room, 
 and continued to exclaim against 
 me. The quarrel became warm on 
 both sides, and he gave me notice 
 to quit him at the expiration of three 
 months, as had been agreed between 
 os, regretting that he was obliged 
 > to give me so long a term. I told 
 
156 LIFE OF 
 
 him that his regret was superfluous, 
 as I was ready to quit him instant 
 ly ; and I took my hat and came 
 out of the house, begging Meredith 
 to take care of some things which 
 I left, and bring them to my lodg 
 ings. 
 
 Meredith came to me in the 
 evening. We talked for some time 
 upon the quarrel that had taken 
 place. He had conceived a great 
 veneration for me, and was sorry I 
 should quit the house while he re 
 mained in it. He dissuaded me 
 from returning to my native coun 
 try, as I began to think of doing. 
 He reminded me that Keimcr owed 
 more than he possessed ; that his 
 creditors began to be alarmed ; 
 that he kept his shop in a wretched 
 state, often selling things at prime 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 157 
 
 cost for the sake of ready money, 
 and continually giving credit, with 
 out keeping any accounts ; that, of 
 consequence, he must very soon fail, 
 which would occasion a vacancy 
 from which I might derive advan 
 tage. I objected my want of mo 
 ney. Upon which he informed me, 
 that his father had a very high 
 opinion of me, and, from a con 
 versation that had passed between 
 them, he was sure that he would 
 advance whatever might be neces 
 sary to establish us, if I was willing 
 to enter into partnership with him. 
 " My time with Keimer, (added he) 
 will be at an end next spring. In 
 the meantime we may send to 
 London for our press and types. I 
 know that I am no workman ; but 
 if you agree to the proposal, your 
 
158 LIFE OF 
 
 skill in the business will be balanced 
 by the capital I will furnish, and 
 we will share the profits equally." 
 His proposal was reasonable, and I 
 fell in with it. His father, who 
 was then in town, approved of it. 
 He knew that I had some ascen 
 dency over his son, as I had been 
 able to prevail on him to abstain a 
 long time from drinking brandy ; 
 and he hoped, that, when more 
 closely connected with him, I should 
 cure him entirely of this unfortu 
 nate habit. 
 
 I gave the father a list of what 
 it would be necessary to import 
 from London. He took it to a 
 merchant, and the order was given. 
 We agreed to keep the secret till 
 the arrival of the materials, and I 
 was, in the mean time, to procure 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 159 
 
 work, if possible, in another print 
 ing-house ; but there was no place 
 vacant, and I remained idle. After 
 some days, Keimer, having the 
 expectation of being employed to 
 print some New- Jersey money-bills, 
 that would require types and en 
 gravings, which I only could fur 
 nish, and fearful that Bradford, by 
 engaging me, might deprive him of 
 the undertaking, sent me a very 
 civil message, telling me that old 
 friends ought not to be disunited 
 on account of a few words, which 
 were the effects only of a moment 
 ary passion, and inviting me to 
 return to him. Meredith persuaded 
 me to comply with the invitation, 
 particularly as it would afford him 
 more opportunities of improving 
 himself in the business, by means 
 
160 LIFE OF 
 
 of my instructions. I did so ; and 
 we lived upon better terms than 
 before our separation. 
 
 He obtained the New-Jersey 
 business ; and, in order to execute 
 it, I constructed a copper-plate print 
 ing-press, the first that had been 
 seen in the country. I engraved 
 various ornaments and vignettes for 
 the bills, and we repaired to Bur 
 lington together, where I executed j 
 the whole to the general satisfaction; j 
 and he received a sum of money 
 for this work, which enabled him 
 to keep his head above water for a 
 considerable time longer. 
 
 At Burlington 1 formed an ac 
 quaintance with the principal per 
 sonages of the province, many of 
 whom were commissioned by the 
 Assembly to superintend the press, 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 161 
 
 and to see that no more -bills were 
 printed than the law had prescribed 
 Accordingly, they were constantly 
 with us, each in his turn, and he 
 that came commonly brought with 
 him a friend or two, to bear him 
 company. My mind was more 
 cultivated by reading than Keimer s, 
 and it was for this reason, probably, 
 that they set more value on, my 
 conversation. They took me to 
 their houses, introduced me to their 
 friends, and treated me with the 
 greatest civility ; while Keimer, 
 though master, saw himself a little 
 neglected. He was, in fact, a 
 strange animal* ignorant of the 
 common modes of life, apt to oppose 
 with rudeness generally received 
 opinions, an enthusiast in certain 
 points of religion, disgustingly un- 
 
 11 
 
162 LIFE OF 
 
 clean in his person, and a little 
 knavish withal. 
 
 We remained there nearly three 
 months, and at the expiration of 
 this period I could include in the 
 list of my friends, Judge Allen, 
 Samuel Bustil, secretary of the 
 province, Isaac Pearson, Joseph 
 Cooper, several of the Smiths, all 
 members of the Assembly, -and 
 Isaac Deacon, Inspector-general. 
 The last was a shrewd and subtle 
 old man. He told me that when a 
 boy, his first employment had been 
 that of carrying clay to brick- 
 makers ; that he did not learn to 
 write, till he was somewhat ad 
 vanced in life ; that he was after 
 wards employed as an underling to 
 a surveyor, who taught him his 
 trade ; and that, by industry, he had 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 163 
 
 acquired a competent fortune. " I 
 foresee (said he one day to me) that 
 you will soon supplant this man, 
 (speaking of Keimer) and get a 
 fortune in the business at Philadel 
 phia." He was wholly ignorant at 
 the time of my intention of estab 
 lishing myself there or anywhere 
 else. These friends were very 
 serviceable to me in the end, as 
 was I also, upon occasion, to some 
 of them, and they have continued 
 ever since their esteem for me. 
 
 I had not long returned from 
 Burlington before our printing ma 
 terials arrived from London. I 
 settled my accounts with Keimer, 
 and quitted him, with his own con 
 sent, before he had any knowledge 
 of our plan. We found a house to 
 let near the market. We took it, 
 
164 LIFE OF 
 
 and to render the rent less burthen- 
 some (it was then twenty pounds a 
 year, but I have since known it to 
 let for one hundred pounds,) we 
 admitted Thomas Godfrey, a gla 
 zier, with his family, who eased us 
 of a considerable part of it, and 
 with him we agreed to board. 
 
 We had no sooner unpacked our 
 letters and put our press in order, 
 than a person of my acquaintance, 
 George House, brought us a coun 
 tryman, whom he had met in the 
 street inquiring for a printer. Our 
 money was almost exhausted by 
 the number of things we had been 
 obliged to procure. The five shil 
 lings we received from this coun 
 tryman, the first fruits of our 
 earnings, coming so seasonably, 
 gave me more pleasure than any 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 165 
 
 sum I have since gained ; and the 
 recollection of the gratitude I felt on 
 this occasion to George House, has 
 rendered me often more disposed 
 than perhaps I should otherwise 
 have been, to encourage young be 
 ginners in trade. 
 
 I ought to have related, that, du 
 ring the autumn of the preceding 
 year, I had united the majority of 
 well informed persons into a club, 
 which we called by the name of the 
 Junto, and the object of which 
 was to improve our understandings. 
 We met every Friday. The regu 
 lations I drew up obliged every 
 member to propose, in his turn, 
 one or more questions upon some 
 point of morality, politics, or phi 
 losophy, which were to be discussed 
 by the society ; and to read once 
 
166 LIFE OF 
 
 in three months an essay of his 
 own composition, on whatever sub 
 ject he pleased. Our debates were 
 under the direction of a president, 
 and were to be dictated only by a 
 sincere desire of truth, the pleasure 
 of disputing and the vanity of tri 
 umph having no share in the busi 
 ness ; and in order to prevent un 
 due warmth, every expression 
 which implied obstinate adherence 
 to an opinion, and all direct con 
 tradiction, were prohibited, under 
 small pecuniary penalties. 
 
 This was the best school of pol 
 itics and philosophy that then ex 
 isted in the province ; for our 
 questions, which were read a week 
 previous to their discussion, in 
 duced us to peruse attentively such 
 books as were written upon the 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 167 
 
 subjects proposed, that we might be 
 able to speak upon them more per 
 tinently. We thus acquired the 
 habit of conversing more agreea 
 bly ; every subject being discussed 
 conformably to our regulations, and 
 in a manner to prevent mutual dis 
 gust. To this circumstance may 
 be attributed the long duration of 
 the club, which I shall have fre 
 quent occasion to mention, as I 
 proceed. 
 
 I have introduced it here, as be 
 ing one of the means on which I 
 had to count for my success in my 
 business, every member exerting 
 himself to procure work for us. 
 Breintnal, among others, obtained 
 for us, on the part of the Quakers, 
 the printing of forty sheets of their 
 history, the rest of which was to 
 
168 LIFE OF 
 
 be done by Keimer. Our execution 
 of this work was by no means 
 masterly, as the price was very 
 low. It was in folio, upon Propa- 
 tria paper, and in Pica letter, with 
 heavy notes in the smallest type. I 
 composed a sheet a day, and Mere 
 dith put it to press. It was fre 
 quently eleven o clock at night, 
 sometimes later, before I had finish 
 ed my distribution for the next day s 
 task ; for the little things which 
 our friends occasionally sent us, 
 kept us back in this work ; but I was 
 so determined to compose a sheet a 
 day, that one evening, when my 
 form was imposed, and my day s 
 work, as I thought, at an end, an 
 accident having broken this form, 
 and deranged two complete folio 
 pages, I immediately distributed, 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 169 
 
 and composed them anew before I 
 went to bed. 
 
 This unwearied industry, which 
 was perceived by our neighbours, 
 began to acquire us reputation and 
 credit. I learned, among other 
 things, that our new printing-house 
 being the subject of conversation 
 at a club of merchants, who met 
 every evening, it was the general 
 opinion it would fail, there being 
 already two printing-houses in the 
 town, Keimer s and Bradford s. 
 But Dr. Bard, whom you and I had 
 occasion to see many years after, 
 at his native town of St. Andrew s, 
 in Scotland, was of a different 
 opinion. " The industry of this 
 Franklin (said he) is superior to 
 anything of the kind I have ever 
 witnessed. I see him still at work 
 
170 LIFE OF 
 
 when I return from the club at 
 night, and he is at it again in the 
 morning before his neighbours are 
 out of bed." This account struck 
 the rest of the assembly, and short 
 ly after, one of its members came 
 to our house, and offered to supply 
 us with articles of stationary ; but 
 we wished not as yet to embarrass 
 ourselves with keeping a shop. It 
 is not for the sake of applause that 
 I enter so freely into the particulars 
 of my industry, but that such of 
 my descendants as shall read these 
 memoirs, may know the use of 
 this virtue, by seeing, in the recital 
 of my life, the effects it operated 
 in my favour. 
 
 George Webb, having found a 
 friend who lent him -the necessary 
 sum to buy out his time with Kei- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 171 
 
 mer, came one day to offer himself 
 to us as a journeyman. We could 
 not employ him immediately ; but 
 I foolishly told him, under the rose, 
 that I intended shortly to publish a 
 new periodical paper, and that we 
 should then have work for him. 
 My hopes of success which I im 
 parted to him, were founded on the 
 circumstance, that the only paper 
 we had in Philadelphia, at that time, 
 and which Bradford printed, was a 
 paltry thing, miserably conducted, 
 in no respect amusing, and yet was 
 profitable. Webb betrayed my 
 secret to Keimer, who, to prevent 
 me, immediately published the 
 prospectus of a paper that he in 
 tended to institute himself, and in 
 which Webb was to be engaged. 
 I was exasperated at this pro- 
 
172 LIFE OF 
 
 ceeding, and, with a view to coun 
 teract them, not being able at 
 present to institute my own paper, 
 I wrote some humorous pieces in 
 Bradford s, under the title of the- 
 Busy-Body, and which was con 
 tinued for several months by Breint- 
 nal. I hereby fixed the attention 
 of the public upon Bradford s paper; 
 and the prospectus of Keimer, 
 which he turned into ridicule, was 
 treated with contempt. He began, 
 notwithstanding, his paper, and 
 after continuing it for nine months, 
 hav-ing at most not more than ninety 
 subscribers, he offered it me for 
 a mere trifle. I had for some time 
 been ready for such an engagement; 
 I therefore instantly took it upon 
 myself, and in a few years it proved 
 extremely profitable to me. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 173 
 
 Our first number produced no 
 other effect than any other paper 
 which had appeared in the province, 
 as to type and printing, but some 
 remarks, in my peculiar style of 
 writing, upon the dispute which then 
 prevailed between Governor Burnet 
 and the Massachusetts Assembly, 
 struck some persons as above 
 mediocrity, caused the paper and 
 its editors to be talked of, and in a 
 few weeks induced them to become 
 our subscribers. Many others fol 
 lowed their example^ and our sub 
 scription began to increase. This 
 was one of the first good effects of 
 the pains I had taken to learn to 
 put my ideas on paper. I derived 
 this further advantage from it, that 
 the leading men in the place, seeing, 
 in the author of this publication, a 
 
174 LIFE OF 
 
 man so well able to use his pen, 
 thought it right to encourage and 
 patronize me. 
 
 The votes, laws, and other public 
 pieces, were printed by Bradford. 
 An address of the house of Assem 
 bly to the governor, had been exe 
 cuted by him in a very coarse and 
 incorrect manner. We reprinted 
 it with accuracy and neatness, and 
 sent a copy to every member ; they 
 perceived the difference, and it so 
 strengthened the influence of our 
 friends in the Assembly, that we 
 were nominated its printer for the 
 following year. 
 
 Among these friends, I ought not 
 to forget one member in particular, 
 Mr. Hamilton, whom I have men 
 tioned in a former part of my nar 
 rative, and who was now returned 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 175 
 
 from England. He warmly interest 
 ed himself for me on this occasion, 
 as he did likewise on many others 
 afterwards, having continued his 
 kindness to me till his death. 
 
 About this period Mr. Vernon 
 reminded me of the debt I owed 
 him, but without pressing me for 
 payment. I wrote him a handsome 
 letter on the occasion, begging him 
 to wait a little longer, to which he 
 consented ; and as soon as I was 
 able I paid him principal and inter 
 est, with many expressions of 
 gratitude : so that this error of 
 my life was in a manner atoned 
 for. 
 
 But another trouble now happen 
 ed to me, which, I had not the 
 smallest reason to expect. Mere 
 dith s father, who, according to our 
 
176 LIFE OF 
 
 agreement, was to defray the whole 
 expense of our printing materials, 
 had only paid one hundred pounds. 
 Another hundred was still due, and 
 the merchant being tired of waiting, 
 commenced a suit against us. We 
 bailed the action, with a melancholy 
 prospect, that if the money was 
 not forthcoming at the time fixed, 
 the affair would come to issue, 
 judgment be put in execution, our 
 delightful hopes be annihilated, and 
 ourselves entirely ruined ; as the 
 type and press must be sold, per 
 haps at half their value, to pay the 
 debt. 
 
 In this distress, two real friends* 
 whose generous conduct I have 
 never forgotten^ and never shall 
 forget while I retain the remem 
 brance of any thing, came to me 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 177 
 
 separately, without the knowledge 
 of each other, and without my 
 having applied to them. Each of 
 fered me whatever sum might be 
 necessary to take the business into 
 my own hands, if the thing was 
 practicable, as they did not like I 
 should continue in partnership with 
 Meredith, who, they Said, was fre 
 quently seen drunk in the streets, 
 and gambling at ale-houses, which 
 very much injured our credit. 
 These friends were William Cole- 
 man and Robert Grace. I paid the 
 partnership debts, and continued 
 the business on my own account, 
 taking care to inform the public, by 
 advertisement, of the partnership 
 being dissolved. This was, I think, 
 in the year 1729, or thereabout. 
 Nearly at the same period the 
 
 12 
 
178 LIFE OF 
 
 people demanded a new emission 
 of paper money, the existing and 
 only one that had taken place in 
 the province, and which amounted 
 to fifteen thousand pounds, being 
 soon to expire. The wealthy in 
 habitants, prejudiced against every 
 sort of paper currency, from the 
 fear of its depreciation, of which 
 there had been an instance in New- 
 England, to the injury of its hold 
 ers, strongly opposed the measure. 
 We had discussed this affair in 
 our Junto, in which I was on the 
 side of the new emission ; convin 
 ced that the first small sum fabrica 
 ted in 1723 had done much good in 
 the province, by favouring com 
 merce, industry, and population, 
 since all the houses were now in 
 habited, and many others building ; 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 179 
 
 whereas I remembered to have 
 seen, when first I paraded the streets 
 of Philadelphia, eating my roll, the 
 majority of those in Walnut street, 
 Second street, Fourth street, as well 
 as a great number in Chesnut, and 
 other streets, with papers on them, 
 signifying that they were to be let, 
 which made me think at the time 
 that the inhabitants of the town 
 were deserting it one after another. 
 Our debates made me so fully 
 master of the subject, that I wrote 
 and published an anonymous pam 
 phlet, entitled, " An Inquiry into 
 the Nature and Necessity of a paper 
 Currency." It was very well re 
 ceived by the lower and middling 
 class of people ; but it displeased 
 the opulent, as it increased the cla 
 mour in favour of the new emission. 
 
180 LIFE OF 
 
 Having, however, no writer among 
 them capable of answering it, their 
 opposition became less violent ; and 
 there being in the House of Assem 
 bly a majority for the measure, it 
 passed. The friends I had acquired 
 in the House, persuaded that I had 
 done the country essential service 
 on this occasion, rewarded me by 
 giving me the printing of the bills. 
 It was a lucrative employment, and 
 proved a very seasonable help to 
 me; another advantage which I 
 derived from having habituated my 
 self to write. 
 
 Time and experience so fully 
 demonstrated the utility of paper 
 currency, that it never experienced 
 any considerable opposition ; so 
 that it soon amounted to 55,000, 
 and in the year 1739, to 80,000. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 181 
 
 It has since risen, during the last 
 war, to 350,000, trade, buildings, 
 and population having in the inter 
 val continually increased ; but I am 
 now convinced that there are limits 
 beyond which paper money would 
 be prejudicial. 
 
 I soon after obtained, by the 
 influence of my friend Hamilton, 
 the printing of the Newcastle paper 
 money, another profitable work, as 
 I then thought it, little things ap 
 pearing great to persons of moder 
 ate fortune ; and they were really 
 great to me, as proving great en 
 couragements. He also procured 
 me the printing of the laws and 
 votes of that government, which I 
 retained as long as I continued in 
 the business. 
 
 I now opened a small stationer s 
 
182 LIFE OF 
 
 shop. I kept bonds and agreements 
 of all kinds drawn up in a more 
 accurate form than had yet been 
 seen in that part of the world, a 
 work in which I was assisted by 
 my friend Breintnal. I had also 
 paper, parchment, pasteboard, 
 books, &c. One Whitemash, an 
 excellent compositor, whom I had 
 known in London, came to offer 
 himself. I engaged him, and he 
 continued constantly at work with 
 me ; I also took an apprentice, the 
 son of Aquila Rose. 
 
 I began to pay by degrees the 
 debt I had contracted, and in order 
 to insure my credit and character 
 as a tradesman, I took care not 
 only to be really industrious and 
 frugal, but also to avoid every 
 appearance of the contrary. I was 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 183 
 
 plainly dressed, and never seen in 
 any place of amusement. I never 
 went a fishing or hunting. A book, 
 indeed, enticed me sometimes from 
 my work, but it was seldom, by 
 stealth, and occasioned no scandal ; 
 and to show that I was not above 
 my profession, I conveyed home 
 sometimes in a wheelbarrow the 
 paper I purchased at the warehouses. 
 
 I thus obtained the reputation of 
 being an industrious young man, 
 and very punctual in my payments. 
 The merchants who imported 
 articles of stationary solicited my 
 custom, others offered to furnish 
 me with books, and my little trade 
 went on prosperously. 
 
 Meanwhile the business and 
 credit of Keimer diminishing every 
 day, he was at last forced to sell 
 
184 LIFE OF 
 
 his stock to satisfy his creditors, 
 and he betook himself to Barbadoes, 
 where he lived some time in a very 
 impoverished state. His apprentice, 
 David Harry, whom I had instruct 
 ed while I worked with -Keimer, 
 having bought his materials, suc 
 ceeded him in the business. I was 
 apprehensive at first of finding in 
 Harry a powerful competitor, as 
 he was allied to an opulent and 
 respectable family ; I therefore pro 
 posed a partnership, which, happily 
 for me, he rejected with disdain. 
 He was extremely proud, thought 
 himself a fine gentleman, lived ex 
 travagantly, and pursued amuse 
 ments which suffered him to be 
 scarcely ever at home ; of conse 
 quence, he became in debt, neglect 
 ed his business, and business ne- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 185 
 
 glected him. Finding in a short 
 time nothing to be done in the 
 country, he followed Keimer to 
 Barbadoes, carrying his printing 
 materials with him. There the 
 apprentice employed his old master 
 as a journeyman. They were 
 continually quarrelling, and Harry 
 still getting in debt, was obliged at 
 last to sell his press and types, and 
 return to his old occupation of 
 husbandry in Pennsylvania. The 
 person who purchased them em 
 ployed Keimer to manage the 
 business, but he died a few years 
 after. 
 
 I had now at Philadelphia no 
 competitor but Bradford, who, be 
 ing in easy circumstances, did not 
 engage in the printing of books, 
 except now and then as workmen 
 
186 LIFE OF 
 
 chanced to offer themselves, and 
 was not anxious to extend his 
 trade. He had, however, one ad 
 vantage over me, as he had the 
 direction of the post-office, and was, 
 of consequence, supposed to have 
 better opportunities of obtaining 
 news. His paper was also supposed 
 to be more advantageous to adver 
 tising customers, and in conse 
 quence of that supposition, his 
 advertisements were much more , 
 numerous than mine ; this was a 
 source of great profit to him, and 
 disadvantageous to me. It was to 
 no purpose that I really procured 
 other papers, and distributed my 
 own, by means of the post ; the pub 
 lic took for granted my inability in 
 this respect, and I was indeed una 
 ble to conquer it in any other mode 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 187 
 
 than by bribing the post-boys, who 
 served me only by stealth, Brad 
 ford being so illiberal as to forbid 
 them. This treatment of his exci 
 ted my resentment, and my disgust 
 was so rooted, that when I after 
 wards succeeded him in the post- 
 office, I took care to avoid copying 
 his example. 
 
 I had hitherto continued to board 
 with Godfrey, who, with his wife 
 and children, occupied part of my 
 house, and half the shop for his 
 business, at which indeed he worked 
 very little, being always absorbed 
 by mathematics. Mrs. Godfrey 
 formed a wish of marrying me to 
 the daughter of one of her rela 
 tions. She contrived various oppor 
 tunities of bringing us together, till 
 she saw that I was captivated, 
 
188 LIFE OF 
 
 which was not difficult, the lady in 
 question possessing great personal 
 merit. The parents encouraged 
 my addresses, by inviting me con 
 tinually to supper, and leaving us 
 together, till at last it was time to 
 come to an explanation. Mrs. God 
 frey undertook to negotiate our little 
 treaty. I gave her to understand 
 that 1 expected to receive with the 
 young lady a sum of money that 
 would enable me at least to dis 
 charge the remainder of debt for my 
 printing materials. It was then, I 
 believe, not more than one hundred 
 pounds. She brought, me for 
 answer, that they had no such sum 
 at their disposal. I observed, that 
 it might easily be obtained by a 
 mortgage on their house. The re 
 ply to this was, after a few days 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 189 
 
 interval, that they did not approve of 
 the match ; that they had consulted 
 Bradford, and found that the busi 
 ness of a printer was not lucra 
 tive ; that my letters would soon be 
 worn out, and must be supplied 
 by new ones ; that Keimer and 
 Harry had failed, and that, proba 
 bly, I should do so too. Accord 
 ingly, he forbade me the house, 
 and the young lady was confined. 
 I know not if they had really 
 changed their minds, or if it was 
 merely an artifice, supposing our 
 affections to be too far engaged to 
 desist, and that we should contrive 
 to marry secretly, which would 
 leave them at liberty to give or not 
 as they pleased. But suspecting 
 this motive, I never went again to 
 their house. 
 
190 LIFE OF 
 
 As a neighbour and an old ac 
 quaintance, I kept up a friendly 
 intimacy with the family of Miss 
 Read. Her parents retained an 
 affection for me from the time of 
 my lodging in their house. I was 
 often invited thither, they consulted 
 me about their affairs, and I had 
 been sometimes serviceable to 
 them. I was touched with the un 
 happy situation of their daughter, 
 who was almost always melan 
 choly, and continually seeking soli 
 tude. I regarded my forgetfulness 
 and inconstancy, during my abode 
 in London, as the principal cause of 
 her misfortune, though her mother 
 had the candour to attribute the 
 fault to herself, rather than to me, 
 because after having prevented our 
 marriage previous to my departure, 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 191 
 
 she had induced her to marry an 
 other in my absence. 
 
 Our mutual affection revived, but 
 there existed great obstacles to our 
 union. Her marriage was con 
 sidered, indeed, as not being valid, 
 the man having, as it was said, a 
 former wife still living in England ; 
 but of this it was difficult to obtain 
 a proof at so great a distance ; and 
 though a report prevailed of his 
 being dead, yet we had no certainty 
 of it ; and supposing it to be true, 
 he had left many debts, for the 
 payment of which his successor 
 might be sued. We ventured, 
 nevertheless, in spite of all these 
 difficulties, and I married her on 
 the first of September, 1730. None 
 of the inconveniences we had feared 
 happened to us. She proved to me 
 
192 Lire OF 
 
 a good and faithful companion, and 
 contributed essentially to the success 
 of my shop. We prospered to 
 gether, and it was our mutual study 
 to render each other happy. Thus 
 I corrected, as well as I could, this 
 great error of my youth. 
 
 Our club was not at that time 
 established at a tavern. We held 
 our meetings at the house of Mr. 
 Grace, who appropriated a room to 
 the purpose. Some member ob 
 served, one day, that, as our books 
 were frequently quoted in the course 
 of our discussions, it would be con 
 venient to have them collected in 
 the room in which we assembled, 
 in order to be consulted upon occa 
 sion ; and that, by thus forming a 
 common library of our individual 
 collections, each would have the 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 193 
 
 advantage of using the books of 
 all the other members, which would 
 nearly be the same as if he pos 
 sessed them all himself. The idea 
 was approved, and we accordingly 
 brought such books as we thought 
 we could spare, which were placed 
 at the end of the club-room. They 
 amounted not to so many as we ex 
 pected, and though we made consid 
 erable use of them, yet some incon 
 veniences resulting from want of 
 care, it was agreed, after about a 
 year, to destroy the collection, and 
 each took away such books as be 
 longed to him. It was now that I 
 first started the idea of establishing, 
 by subscription, a public library. I 
 drew up the proposals, had them 
 ingrossed in form by Brockden the 
 attorney, and my project succeeded. 
 
 13 
 
194 LIFE OF 
 
 [Thus far goes the narrative by the Doctor s j 
 own hand, and every reader of taste must be 
 pleased with the frank, ingenuity and beautiful 
 simplicity of the writej-. What follows was 
 written by Dr. Stuber.] 
 
 THE promotion of literature had j 
 been little attended to in Pennsyl- ; 
 vania. Most of the inhabitants j 
 were too much immersed in business 
 to think of scientific pursuits, and 
 those few whose inclinations led 
 them to study, found it difficult to 
 gratify them, from the want of 
 sufficiently large libraries. Fn such 
 circumstances, the establishment of 
 a public library was an important 
 event. This was first set on foot 
 by Franklin, about the year 1731. 
 Fifty persons subscribed forty shil 
 lings each, and agreed to pay ten | 
 shillings annually. The number >. 
 increased, and in 1742 the com- I 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 197 
 
 pany was incorporated by the name 
 of " The Library Company of 
 Philadelphia." Several other com 
 panies were formed in this city, in 
 imitation of it. These were all at 
 length united with the Library 
 Company of Philadelphia, which 
 thus received a considerable ac 
 cession of books and property. It 
 now contains about nine thousand 
 volumes, on all subjects, a philoso 
 phical apparatus, and a good be 
 ginning towards a collection of 
 natural and artificial curiosities, 
 besides landed property of consid 
 erable value. The company built 
 an elegant house in Fifth street, in 
 front of which is erected a marble 
 statue of their founder, Benjamin 
 Franklin. 
 The beneficial effects of this in- 
 
198 LIFE OF 
 
 stitution- were soon evident. The 
 cheapness of terms rendered it ac 
 cessible to every one. Its advan 
 tages were not confined to the 
 opulent. The citizens in the mid 
 dle and lower walks of life were 
 equally partakers of them. Hence, 
 a degree of information was ex 
 tended amongst all classes of people 
 which is very unusual in other 
 places. The example was soon 
 followed. Libraries were estab 
 lished in various places, and they 
 are now become very numerous in 
 the United States, and particularly 
 in Pennsylvania. It is to be hoped 
 that they will be still more widely 
 extended, and that information will 
 be everywhere increased. This 
 will be the best security for main- 
 tainina our liberties. A nation of 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 199 
 
 well informed men, who have been 
 taught to know and prize the rights 
 which God has given them, cannot 
 be enslaved. It is in the regions of 
 Ignorance that Tyranny reigns. It 
 flies before the light of Science. 
 Let the citizens of America, then, 
 encourage institutions calculated to 
 diffuse knowledge amongst the peo 
 ple ; and, amongst these, public 
 libraries are not the least impor 
 tant. 
 
 In 1732, Franklin began to pub 
 lish Poor Richard s Almanack. 
 This was remarkable for the nu 
 merous and valuable concise max 
 ims which it contained, all tending 
 to exhort to industry and frugality. 
 It was continued for many years. 
 In the almanack for the last year, 
 all the maxims were collected in 
 
200 LIFE OF 
 
 an address to the reader, entitled* 
 The Way to Wealth. This has 
 been translated into various lan 
 guages, and inserted in different 
 publications. This address contains 
 perhaps, the best practical system 
 of economy that ever has appeared. 
 It is written in a manner intelligible 
 to every one, and which cannot 
 fail of convincing every reader of 
 the justice and propriety of the re 
 marks and advice which it contains. 
 The demand for this almanack was 
 so great, that ten thousand have 
 been sold in one year, which must be 
 considered as a very large number, 
 especially when we reflect, that 
 this country was, at that time, but 
 thinly peopled. It cannot be doubt 
 ed that the salutary maxims con 
 tained in these almanacks, must 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 201 
 
 have made a favourable impression 
 upon many of the readers of them. 
 
 It was not long before Franklin 
 entered upon his political career. 
 In the year 1736, he was appointed 
 Clerk to the General Assembly of 
 Pennsylvania, and was re-elected 
 by succeeding Assemblies for sev 
 eral years, until he was chosen a 
 representative for the city of Phila 
 delphia. 
 
 Bradford was possessed of some 
 advantages over Franklin, by being 
 postmaster, thereby having an op 
 portunity of circulating his paper 
 more extensively, and thus render 
 ing it a better vehicle for advertise 
 ments, &c. Franklin, in his turn, 
 enjoyed these advantages, by being 
 appointed postmaster of Philadel 
 phia, in 1737. Bradford, while in 
 
202 LIFE OF 
 
 office, had acted ungenerously 
 towards Franklin, preventing, as 
 much as possible, the circulation of 
 his paper. He had now an oppor 
 tunity of retaliating, but his noble 
 ness of soul prevented him from 
 making use of it. 
 
 There is nothing more dangerous 
 to growing cities than fires. Other 
 causes operate slowly, and almost 
 imperceptibly ; but these, in a mo 
 ment, render abortive the labours of 
 years. On this. account there should 
 be, in all cities, ample provisions 
 to prevent fires from spreading. 
 Franklin early saw the necessity of 
 these, and about the year 1738, 
 formed the first fire company in 
 this city. This example was soon 
 followed by others, and there are 
 now numerous fire companies in 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 203 
 
 the city and liberties. To these may 
 be attributed, in a great degree, the 
 activity in extinguishing fires, for 
 which the citizens of Philadelphia 
 are distinguished, and the inconsid 
 erable damage which this city has 
 sustained from this cause. Some 
 time after, Franklin suggested the 
 plan of an association for insuring 
 houses from losses by fire, which 
 was adopted, and the association 
 continues to this day. The advan 
 tages experienced from it have been 
 great. 
 
 Pursuits of a different nature 
 now occupied the greatest part of 
 Franklin s attention for some years. 
 He engaged in a course of electri 
 cal experiments, with all the ardour 
 and thirst for discovery which 
 characterized the philosophers of 
 
204 LIFE OF 
 
 that day. Of all the branches of 
 experimental philosophy, electricity 
 had been least explored. The at 
 tractive power of amber is men 
 tioned by Theophrastus and Pliny, 
 and, from them, by later naturalists. 
 In the year 1600, Gilbert, an En 
 glish physician, enlarged consider 
 ably the catalogue of substances 
 which have the property of attract 
 ing light bodies. Boyle, Otto 
 Guericke, a burgomaster of Mag 
 deburg, celebrated as the inventor 
 of the air-pump, Dr. Wall, and 
 Sir Isaac Newton, added some facts. 
 Guericke first observed the repulsive 
 power of electricity, and the- light 
 and noise produced by it. In 1 709, 
 Hawkesbee communicated some 
 important observations and experi 
 ments to the world. For several 
 
BENJAMIN FllANKLIN. 205 
 
 years electricity was entirely neg 
 lected, until Mr. Grey applied him 
 self to it, in 1728, with great 
 assiduity. He, and his friend Mr. 
 Wheeler, made a great variety of 
 experiments; in which they de 
 monstrated that electricity may be 
 communicated from one body to 
 another, even without being in con 
 tact, and in this way may be con 
 ducted to a great distance. Mr. 
 Grey afterwards found, that by 
 suspending rods of iron by silk or 
 hair lines, and bringing an excited 
 tube under them, sparks might 
 be drawn, and a light perceived at 
 the extremities, in the dark. M. Du- 
 Faye, intendant of the French 
 King s gardens, made a number of 
 experiments, which added not a 
 little to the science. He made the 
 
800 LIFE OF 
 
 discovery of two kinds of electricity, 
 which he called vitreous and resin 
 ous, the former produced by rubbing 
 glass, the latter from excited sul 
 phur, sealing-wax, &c. But this 
 idea he afterwards gave up as 
 erroneous, Between the years 1739 
 and 1742, Desaguliers made a 
 number of experiments, but added 
 little of importance* He first used 
 the terms conductors and electrics 
 per sc. In 1742^ several ingenious 
 Germans engaged in this subject. 
 Of these the principal were* Pro 
 fessor Boze, of Wittcmburg 1 Pro 
 fessor Winkler, of Lei psic, Gor 
 don, a Scotch Benedictine monk, 
 professor of philosophy at Erfurt 
 and Dr. Lunolf, of Berlin. The 
 result of their researches astonished 
 the philosophers of Europe. Their 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 207 
 
 apparatus was large, and by means 
 of it they were enabled to collect 
 large quantities of electricity, and 
 thus to produce phenomena which 
 had been hitherto unobserved. 
 They killed small birds, and set 
 spirits on fire. Their experiments 
 excited the curiosity of other phi 
 losophers. Collinson, about the 
 year 1745, sent to the Library 
 Company of Philadelphia an ac 
 count of these experiments, to 
 gether with a tube, and directed 
 how to use it. Franklin, with 
 some of his friends, immediately 
 engaged in a course of experiments, 
 the result of which is well "known. 
 He was enabled to make a number 
 of important discoveries, and to 
 propose theories to account for va 
 rious phenomena, which have beeri 
 
208 LIFE OF 
 
 universally adopted, and which bid 
 fair to endure for ages. His ob 
 servations he communicated in a 
 series of letters to his friend Col- 
 linson, the first of which is dated 
 the twenty-eighth of March, 1747. 
 In these he makes known the 
 power of points in drawing and 
 throwing off the electrical matter, 
 which had hitherto escaped the 
 notice of electricians. He also 
 made the grand discovery of a 
 plus and minus, or of a positive 
 and negative state of electricity. 
 We give him the honour of this, 
 without hesitation, although the 
 English- have claimed it for their 
 countrymen, Dr. Watson. Wat 
 son s paper is dated January 21, 
 1748. Franklin s July 11, 1747, 
 several months prior. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 209 
 
 It was not until the summer of 
 1752, that he was enabled to com 
 plete his unparalleled discovery by 
 experiment. The plan which he 
 originally proposed, was to erect on 
 some high tower, or other elevated 
 place, a sentry-box, from which 
 should rise a pointed iron rod, in 
 sulated by being fixed in a cake of 
 resin. Electrified clouds passing 
 over this would, he conceived, im 
 part to it a portion of their elec 
 tricity, which would be rendered 
 evident to the senses by sparks being 
 emitted, when a key, a knuckle, 
 or other conductor was presented 
 to it. Philadelphia, at this time, 
 afforded no opportunity of trying 
 an experiment of this kind. Whilst 
 Franklin was waiting for the erec 
 tion of a spire, it occurred to him, 
 
 14 
 
i 210 LIFE OF- 
 
 that he might have more free access 
 to the region of clouds by means 
 of a common kite. He prepared 
 one by attaching two cross sticks 
 to a silk handkerchief, which would 
 not suffer so much from the rain 
 as paper. To his upright stick 
 was affixed an iron point. The 
 string was, as usual, of hemp, ex 
 cept the lower end, which was 
 silk. Where the hempen string ter 
 minated, a key was fastened. With 
 this apparatus, on the appearance of 
 a thunder-gust approaching, he 
 went out in the commons, accom 
 panied by his son, to whom alone 
 he communicated his intentions, 
 well knowing the ridicule which, 
 too generally for the interest of 
 science, awaits unsuccessful ex 
 periments in philosophy. He placed 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 213 
 
 himself under a shed to avoid the 
 rain. His kite was raised a 
 thunder-cloud passed over it no 
 sign of electricity appeared he 
 almost despaired of success when, 
 suddenly, he observed the loose 
 fibres of his string move. towards 
 an erect position. He now pre 
 sented his knuckle to the key, and 
 received a strong spark. How ex 
 quisite must his sensations have 
 been at this moment ! On this 
 experiment depended the fate of his 
 theory. If he succeeded, his name 
 would rank high among those who 
 have improved science ; if he failed, 
 he must be inevitably subject to the 
 derision of mankind ; or, what is 
 worse, their pity, as a well-mean 
 ing man, but a weak, silly projector. 
 The anxiety with which he looked 
 
214 LIFE OF 
 
 for the result of his experiment 
 may easily be conceived. Doubts 
 and despair had begun to prevail, 
 when the fact was ascertained in 
 so clear a manner, that even the 
 most incredulous could not with 
 hold their assent. Repeated sparks 
 were drawn from the key, a phial 
 was charged, a shock given, and 
 all the experiments made which are 
 usually performed with electricity. 
 By these experiments, Franklin s 
 theory was established in a most 
 firm manner. 
 
 Although philosophy was a princi 
 pal object of Franklin s pursuit for 
 several years, he confined himself 
 not to this. In the year 1747, he 
 became a member of the General 
 Assembly of Pennsylvania, as a 
 burgess for the city of Philadelphia. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 215 
 
 Warm disputes at this time subsisted 
 between the Assembly and the 
 Proprietors, each contending for 
 what they conceived to be their just 
 rights. Franklin, a friend to the 
 rights of man from his infancy, 
 soon distinguished himself as a 
 steady opponent of the unjust 
 schemes of the Proprietors. 
 
 Dr. Franklin had conducted him 
 self so well in the office of post 
 master, and had shown himself to 
 be so well acquainted with the 
 business of that department, that it 
 was thought expedient to raise him 
 to a more dignified station. In 1753, 
 he was appointed Deputy Post 
 master General for the British 
 Colonies. The profits arising from 
 the postage of letters formed no 
 inconsiderable part of the revenue 
 
216 LIFE OF 
 
 which the crown of Great Britain 
 derived from these colonies. 
 
 The American colonies were 
 much exposed to depredations on 
 their frontiers by the Indians, and 
 more particularly whenever a war 
 took place between France and 
 England. The colonies, individu 
 ally, were either too weak to take 
 efficient measures for their own 
 defence, or they were unwilling to 
 take upon themselves the whole 
 burden of erecting forts and main 
 taining garrisons, whilst their neigh 
 bours, who partook equally with 
 themselves of the advantages, con 
 tributed nothing to the expense. 
 Sometimes also the disputes which 
 subsisted between the governors 
 and assemblies, prevented the 
 adoption of means of defence, as 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 217 
 
 we have seen was the case in Penn 
 sylvania in 1745. To devise a 
 plan of union between the colonies, 
 to regulate this and other matters, 
 appeared a desirable object. To 
 accomplish this, in the year 1754, 
 commissioners from New Hamp 
 shire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 
 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
 Maryland, met at Albany. Dr. 
 Franklin attended here, as a com 
 missioner from Pennsylvania, and 
 produced a plan, which, from the 
 place of meeting, has been usually 
 termed, "The Albany Plan of 
 Union." This proposed, that ap 
 plication should be made for an act 
 of Parliament, to establish in the 
 colonies a general government, to 
 be administered by a President- 
 General, appointed by the crown, 
 
218 LIFE OF 
 
 and by a Grand Council, consisting 
 of members chosen by the repre 
 sentatives of the different colonies, 
 their number to be in direct pro 
 portion to the sums paid by each 
 colony into the general treasury, 
 with this restriction, that no colony 
 should have more than seven, nor 
 less than two representatives. The 
 whole executive authority was com 
 mitted to the president- general. 
 The power of legislation was lodged 
 in the grand council and president- 
 general jointly, his consent being 
 made necessary to passing a bill 
 into a law. The powers vested in 
 the president and council were, to 
 declare war and peace, and to con 
 clude treaties with the Indian na 
 tions, to regulate with, and to make 
 purchases of vacant lands from 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 219 
 
 them, either in the name of the 
 crown, or of the union ; to settle 
 new colonies, to make laws for 
 governing these until they should 
 be erected into separate govern 
 ments, and to raise troops, build 
 forts, fit out armed vessels, and use 
 other means for the general defence; 
 and, to effect these things, a power 
 was given to make laws, laying 
 such duties, imposts, or taxes, as 
 they should find necessary, and as 
 would be least burthensome to the 
 people. All laws were to be sent 
 to England, for the king s appro 
 bation ; and, unless disapproved of 
 within three years, were to rejnain 
 in force. All officers in the land 
 or sea-service were to be nominated 
 by the president-general, and ap 
 proved of by the general council j 
 
220 LIFE OF 
 
 civil officers were to be nominated 
 by the council, and approved by 
 the president. Such are the out 
 lines of the plan proposed for the 
 consideration of the Congress by 
 Dr. Franklin. After several days 
 discussion, it was unanimously 
 agreed to by the commissioners, a 
 copy transmitted to each assembly, 
 and one to the king s council. The 
 fate of it was singular. It was 
 disapproved of by the ministry of 
 Great Britain, because it gave too 
 much power to the representatives 
 of the people ; and it was rejected 
 by every assembly, as giving too 
 muoh power to the president-gen 
 eral, the representative of the crown, 
 an influence greater than appeared 
 to them proper in a plan of govern* 
 ment intended for freemen. Per- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 221 
 
 haps this rejection on both sides is 
 the strongest proof that could be 
 adduced of the excellence of it, as 
 suited to the situation of America 
 and Great Britain at that time. It 
 appears to have steered exactly in 
 the middle, between the opposite 
 interests of both. 
 
 Whilst the French were in pos 
 session of Canada, their trade with 
 the natives extended very far, even 
 to the back of the British settle 
 ments. They were disposed, from 
 time to time, to establish posts with 
 in the territory which the British 
 claimed as their own. Independent 
 of the injury to the fur trade, which 
 was considerable, the colonies suf 
 fered this further inconvenience, 
 that the Indians were frequently in 
 stigated to commit depredations on 
 
222 LIFE OF 
 
 their frontiers. In the year 1753, 
 encroachments were made upon the 
 boundaries of Virginia. Remon 
 strances had no effect. In the 
 ensuing year, a body of men was 
 sent out under the command of 
 Mr. Washington, who, though a 
 very young man, had by his con 
 duct in the preceding year, shown 
 himself worthy of such an impor 
 tant trust. Whilst marching to 
 take possession of the post at the 
 junction of the Allegjaany and 
 Monongahela, he was informed that 
 the French had already erected a 
 fort there. A detachment of their 
 men marched against him. He 
 fortified himself as strongly as 
 time and circumstances would ad 
 mit. A superiority of numbers 
 soon obliged him to surrender Fort 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 223 
 
 Necessity. He obtained honourable 
 terms for himself and his men, and 
 returned to Virginia. The govern 
 ment of Great Britain now thought 
 it necessary to interfere. . In the 
 year 1755, General Braddock, 
 with some regiments of regular 
 troops and provincial levies, was 
 sent to disposses the French of the 
 posts upon which they had seized. 
 After the men were all ready, a 
 difficulty occurred, which had near 
 ly prevented the expedition. This 
 was the want of wagons. Frank 
 lin now stepped forward, and, with 
 the assistance of his son, in a little 
 time procured one hundred and fifty. 
 Braddock unfortunately fell into an 
 ambuscade, and perished, with a 
 great number of his men. 
 
 The alarm spread through the 
 
224 LIFE or 
 
 colonies, after the defeat of Brad- 
 dock, was very great. Prepara 
 tions to arm were everywhere 
 made. In Pennsylvania, the pre 
 valence of the Quaker interest pre 
 vented tne adoption of any system 
 of defence which would compel the 
 citizens to bear arms. Franklin 
 introduced into the assembly a bill 
 for organizing a militia, by which 
 every man was allowed to take 
 arms or not, as to him should ap 
 pear fit. The Quakers, being thus 
 left at liberty, suffered the bill to 
 pass ; for, although their principles 
 would not suffer them to fight, they 
 had no objections to their neigh 
 bours fighting for them. In con 
 sequence of this act, a very re 
 spectable militia was formed. The 
 sense of impending danger infused 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 225 
 
 a military spirit in all whose re 
 ligious tenets were not opposed to 
 war. Franklin was appointed co 
 lonel of a regiment in Philadelphia, 
 which consisted of twelve hundred 
 men. 
 
 The north-western frontier being 
 invaded by the enemy, it became 
 necessary to adopt measures for its 
 defence. Franklin was directed by 
 the governor to take charge of this 
 business. A power of raising men, 
 and of appointing officers to com 
 mand them, was vested in him* He 
 soon levied a body of troops, with 
 which he repaired to the place at 
 which their presence was necessary. 
 Here he built a fort, and placed the 
 garrison in such a posture of de 
 fence, as would enable them to 
 withstand the inroads to which the 
 
226 LIFE OF 
 
 inhabitants had previously been 
 exposed. He remained here for 
 some time, in order the more com 
 pletely to discharge the trust com 
 mitted to him. Some business of 
 importance at length rendered his 
 presence necessary iri the assembly, 
 and he returned to Philadelphia. 
 
 The disputes between the pro 
 prietaries and the people continued 
 m full force, although a war was 
 raging on the frontiers. Not even 
 the sense of danger was sufficient 
 to reconcile, for ever so short a 
 time, their jarring interest. The 
 assembly still insisted upon the 
 justice of taxing the proprietary 
 estates; but the governors constantly- 
 refused to give their assent to this 
 measure, without which no bill 
 could pass into a law. Enraged 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 227 
 
 at the obstinacy, and what they 
 conceived to be unjust proceedings 
 of their opponents, the assembly at 
 length determined to apply to the 
 I mother country for relief. A peti 
 tion was addressed to the king in 
 council, stating the inconveniences 
 under which the inhabitants la 
 boured, from the attention of the 
 proprietaries to their private interest, 
 to the neglect of the general wel 
 fare of the community, and pray 
 ing for redress. Franklin was 
 appointed to present this address, 
 as agent, for the province of Penn 
 sylvania, and departed from Ameri 
 ca in June, 1757. In conformity 
 to the instructions which he had 
 received from the legislature, he 
 held a conference with the proprie 
 taries, who then resided in England, 
 
228 LIFE OF 
 
 and endeavoured to prevail upon 
 them to give up the long-contested 
 point. Finding that they would 
 hearken to no terms of accommo 
 dation, he laid his petition before 
 the council. During this time, 
 Governor Denny assented to a law 
 imposing a tax, in which no dis 
 crimination was made in favour of 
 the Penn family. They, alarmed 
 at this intelligence, and Franklin s 
 exertions, used their utmost en 
 deavours to prevent the royal sanc 
 tion being given to this law, which 
 they represented as highly iniqui 
 tous, designed to throw the support 
 of government upon them, and 
 calculated to produce the most ruin 
 ous consequences to them and their 
 posterity. The cause was amply 
 discussed before the privy council. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 229 
 
 The Penns found here some stren 
 uous advocates ; nor were there 
 wanting some who warmly espoused 
 the side of the people. After some 
 time spent in debate, a proposal 
 was made, that Franklin should 
 solemnly engage that the assess 
 ment of the Six should be so made, 
 as that the proprietary estates should 
 pay no more than a due proportion. 
 This he agreed to perform ; the 
 Penn family withdrew their oppo 
 sition, and tranquillity was thus 
 once more restored to the province. 
 The mode in which this dispute 
 was terminated is a striking proof 
 of the high opinion entertained of 
 Frankjin s integrity and honour, 
 even by those who considered him 
 as inimical to their views. Nor 
 was their confidence ill-founded. 
 
230 LIFE OF 
 
 The assessment was made upon 
 the strictest principles of equity, 
 and the proprietary estates bore 
 only a proportionable share of the 
 expenses of supporting government. 
 
 After the completion of this im 
 portant business, Franklin remained 
 at the court of Greafc Britain, as 
 agent for the province of Pennsyl 
 vania. The extensive knowledge 
 which he possessed of -the situation 
 of the colonies, and the regard 
 which he always manifested for 
 their interests, occasioned his ap 
 pointment to the same office by the 
 color ies of Massachusetts, Mary 
 land, and Georgia. His conduct 
 in this situation was such as ren 
 dered him still more dear to his 
 countrymen. 
 
 He had now an opportunity of 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 231 
 
 indulging in the society of I hose 
 friends whom his merits had pro 
 cured him while at a distance. 
 The regard which they had enter 
 tained for him was rather increased 
 by a personal acquaintance. The 
 opposition which had been made to 
 his discoveries in philosophy, gradu 
 ally ceased, and the rewards of 
 literary merit were abundantly con 
 ferred upon him. The Royal So 
 ciety of London, which had at first 
 refused his performances admission 
 into its transactions, now thought 
 it an honour to rank him among its 
 fellows. Other societies of Europe 
 were equally ambitious of calling 
 him a member. The university of 
 St. Andrew s, in Scotland, conferred 
 upon him the degree of Doctor of 
 Laws. Its example was followed 
 
232 LIFE OF 
 
 by the universities of Edinburgh 
 and of Oxford. His correspon 
 dence was sought for by the most 
 eminent philosophers of Europe. 
 His letters to these abound with 
 true science, delivered in the most 
 simple, unadorned manner. 
 
 In the summer of 1762 he re 
 turned to America. On his pas 
 sage he observed the singular effect 
 produced by the agitation of a 
 vessel containing oil floating on 
 water. The surface of the oil re 
 mains smooth and undisturbed, 
 whilst the water is agitated with 
 the utmost commotion. No satis 
 factory explanation of this appear 
 ance has, we believe, ever been 
 given. 
 
 Dr. Franklin received the thanks 
 of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 233 
 
 " as well for the faithful discharge 
 of his duty to that province in par 
 ticular, as for the many and im 
 portant services done to America 
 in general, during his residence in 
 Great Britain." A compensation 
 of five thousand pounds, Pennsyl 
 vania currency, was also decreed 
 him for his services during six 
 years. 
 
 During his absence he had been 
 annually elected member of* the 
 Assembly. On his return to Penn 
 sylvania, he again took his seat in 
 this body, and continued a steady 
 defender of the liberties of the 
 people. 
 
 At the election for a new Assem 
 bly, in the fall of 1764, the friends 
 of the proprietaries made great ex 
 ertions to exclude those of the ad- 
 
234 LIFE OF 
 
 verse party, and obtained a small 
 majority in the city of Philadelphia. 
 Franklin now lost his seat in the 
 House, which he had held for four 
 teen years. On the meeting of the 
 Assembly, it appeared that there 
 was still a decided majority of 
 Franklin s friends. He was imme 
 diately appointed provincial agent, 
 to the great chagrin of his enemies, 
 who made a solemn protest against 
 his appointment, which was refused 
 admission upon the minutes, as be 
 ing unprecedented. It was, how 
 ever, published in the papers, and 
 produced a spirited reply from him, 
 just before his departure for Eng 
 land. 
 
 The disturbances produced in 
 America by Mr. Grcnvillc s stamp- 
 act, and the opposition made to it 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 235 
 
 are well known. Under the Mar 
 quis of Rockingham s administra 
 tion, it appeared expedient to endea 
 vour to calm the minds of the 
 colonists, and the repeal of the 
 odious tax was contemplated. 
 Amongst other means of collecting 
 information on the disposition of 
 the people to submit to it, Dr. 
 Franklin was called to the bar of 
 the House of Commons. The ex 
 amination which he here underwent 
 was published, and contains a stri 
 king proof of the extent and accu 
 racy of his information, and the 
 facility with which he communicated 
 his sentiments. He represented 
 facts in so strong a point of view, 
 that the inexpediency of the act 
 must have appeared clear to every 
 unprejudiced mind. The act, after 
 
236 LIFE OF 
 
 some opposition, was repealed about 
 a year after it was enacted, and 
 before it had ever been carried into 
 execution. In 1776, he made a 
 visit to Holland and Germany, and 
 received the greatest marks of 
 attention from men of science. In 
 his passage through Holland, he 
 learned from the watermen the 
 effect which a diminution of the 
 quantity of water in canals has in 
 impeding the progress of boats. 
 Upon his return to England, he was 
 led to make a number of experi 
 ments, all of which tended to con 
 firm the observation. These, with 
 an explanation of the phenomenon, 
 he communicated in a letter to his 
 friend Sir John Pringle, which is 
 contained in the volume of his 
 philosophical pieces. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 237 
 
 In the following year, he travel 
 led into France, where he met with 
 a no less favourable reception than 
 he had experienced in Germany. 
 He was introduced to a number of 
 literary characters, and to the king, 
 Louis XV. 
 
 Several letters, written by Hutch - 
 inson, Oliver, and others, to persons 
 in eminent stations in Great Britain, 
 came into the hands of Dr. Frank 
 lin. These contained the most 
 violent invectives against the leading 
 characters of the state of Massa- 
 chusetts, and strenuously advised 
 the prosecution of vigorous mea 
 sures, to compel the people to 
 obedience to the measures of the 
 ministry. These he transmitted to 
 the legislature, by whom they were 
 published. Attested copies of them 
 
238 LIFE OF 
 
 Were sent to Great Britain, with an 
 ; address, praying the king to dis- 
 | charge from office persons who had 
 ; shown themselves so unfriendly to 
 ! their interests. The publication of 
 ; these letters produced a duct be 
 tween Mr. Wheatly and Mr. Tem 
 ple, each of whom was suspected 
 of having been instrumental in 
 procuring them. To prevent any 
 further disputes on the subject,. Dr 
 Franklin, in one of the public 
 papers, declared that he had sent 
 them to America, but would give 
 no information concerning the 
 manner in which he had obtained 
 them ; nor was this ever discovered. 
 Shortly after, the petition of the 
 Massachusetts Assembly was taken 
 tip for examination, before the privy 
 council. Dr. Franklin attended, 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 239 
 
 as agent for the Assembly ; and 
 here a torrent of the most violent 
 and unwarrantable abuse was 
 poured upon him by the solicitor 
 general, Wedderburnc, (afterwards 
 Lord Loughbbrough) who was en 
 gaged as counsel for Oliver and 
 Hutchinsoh. The petition was de 
 clared to be scandalous and vexa 
 tious, and the prayer of it rejected. 
 Dr. Franklin left nothing untried 
 to prevail upon the British ministry 
 to consent to a change of measures. 
 In private conversations, and in 
 letters to persons in government, he 
 continually expatiated upon the im 
 policy and injustice of their con 
 duct towards America, and stated, 
 that, notwithstanding the attachment 
 of the colonists to the mothei* 
 country, a repetition of ill treatment 
 
240 LIFE OF 
 
 must ultimately alienate their affec 
 tions* They listened not to his 
 advice. They blindly persevered in 
 their own schemes, and left to the 
 colonists no other alternative but 
 opposition or unconditional sub 
 mission. The latter accorded not 
 with the principles of freedom 
 which they had been taught to re 
 vere. To the former they were 
 compelled, though reluctantly, to 
 have recourse. 
 
 Dr Franklin, finding all efforts 
 to restore harmony between Great 
 Britain and her colonies useless, re 
 turned to America in the year 1775, 
 just after the commencement of 
 hostilities. The day after his re 
 turn, he was elected, by the legis 
 lature of Pennsylvania, a member 
 of Congress. Not long after his 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 241 
 
 election, a committee was appointed, 
 consisting of Mr. Lynch, Mr.- Har 
 rison, and himself, to visit the camp 
 at Cambridge, and, in conjunction 
 with the commander-in-chief, to 
 endeavour to convince the troops, 
 whose term of enlistment was about 
 to expire, of the necessity of their 
 continuing in the field, and per 
 severing in the cause of their 
 country. 
 
 In the fall of the same year, he 
 visited Canada, to endeavour to 
 unite them in the common cause of 
 liberty ; but they could not be pre 
 vailed upon to oppose the measures 
 of the British government. M. Le- 
 Roy, in a letter annexed to Abbe 
 Fauchet s eulogium of Dr. Frank 
 lin, states, that the ill success of 
 this negotiation was occasioned, in 
 
 16 
 
242 LIFE OF 
 
 a great degree, by religious ani 
 mosities, which subsisted between 
 the Canadians and their neighbours, 
 some of whom had, at different 
 times, burnt their chapels. 
 
 When Lord Howe came to 
 America, in 1776, vested with 
 power to treat with the colonists, z* 
 correspondence took place between 
 him and Dr. Franklin, on the sub 
 ject of a reconciliation. Dr. Frank 
 lin was afterwards appointed, to 
 gether with John Adams and 
 Edward Rutledge, to wait upon 
 the commissioners, in order to learn 
 the extent of their power. These 
 were founjl to be only to grant 
 pardons upon submission. These 
 were terms which would not be 
 accepted, and the object of the com 
 missioners could not be obtained. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 243 
 
 The momentous question of inde 
 pendence was shortly after brought 
 into view, at a time when the fleets 
 and armies, which were sent to 
 enforce obedience, were truly for 
 midable. With an army ignorant 
 of discipline, and entirely unskilled 
 in the art of war ; without money, 
 without a fleet, without allies, and 
 with nothing but the love of liberty 
 to support them, the colonists de 
 termined to separate from a country 
 from which they had experienced a 
 repetition of injury and insult. In 
 this question Dr. Franklin was de 
 cidedly in favour of the measure 
 proposed, and had great influence 
 in bringing over others to his sen 
 timents. 
 
 The public mind had been pretty 
 fully prepared for ttyis event, by 
 
244 LIFE OF 
 
 Thomas Paine s celebrated pam 
 phlet, Common Sense. There is 
 good reason to believe that Dr. 
 Franklin had no inconsiderable 
 share, at least in furnishing materials 
 for this work. 
 
 In the convention which assem 
 bled at Philadelphia, in 1776, for 
 the purpose of establishing a new 
 form of government for the state of 
 Pennsylvania, Dr. Franklin was 
 chosen President. The consti 
 tution then formed, which was 
 the result of their deliberations, 
 may be considered as a digest of 
 his principles of government. The 
 single legislature, and the plural 
 executive, seem to have been his 
 favourite tenets. 
 
 In the latter end of 1776, Dr. 
 Franklin was appointed to assist in 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 245 
 
 the negotiations which had been 
 set on foot by Silas Deane, at the 
 court of France. A conviction of 
 the advantages of a commercial in 
 tercourse with America, and a 
 desire of weakening the British 
 empire by dismembering it, first 
 induced the French court to listen 
 to proposals df an alliance. But 
 they showed rather a reluctance to 
 the measure, which, by Dr. Frank 
 lin s address, and particularly by 
 the success of the American arms 
 against General Burgoyne, was at 
 length overcome, and in February 
 1778, a treaty of alliance, offensive 
 and defensive, was concluded, in 
 consequence of which France be 
 came involved in the war with 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Perhaps no person could have 
 
246 LIFE OF 
 
 been found more capable of ren 
 dering essential services to the 
 United States at the court of France 
 than Dr. Franklin. He was well 
 known as a philosopher, and his 
 character was held in the highest 
 estimation. He was received with 
 the greatest marks of respect by 
 all literary characters, and this 
 respect was extended amongst all 
 classes of men. His personal in 
 fluence was hence very considera 
 ble. To the effects of this were 
 added those of various performances 
 which he published, tending to 
 establish the credit and character 
 of the United States. To his ex 
 ertions in this way, may, in no 
 small degree, be ascribed the success 
 of the loans negotiated in Holland 
 and France, which greatly con- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 247 
 
 tributed to bringing the war to a 
 happy conclusion. 
 
 The repeated ill success of their 
 arms, and more particularly the 
 capture of Cornwallis and his army, 
 at length convinced the British na 
 tion of the impossibility of reducing 
 the Americans to subjection. The 
 trading interest particularly became 
 clamorous for peace. The ministry 
 were unable longer to oppose their 
 wishes. Provisional articles of 
 peace were agreed to, and signed 
 at Paris, on the 30th of November, 
 1782, by Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams, 
 Mr. Jay, and Mr. Laurens, on the 
 part of the United States ; and by 
 Mr. Oswald, on the part of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 These formed the basis of the 
 definitive treaty, which was con- 
 
248 LIFE OF 
 
 eluded the third of September, 1783, 
 and signed by Dr. Franklin, Mr. 
 Adams, and Mr. Jay, on the one 
 part, and by Mr. David Hartley on 
 the other. 
 
 On the third of April, 1783, a 
 treaty of amity and commerce, be 
 tween the United States and Sweden, 
 was concluded at Paris by Dr. 
 Franklin and the Count Von Kruitz. 
 
 Dr. Franklin did not allow his 
 political pursuits to engross his 
 whole attention. Some of his per 
 formances made their appearance 
 in Paris. The object of these was, 
 generally, the promotion of indus 
 try and economy. 
 
 The important ends of Dr. 
 Franklin s mission being completed 
 by the establishment of American 
 Independence, and the infirmities 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 249 
 
 of age and disease corning upon 
 him, he became desirous of re 
 turning to his native country. Up 
 on application to Congress to be 
 recalled, Mr. Jefferson was appoint 
 ed to succeed him, in 1785. Some 
 time in September of the same 
 year, Dr. Franklin arrived in 
 Philadelphia. He was, shortly 
 after, chosen member of the Su 
 preme Executive Council for the 
 city, and soon after was elected 
 president of the same. 
 
 When a convention was called 
 to meet in Philadelphia, in 1787, 
 for the purpose of giving more 
 energy to the government of the 
 union, by revising and amending 
 the articles of confederation, Dr. 
 Franklin was appointed a delegate 
 from the state of Pennsylvania. 
 
250 LIFE OF 
 
 He signed the constitution which 
 they proposed for the union, and 
 gave it the most unequivocal marks 
 of his approbation. 
 
 Dr. Franklin s increasing infir 
 mities prevented his regular attend 
 ance at the council-chamber ; and 
 in 1788, he retired wholly from 
 public life. 
 
 His constitution had been a re 
 markably good one. He had been 
 little subject to disease, except an 
 attack of the gout, occasionally, 
 until about the year 1781, when he 
 was first attacked with symptoms 
 of the calculous complaint, which 
 continued during his life. During 
 the intervals of pain from this 
 grievous disease, he spent many 
 cheerful hours, conversing in the 
 most agreeable and instructive man- 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 251 
 
 ner. His faculties were entirely 
 unimpaired, even to the hour of 
 his death. 
 
 In the beginning of April fol 
 lowing, he was attacked with a 
 fever and complaint of his breast, 
 which terminated his existence. 
 The following account of his last 
 illness was written by his friend and 
 physician Dr. Jones. 
 
 " The stone, with which he had 
 been afflicted for several years, had, 
 for the last twelve months, con 
 fined him chiefly to his bed ; and 
 during the extreme painful par 
 oxysms, he vas obliged to take 
 large doses of laudanum to mitigate 
 his tortures still, in the intervals 
 of pain, he not only amused him 
 self with reading and conversing 
 cheerfully with his family, and a 
 
252 LIFE OF 
 
 few of his friends who visited him, 
 but was often employed in doing 
 business of a public as well as 
 private nature, with various persons 
 who waited on him for that purpose ; 
 and in every instance displayed not 
 only that readiness and disposition 
 of doing good, which was the dis 
 tinguishing characteristic of his 
 life, but the fullest and clearest 
 possession of his uncommon men 
 tal abilities, and not unfrequently 
 indulged himself in those juex 
 d esprit and entertaining anecdotes, 
 which were the delight of all who 
 heard him. 
 
 " About sixteen days before his 
 death, he was seized with a feverish 
 indisposition, without any particular 
 symptoms attending it, till the third 
 or fourth day, when he complained 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 253 
 
 of a pain in his left breast, which in 
 creased till it became extremely 
 acute, attended with a cough, and 
 laborious breathing. During this 
 slate, when the severity of his pains 
 drew forth a groan of complaint, 
 he would observe, that he w#s 
 afraid he did not bear them as he 
 ought acknowledged his grateful 
 sense jof the many blessings he had 
 received from the Supreme Being, 
 who had raised him, from small 
 and low beginnings, to such high 
 rank and consideration among men 
 and made no doubt but his pre 
 sent afflictions were kindly intend 
 ed to wean him from a world in 
 which he was no longer fit to act 
 the part assigned him. In this 
 frame of body and mind he con 
 tinued till five days before his death, 
 
254 LIFE OF 
 
 when his pain and difficulty of 
 breathing entirely left him, and his 
 family were flattering themselves 
 with the hopes of his recovery, 
 when an imposthumation, which 
 had formed itself in his lungs, 
 suddenly burst, and discharged a 
 great quantity of matter, which he 
 continued to throw up while he had 
 sufficient strength to do it ; But as 
 that failed, the organs of respiration 
 became gradually oppressed a 
 calm, lethargic state succeeded, and, 
 on the seventeenth of April, 1790, 
 about eleven o clock at night, he 
 quietly expired, closing a long and 
 useful life of eighty-four years and 
 three months. 
 
 The following epitaph on himself 
 was written by him many years 
 previous to his death : 
 
LIFE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 255 
 
 THE BODY 
 
 OF 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
 
 PRINTER, 
 Like the Cover of an old Book, 
 
 Its Contents torn out, 
 And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, 
 
 Lies here Food for Worms. 
 
 Yet the Work itself shall not be lost, 
 
 For it will (as he believed) appear once more 
 
 In a new and more beautiful Edition, 
 
 Corrected and Amended 
 
 by 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 THE END. 
 
n