LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Chap. "Copyright No.. Shelf..t.HfV jyu UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ^^^^ I AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE / BY BRANDER MATTHEWS, A.M., LL.B. PROFESSOR OF LITERATURE IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE dHHic FEB 281896 NEW YORK-:- CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY Copyright, 1896, by AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. INT. TO AM. LIT. W. P. I STo mg ifricnti anti Colleague NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE PREFATORY NOTE This book is intended as an introduction to the study of American literature. Although the chapters on the separate authors are wholly distinct, they have been so planned that -each of them prepares the way for its suc- cessor, and that all of them together outline the changing circumstances under which American literature has devel- oped. An attempt has been made to show how each of the chief American authors influenced his time, and how he in turn was influenced by it ; and also to indicate how each of them was related to the others, both personally and artistically. Bearing in mind the fact that the student needs to have his attention centered on vital points, all dates and all proper names, and all titles of books not absolutely essen- tial, have been rigorously omitted. Interest has thus been concentrated on the literary career of each of these great writers and on their practice of the literary art, in the hope and expectation that the student will be encouraged and stimulated to read their works for his own pleasure. After the consideration of these more important authors, one by one, the writers of less consequence have been discussed briefly in a single chapter ; and in like manner a single chapter only has been devoted to a summary con- sideration of the condition of our literature at the end of the nineteenth century. 5 6 PREFATORY NOTE To arouse the student's interest in the authors as actual men, the illustrations chosen have been confined to por- traits and views, and to facsimiles of manuscripts. To enable him to see for himself the successive stages of the growth of American literature, and to let him dis- cover how the authors sometimes came one after an- other and sometimes worked side by side, there has been appended also a chronological table of the chief dates in our literary history. As mere text-book instruction can never be an adequate substitute for the student's own acquaintance with the actual works of the authors discussed, there have been annexed to every chapter bibliographical notes calling attention to the editions most suitable for the student's reading, and also to the best biographies and to a few of the most suggestive criticisms. The thanks of the author and of the publishers are due to Miss Alice M. Longfellow, Professor Norton, Mr. H. G. O. Blake, Mr. Edward W. Emerson, Mr. Walter R. Benjamin, and Gen. J. G. Wilson, for kindly furnishing the original manuscripts herewith reproduced ; to Mr. F. D. Stone, for aid in making a facsimile of Franklin's "Almanac"; and to Dr. Chas. H. J. Douglas of the Brooklyn Boys' High School, for preparing the most of the questions appended to every chapter — questions in- tended to be suggestive only and by no means exhaustive. B. M. CONTENTS PAGE Prefatory Note . 5 I Introduction 9 II The Colonial Period 15 III Benjamin Franklin 21 IV Washington Irving 40 V James Fenimore Cooper 56 VI William Cullen Bryant 69 VII Fitz-Greene Halleck AND Joseph Rodman Drake 83 VIII Ralph Waldo Emerson 93 IX Nathaniel Hawthorne . . . . \ .110 X Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . . . .124 XI John Greenleaf Whittier 138 XII Edgar Allan Poe 155 XIII Oliver Wendell Holmes 170 XIV David Henry Thoreau 184 XV James Russell Lowell 194 XVI Francis Parkman 210 XVII Other Writers 220 XVIII The End of the Nineteenth Century . . . 229 Chronological Table 235 7 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE The Colonial Period Portrait of Cotton Mather . . . . i8 Portrait of Jonathan Edwards . . -19 Benjamin Franklin Portrait 21 Birthplace 23 Facsimiles of Almanac .... 26, 27 Facsimile Manuscript 34.35 Washington Irving Portrait 4° Facsimile Manuscript 46, 47 Sunnyside 53 James Fenimore Cooper Portrait 56 Otsego Hall 57 Facsimile Manuscript 61 William Cullen Bkyant Portrait 69 Birthplace 71 Facsimile Manuscript 74 Residence, Roslyn, L.I 81 Fitz-Greene Halleck Portrait 83 Facsimile Manuscript 85 Residence, Guilford, Conn 91 Joseph Rodman Drake Portrait 87 Facsimile Manuscript 88 Residence, New York City .... 90 Ralph Waldo Emerson Portrait 93 Residence, Concord, Mass 97 Facsimile Manuscript . . . . 100, loi Nathaniel Hawthorne Portrait "o Birthplace "i The Old Manse 114 Facsimile Manuscript 119 The Wayside 120 Henry Wadsworth Longfellov Portrait 124 Birthplace 125 Residence, Cambridge, Mass. . . . 127 Facsimile Manuscript 133 page John Greenleaf Whittier Portrait 138 Birthplace 139 Residence, Amesbury, Mass. . . . 145 Facsimile Manuscript 149 Edgar Allan Poe Portrait 155 Facsimile Manuscript . . . 162, 163 Cottage, Fordham, N. Y 167 Oliver Wendell Holmes Portrait 170 Birthplace 172 Facsimile Manuscript 175 Summer Residence, Beverly Farms, Mass 178 Facsimile Manuscript 181 Henry David Thoreau Portrait 184 Residence, Concord, Mass. . . . 185 Hut on Walden Pond 186 Facsimile Manuscript . . . 190, 191 James Russell Lowell Portrait 194 Elmwood, Cambridge, Mass. . . . 198 Facsimile Manuscript 207 Francis Parkman Portrait 210 Residence, Boston, Mass 214 Facsimile Manuscript 217 Other Writers Portraits of: Alexander Hamilton 221 Daniel Webster 221 George Bancroft 222 William H. Prescott 223 Bayard Taylor 224 Walt Whitman 225 Harriet Beccher Stowe 227 William D. Howells 231 Edmund C. Stedman 232 Edward Eggleston 233 Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) . . 233 AMERICAN LITERATURE o>»ic I INTRODUCTION Since the invention of the art of writing, the story of the past is no longer kept alive by word of mouth only, the father telling the son, and the son, in turn, telling the grandson. It has been set down in black and white, by means of letters, so that we to-day can read the record of the feelings, the thoughts, and the acts of the people of two thousand years ago. And we, in our turn, are setting down our sayings and our doings, so that those who come after us will be able to understand what we felt, ~ what we thought, and what we did. When this record is so skill- fully made as to give pleasure to the reader, it is called literature. Literature, then, is the reflection and the reproduction of the life of the people. It has existed ever since the invention of the art of writing, which enabled men to keep an account of the things they wished to remember. The literature of the past helps us to understand the lives of the peoples of the past. Greek literature tells us how the Greeks lived, and how they felt, what they thought, and what they did. Through Latin literature we get to know the ways of the old Romans ; and, through Hebrew litera- 9 lO AMERICAN LITERATURE ture, we are enabled to understand the character of the Jewish race. In like manner, English literature tells us about the life of the peoples who speak the English language. English literature is the record of the thoughts and the feelings and the acts of the great English-speaking race. This record extends a long way back into the past ; but it is also being made to-day and every day ; and it bids fair to be made for many centuries to come. Greek literature is dead, and Hebrew literature is dead ; but English literature is alive now. It is the continuous account of the life of those who speak the English language, in the past, in the present, and in the future. Here in the United States, above the Great Lakes in Canada, across the Atlantic in Great Britain, afar on the other side of the Pacific in Aus- tralia and in India, there are now men and women keeping the record of their feelings, their thoughts, and their acts. All that these men and these women write, if only it be so skillfully presented as to give pleasure to the reader, becomes at once a part of English literature. It is no matter where the authors live, whether in New York or in Montreal, in London, in Melbourne or in Calcutta, what they write in the English language belongs to English literature. It is no matter what the nationality of the author may be, whether he is a citizen of the United States or a subject of the British crown ; if he uses the English language he contributes to English literature. This must be remembered always — that the record of the life of the peoples using the English language is English literature. As literature is a reflection and a reproduction of the life of the peoples speaking the language in which it is written, this literature is likely to be strong and great in propor- tion as the peoples who speak the language are strong and INTRODUCTION 1 1 great. English literature is therefore likely to grow, as it is the record of the life of the English-speaking race, and as this race is steadily spreading abroad over the globe. It has been estimated that in the time of Chaucer less than three millions of men and women spoke English, and in the time of Shakspere less than seven millions ; and all these lived in the British Isles. But after a while the British Isles became too small for those who spoke EngHsh, Men and women went east and west out of England, and settled in the four quarters of the earth. They grew in numbers rapidly. Another estimate shows that at the beginning of the nineteenth century probably about twenty millions of men and women spoke English, while about thirty-one millions spoke French, and about thirty millions spoke German. Now, at the end of the nineteenth century, it is believed that about fifty millions speak French, and about seventy millions speak German, while more than a hundred and twenty-five millions speak English. Our language is spread- ing far more rapidly than any other ; and the prophecy has been made that at the end of the twentieth century the number of those who use the English language will be fully a thousand millions. While those who speak German are still mostly in Ger- many, and those who speak French mostly in France, the most of those who speak English are no longer in England, for the total population of all the British Isles is now less than forty millions. The largest single body of the English-speaking race has not even a political connection with England, for English is the language of the popula- tion of the United States, who now number more than sixty millions. As the people of the United States have vigor and energy and are in no wise inferior to the people of 12 . AMERICAN LITERATURE Great Britain, it seems likely that hereafter the Americans^ rather than the British, will be recognized as the chief of the English-speaking peoples. As long as the English-speaking race dwelt only in the British Isles, English literature had to do only with British subjects. Now that the English-speaking race has settled itself also in America, and now more especially that the chief body of this race is not to be found in the British Isles but in the United States, it is needful to have terms to distinguish that portion of English literature which is written in the British Isles from that which is written in the United States. Until the Declaration of Independence, the unity of the English race was unbroken ; and until the end of the eighteenth century the stream of English literature had but a single channel. Since we in the United States began to have writers of our own, the record of our feelings, of our thoughts, and of our deeds may fairly be called Ameri- can literature. It is still a part of English literature, for it is written in the English language. As Canada and as Australia are growing and prospering, there can be said to be already a Canadian literature and an Australian literature. And to distinguish the literature of the Eng- lish-speaking race who continue to live in the British Isles from the literature of the Americans and the Canadians and the Australians, perhaps that had best be called British literature. So, at the end of the nineteenth century, we find that English literature, one in the past, has now four divisions, — British, American, Canadian, and Australian. Of these, the British is still the most important, having the most great authors. But the American is second to it, and is growing sturdily and steadily. The English literature of INTRODUCTION 13 the past is as much our glorious heritage as it is that of the British. It belongs to us as it belongs to them, and we have an equal pride in this splendid possession. But as the American of to-day is unlike an Englishman in many points of custom and of taste, so American litera- ture has begun to differ from British literature in many ways. Literature is a reflection and a reproduction of life, and as life in the United States is more and more unlike life in Great Britain, American literature must needs become more and more unlike British literature. We Americans, for the most part, come of the same stock as the British of to-day, but we have lived, for many genera- tions, in another land, with another climate and under another social organization. For more than a century now, the American has grown up in a republic free from feudal influences, without caste and class distinctions, with public schools open to rich and poor alike. All these things cannot but have had their effect upon us. We believe that there is a difference be- tween the American and the Englishman — although it is not easy to declare precisely what that difference may be. We believe that there is such a thing as Americanism ; and that there have been Americans of a type impossible elsewhere in the world — impossible, certainly, in Great Britain. Washington and Franklin were typical Ameri- cans, different as they were ; and so were Emerson and Lincoln, Farragut and Lowell. It was Lowell who found in President Hayes "that excellent new thing we call Americanism, which I suppose is that dignity of human nature . . . which consists, perhaps, in not thinking your- self either better or worse than your neighbors' by reason of any artificial distinction." This Americanism has left its mark on the writings of the authors of the United States. 14 AMERICAN LITERATURE It is perhaps for this reason, and perhaps, also, because we all like to find ourselves in the books we read, that American writers are of more interest to us here in the United States than are the recent writers of the other great branch of English literature, the writers now living in the British Isles. British literature reproduces for us a life which is at once like ours, and unlike it. Amer- ican literature reproduces for us our own life ; it records our feelings, our thoughts, and our deeds ; it enables us to see ourselves and our neighbors as we really are, or at least as we seem to ourselves to be ; it explains us to ourselves. And therefore, even if American literature, which belongs almost wholly to the nineteenth century, were inferior in quality as well as in quantity to the British literature of the nineteenth century, yet it would be of more importance to us here in America. To learn how it came into being and who its founders were ought to be interesting to all of us. Questions. —What is literature? Mention several historical divi- sions of the subject. Trace the spread of the English-speaking race, from the time of Chaucer to the present day. How has English literature come to have four geographical divisions? What is meant by British literature ? What is the distinguishing characteristic of American literature ? Note. — There are two primers of American literature, one by Miss Watkins (American Book Company, 35 cents), and one by Prof. C. F. Richardson (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 50 cents). Prof. Richardson is also the author of a more elaborate work on "American Literature" (G. P. Putnam's Sons, $3.50). Prof. M. C. Tyler has written a history of " American Colonial Literature," of which 4 vols, have now been published (G. P. Putnam's Sons, ^6). Very useful is Mr. Whitcomb's " Chronological Outlines of American Literature" (Macmillan & Co., $1.25). Most comprehensive is the " Library of American Literature," edited by Mr. Stedman and Miss Hutchinson (W. R. Benjamin, 11 vols., ^33). II THE COLONIAL PERIOD The English settlements in North America began at a time wh'en English literature had just reached its most glorious period. Shakspere was writing his plays when Captain John Smith first explored Chesapeake Bay. Milton was born the year before Henry Hudson first sailed up the noble river that now bears his name. Bacon published his great book on philosophical and scientific method only a few months before the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. The men who left England for conscience' sake were many of them scholars with a love for learning. But in this fierce new land in which they sought to establish themselves, they had no time, at first, to do anything more than defend their lives, build their houses, plant their fields, and set up their churches and their schools. They were strong men, laboring mightily, and laying the broad foundations of the republic we live under to-day. What they wrote then had always an immediate object. They set down in black and white their compacts, their laws, and their own important doings. They described the condition of affairs in the colonies to the kinsfolk and the friends they had left behind in the mother country. They prepared elaborate treatises in which they set forth their own vigorous ideas about religion. For singing songs or for telling tales, they had neither leisure nor taste ; so we find no early American novelist and no early American poet. J5 l6 AMERICAN LITERATURE Perhaps the beginnings of American literature are to be sought in the books written by the first adventurers for the purpose of giving an account of the strange coun- tries in which they had traveled. Of these adventurers, the most interesting was Captain John Smith. He was born in England in 1579. As a lad, he ran away to become a soldier, and saw much fighting against the Turks. Taken prisoner, he was sold for a slave, but made his escape and went back to England. In 1607 he was one of those who came over here to found a colony in Virginia. He himself records his being made captive by the Indians, and the saving of his life by Pocahontas, the daughter of the Indian chief, Powhatan. For more than ten years Smith kept coming to America, and exploring the bays and rivers of the coast from Vir- ginia to New England. He published, in 1608, " A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as hath Happened in Virginia," the very first book about any of the English settlements in North America. In 1624 he was one of the authors of "The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles." The last years of his life were spent in England, and he died in London in 1632. John Smith was the most picturesque figure in the early history of America; and his writings are like him — bold, free, highly colored. He was more picturesque than any of the solid scholars and the stalwart ministers of New England whom we find uniting in the making of what is now known as the "Bay Psalm Book." This was the first English book printed in America. It was published in 1640. Its full title was " The Whole Book of Psalms faith- fully Translated into English Metre." The worthy divines who prepared this volume were not born poets ; their THE COLOiNlAL PERIOD 1 7 verses are halting and their rimes are strained. As it has been said, these hymns " seem to have been ham- mered out on an anvil, by blows from a blacksmith's sledge." Ten years later another volume of American verse was published, not in Massachusetts but in London. It was called " The Tenth Muse lately Sprung up in America," and it contained poems by Mistress Anne Bradstreet. They were written in the conventional and exaggerated manner then in vogue in England, and they reveal on her part no real observation of the new country in which she lived. She seems not to have seen the wide difference between the skies and the trees and the flowers and the birds of New England and those of the old England she had left as a bride. She was born in 1613 and she died in 1672. Among her descendants, alive two hundred years after her own death, were R. H. Dana, the author of " Two Years before the Mast," and Oliver Wendell Holmes, the author of the "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table." After Mistress Bradstreet the New England writers next to be picked out for mention here are the Mathers.- There were many of them, and most of them wrote abundantly. The more noteworthy were Increase Mather, born in 1639 and dying in 1723, and his son, Cotton Mather, born in 1663 ^"^ clying in 1728. The son wrote unceasingly and he was well equipped for authorship by deep learning. His own library was by far the largest of any then in private hands in America. It was said that " no native of his coun- try had read so much and retained more of what he read." Yet he was vain personally and his judgment was capri- cious. He was one of the most active in the persecution of the alleged witches of Salem in 1692. Three years before the trials of these unfortunate creatures he had published a volume on " Memorable Providences relating AMER. Lrr. 2 AMERICAN LITERATURE to Witchcrafts." Later in life he wrote his most useful book, "Essays to do Good," published in 1710. This was the volume which fell into Franklin's hands when he was a boy and gave him such a turn of thinking as had an abiding influence on his conduct through life. The most of the writing done in New England in the seventeenth century had to do with religion, and so it was also in the early part of the eighteenth century. It was only as the Revolution began to loom up on the horizon that the interests of the church became less excit- ing than the interests of the state, and politics succeeded religion as the chief topic of the publications of the day. The growth of the colonies in population and in resources was to give them the strength finally to break the bonds which united them to the British crown. Schools and col- leges were established and newspapers were started, until at last there was no one of the little cities along the coast that had not its printing press. A spirit of independence was beginning to develop. In the early years of the eighteenth century there were Americans who thought for themselves and who wrote out boldly what they thought. It was at the very beginning of the eighteenth century that the two men were born who are beyond all question the two greatest American authors coming to maturity before the revolution. These two men were Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin. They were products of Cotton Mather THE COLONIAL PERIOD 19 the American soil and tliey grew up under American con- ditions. They were the first native Americans able to make a reputation on the other side of the Atlantic and to hold their own in debate with the best men of Europe. Of the two, Edwards was three years the older, and for that reason he may be considered here before Franklin. It is not to be questioned that FrankHn is the more important of the two because of his services to the coun- try as a whole and because he has left us one book, at least, which is still read, his delightful "Autobiography." Jonathan Edwards was born in 1703 in Connecticut. When only twelve years old he entered Yale College, being graduated before he was seventeen. He studied for the ministry and was ordained. While a student at Yale, and after- ward when a tutor in the college, he paid attention to natural science, having the same wholesome curiosity that characterized Franklin. He even planned a ^ook on this subject, and gathered many notes, the result of his own observations and experiments. He studied electricity, having ideas about it long in advance of his time, and almost anticipating Franklin's discoveries. He also turned his acute and searching mind towards astronomy. But theology was at all times his chief study, and it is by his writings on religious subjects that he made his mark in the world. He was settled as minister of a parish at the age of twenty-four, being then married. He brought up his family amid many privations. His health was poor but his spirit was always strong. He spent thirteen hours a Jonathan Edwards 20 AMERICAN LITERATURE day in his study. Ev^en when he rode or walked he kept on thinking ; and when from home he had a habit of pinning bits of paper to his clothes, one for every thought he wished to write down on his return, and he would sometimes get back with so many of these scraps that they fluttered all about him. His great work on the " Freedom of the Will " was published in 1754. It is now but little read, for we no longer see the subject from Edwards's point of view. But it remains a monument of intellectual effort. To this day it is probably the most direct and subtle treatise on a philosophical theme written by any American. It justi- fies the assertion of more than one European critic that no work of the eighteenth century surpasses it in the vigor of its logic or in the sharpness of its argument. Jonathan Edwards died in, 1758, a few days after he had been made president of Princeton College. Questions. — What kind of men were the earliest English settlers in America ? What did they put down in writing ? Give some count of the most interesting writer among the early adventurers to America. Descril)e two examples of early colonial verse — one religious, the other secular. WHiat was Cotton Mather's connection witli tlio Salem witchcraft trials ? What changes took place in the general sj^irit of American literature about the middle of the eighteenth century? Give an account of the first native American writer who made a reputation in Europe. XoTE. — There are brief biographies of Capt. Jolin Smith by Mr. C. D. Warner (H. Holt & Co., ^i), of Jonathan Edwards, by Prof. A. V. G. Allen (Houghton. Mifflin & Co., $1.25), and of Cotton Mather by Prof. Barrett Wendell (Dodd, Mead & Co., $1). See also the chapters on this period in the histories of American literature by Prof. C. F. Richardson and Prof. M. C. Tyler. Ill BENJAMIN FRANKLIN At the beginning of the eighteenth century, when Queen Anne sat on the throne of Great Britain, there were ten British colonies strung along the Atlantic coast of North America. These colonies were various in origin and ill- (Usposed one to another. They were young, feeble, and jealous; their total population was less than four hundred thousand. In the colony of Massachusetts, and in the town of Boston, on January 17, 1706, was born Benjamin Franklin, who died in the state of Pennsylvania, and in the city of Philadelphia, on April 17, 1790. 22 AMERICAN LITERATURE In the eighty-four years of his life, Benjamin Franklin saw the ten colonies increase to thirteen ; he saw them come together for defense against the common enemy ; he saw them throw off their allegiance to the British crown ; he saw them form themselves into these United States ; he saw the population increase to nearly four mil- lions ; he saw the beginning of the movement across the Alleghanies which was to give us the boundless West and all our possibilities of expansion. And in the bringing about of this growth, this union, this independence, this development, the share of Benjamin Franklin was greater than the share of any other man. With Washington, Franklin divided the honor of being the American who had most fame abroad and most venera- tion at home. He was the only man (so one of his biogra- phers reminds us) who signed the Declaration of Indepen- dence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with England, and the Constitution under which we still live. But not only had he helped to make the nation — he had done more than any one else to form the indi- vidual. If the typical American is shrewd, industrious, and thrifty, it is due in a measure to the counsel and to the example of Benjamin Franklin. In " Poor Richard's Almanack" he summed up wisely, and he set forth sharply, the rules of conduct on which Americans have trained themselves now for a century and a half. Upon his coun- trymen the influence of Franklin's preaching and of his practice \Vas wide, deep, and abiding. He was the first great American — for Washington was twenty-six years younger. Benjamin was the youngest son of Josiah Franklin, who had come to America in 1682. His mother was a daugh- ter of Peter Folger, one of the earliest colonists. His BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 23 father was a soap boiler and tallow chandler ; and as a boy of ten Benjamin was employed in cutting wick for the candles, fiUing the dipping molds, tending shop, and going on errands. • He did not like the trade, and wanted to be a sailor. So his father used to take him to walk about Boston among the joiners, bricklayers, turners, and other mechanics, that the boy might discover his inclination for some trade on land. Franklin tells us that from a child he was fond of reading, and laid out on books all the little money that came into his hands. Among the books he read as a boy were the " Pil- grim's Progress" and Mather's "Essays to do Good"; and this , , . , Franklin's Birthplace last gave hmi such a turn of thinking that it influenced his conduct through life and made him always "set a greater value on the character of a doe7' of good thdiW on any other kind of reputation." It was this bookish inclination which determined his father to make a printer of him, and at the age of twelve he was apprenticed to his brother James. There was then but one newspaper in America — the Boston Neivs-Lcttei-, issued once a week. A second journal, the Boston Gazette, was started in 17 19. At first James Franklin was its printer, but when it passed into other hands he began a 24 AMERICAN LITERATURE paper of his own — the Neiv England Coitrant, more hvely than the earlier journals, and more enterprising. As Ben- jamin set up the type for his brother's paper, it struck him that perhaps he could write as well as some of the contrib- utors. He was then a boy of sixteen, and already had he been training himself as a writer. He had studied Locke "On the Human Understanding," Xenophon's "Memora- bilia (Memorable Things) of Socrates," and a volume of the "Spectator" of Addison and Steele. This last he chose as his model, mastering its methods, taking apart the essays to see how they were put together, and so finding out the secret of its simple style, its easy wit, its homely humor. His first attempts at composition were put in at night under the door of the printing house ; they were approved and printed ; and after a while he declared their authorship. For a mild joke on the government James Franklin was forbidden to publish the Ncto England Courant, so he can- celed his brother's apprenticeship and made over the paper to Benjamin. But the indentures were secretly renewed, and the elder brother treated the younger with increasing harshness, giving him an aversion to arbitrary power which stuck to him through life. At length the boy could bear it no longer, and he left his brother's shop. James was able to prevent him from getting work elsewhere in Boston, so Benjamin slipped off on a sloop to New York. Failing of employment there, he went on to Philadelphia, being then seventeen. He arrived there with only a "Dutch dollar" in his pocket. Weary and hungry, he asked at a baker's for a three- penny-worth of bread, and, to his surprise, he received three great puffy rolls. He walked off with a roll under each arm and eating the third ; and he passed the house of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 25 a Mr. Read, whose daughter stood at the door, thinking the young stranger made a most awkward, ridiculous appearance, and little surmising that she was one day to be his wife. Franklin worked at his trade in Philadelphia for nearly two years. In 1724 he crossed the ocean for the first time to buy type and a press, but was disappointed of a letter of credit Governor Keith had promised him. He found employment as a printer in London, and he came near starting a swimming school; but in 1726, after two years' absence, he returned to Philadelphia, and there he made his home for the rest of his life. He soon set up for him- self as a printer, and, as he was more skillful than his rivals and more industrious, he prospered, getting the govern- ment printing and buying the Pennsylvania Gazette. He married Deborah Read ; and he made many friends, the closest of whom he formed into a club called the "Junto," devoted to inquiry and debate. At his suggestion the members of this club kept their books in common at the clubroom for a while ; and out of this grew the first circulating library in America — the germ of the American public library system. And in 1732 he issued the first number of " Poor Richard's Almanack," which continued to appear every year for a quarter of a century. It was " Poor Richard's Almanack " which first made Franklin famous, and it was out of the mouth of Poor Richard that Franklin spoke most effectively to his fellow- countrymen. He had noticed that the almanac was often the only book in many houses, and he therefore "filled all the little spaces that occurred between the remarkable days in the calendar with proverbial sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality as the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue ; it being Poor Richard improved : BEING AN ALMANACK AND EPHEMERIS O F T H E Motions of the SUN and MOON; THE TRUE Places and Aspects of the Planets % THE RISING and SETTING of the SUN; AND THE Rifing, Setting and Southing oflbe Moon, FOR THE Year of our LORD 1758: Being the Second after. Leap-Year. Coatainlog alio, The Lunations^ Conjunftions, Eclrpfes, Judz ment of the Weather, Rifmg and Setting of the Planets, Length of Days and Nights, Fairs, Courts, Roads, i^c. Together with ufeful Tables, ehrO' nologicalObfervations, and entertaining Remarks. Fitted to the Latitude of Forty Degrees, and a Meridian of near five Hours Well from London ; but may, without feniiblc Erior, ferve all the Nobthekn Colonies. By,R7CHJRD SAUNDERS, Philom. PHILADELPHIA ' Printed and Sold by B. JFramklin, and D. Hall. 26 d.hT New D 3 8 aft. f irft Q^ii 1 1 aft. Full • i8 8 aft. Laft C^ 25 ait noon. August hath xxxi Days. Planets Places. .{1 »7 tIMoor J fets X7 iS «9 £1 "9 A. «7 •47 9 40 (O fo 33 II ti 41 Morn J» 15 Mood rtfea A. zo|8 xo 24 10 ^3 2«II 14 ten 54 Vl0»D IS 18 t «t 9 3 19 10 II II 5' la 37 »3 ±}±i ^Richard fays, '77/ /o6 3* >4 57 40 s6 17 lOJIO ir 3 4 4 5 6 7 8 9' lO u 7 Moro It 8 9 49 \io 37 »3 24 *5 z6 *7 6|z8 29 30 3 > Folly is praftifed every Day at Vendues, for want of minding the Almanack. Wtje Men, as Poor Ditk fays, learn b) others Harms, Ffiots fcarctfy b^ their etun j but, Felix qium facttmt auena Pericula cautuin. Many a one, for the Sake of Finery on the Back, have gone with a hungry Belly, and half ftaived their Fa milies; Silks and ScUtl/is, ScarUt andl^el-