Duration and Extent; and therefore, Saint-errantry has furnished Materials in almost all Ages, and infinite Materials in particular Ages, which are recorded in History, but especially in ecclesiastical History."

“Opinions, how erroneous soever, when the Effect of an impartial Examination, will never hurt Men in the Sight of God, but will recommend Men to his Favour. For impartial Examination in the Matter of Opinion is the best that a Man can do towards obtaining Truth; and God, who is a wise, good, and just Being, can require no more of Men than to do their best, and will reward them when they do their best; and he would be the most unjust Being imaginable, if he punished Men, who had done their best Endeavour to please him. Besides, if Men were to be punished by God for mistaken Opinions, all Men must be damn'd; for all Men abound in mistaken Opinions."

These paragraphs will serve to show something of the spirit and manner of an author who proved so engaging to Franklin in his sixteenth year. With what transport must he have read such sentiments in the Boston of that day!

There was another writer whose tracts and essays came out, from time to time, during the first twenty years of Franklin's life, whom we know he read; and whom, we may infer, he read with the keenest relish. This was the Earl of Shaftesbury, grandson of the first Earl of Shaftesbury, the dissolute, brilliant statesman to whom we owe the Habeas Corpus Act. The third carl, the author of the "Characteristics," was a man of stainless life, and generous, noble nature. He differed from his grandfather in another particular. Of the first earl it is related, that he was once overheard to say, that men of sense were all of one religion. "And what religion is that ?" inquired a lady. "That, Madame," replied the earl, with a bow, "men of sense never tell." The third earl, compelled to retire from public life by the failure of his health, spent the leisure hours of many years in writing essays, which left little occasion for any one to inquire respecting his religion. We cannot dwell upon this part of our subject. Any one who will turn over an edition of Shaftesbury, and try to read it with the mind of this merry and receptive printer's boy, will perceive how entirely captivating it must have been to him. The raillery that was always the raillery of a gentleman; the irony, so delicate as really to deceive some men

who passed for acute; the fine urbanity that pervades even the passages called severe; the genuine reverence of the author for virtue; the spectacle revealed of a man uniting in himself all that is good in saints with all that is agreeable in a man of the world-how pleasing it must all have been to our inky apprentice, as he munched his noon-day crust. Shaftesbury is obsolete now; he has even ceased to be interesting. We have reached another stage of the eternal controversy. He can only please the present generation as a relic of the past pleases it; as the sword of John of Gaunt, or the armor of the Black Prince, interests men who carry revolvers and patent rifles. But, perhaps, young Franklin never read any works with keener zest than the "Inquiry Concerning Virtue" and the "Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humor," by Lord Shaftesbury.

It should be mentioned, perhaps, that Shaftesbury had a considerable popularity, a hundred years ago, among the clergymen who had capacity enough to discriminate between the essentials and the non-essentials of Christianity. Dr. A. Carlyle records, in his autobiography, that even a professor of divinity in the university of Edinburgh was "a great admirer of Shaftesbury, and adopted much of his writings into his lectures; and, to recommend him more to his students, was at great pains in private to prove that the noble moralist was no enemy to the Christian religion; but that all appearances of that kind, which are very numerous in his works, flowed only from an excess of generous indignation against the fanatics of Charles the First's reign."

Enemy to the Christian religion! The essence of Shaftesbury is contained in the last paragraph of the work into which he put most of his mind, most of his heart, and most of his labor-the "Inquiry Concerning Virtue."

"THUS, the Wisdom of what rules and is FIRST and CHIEF in nature, has made it to be according to the private interest and good of every one to work toward the general good; which, if a creature ceases to promote, he is actually so far wanting to himself, and ceases to promote his own happiness and welfare. He is, on this account, directly his own enemy; nor can he otherwise be good or useful to himself than as he continues good to society, and to that Whole of which he is himself a part. So that Virtue, which of al excellencies and beauties is the chief and most amiable; that which upholds communities, and maintains union, friendship, and corre

spondence among men; that, by which countries as well as private families flourish and are happy; and for want of which every thing comely, conspicuous, great, and worthy, must perish or go to ruin; that single quality, thus beneficial to society and to mankind in general, is found equally a happiness and good to each creature in particular; and is that by which alone man can be happy, and without which he must be miserable. And thus Virtue is the good, and Vice the ill, of every one."

The heresy of Shaftesbury consists chiefly in an ironical paragraph here and there, mildly ridiculing the doctrine of the miraculous production of the Bible. He has also some serious observations to the effect that there is no necessary connection between religion and virtue. The substance of his teaching is this: BE GOOD; and pay to the Church a decent show of respect, as a part of the state of things necessary at present to the integrity of the British empire, and belonging to its imperfect civilization; and, as to the Creed, deny nothing, assert nothing, laugh at it, or let it alone.

The result of all these heretical teachings was, that, before the apprentice was sixteen years old, he had become, to use his own words, "a thorough deist."

The word "deist" has long ago got out of general use, familiar as it was to our great-grandfathers, and not less awful than familiar. Perhaps, a representative deist of a hundred and fifty years ago might have defined the word thus: A deist is a Christian who has become incapable of believing in a miracle. Probably, all of this zealous sect would have assented to Humboldt's well-known summary: "All positive religions," says Humboldt, “contain three distinct parts: first, a code of morals, very pure, and nearly the same in all; next, a geological dream; and, thirdly, a myth or historical novelette, which last becomes the most important of all."* Collins, Shaftesbury, Gibbon, Hume, Voltaire, Bolingbroke, Jefferson, and Franklin in his sixteenth year, would all doubtless have smiled approvingly if they had heard these words.

Franklin, for one, found his now belief, or rather, his new unbelief, lamentably inadequate to the moral wear and tear of life. It made him conceited, and left him an easy prey to temptation. For some years, he wandered in heathenish darkness. He forsook

"Letters of Humboldt to V. Von Ense." Letter 60th.

the safe and good, though narrow ways of his forefathers, and of his father and mother, and his gentle Uncle Benjamin, without finding better and larger ways of his own. He was in danger of becoming a castaway, or a commonplace successful man of the world. He found, in due time, after many trials, and much suffering, and many grievous errors, that the soul of man does not thrive upon negations, and that, in very truth, a man must believe in order to be saved. On the other hand, he escaped the theology of terror, and became forever incapable of worshiping a jealous, revengeful, and vindictive God—the God of the Lord Brethren of Boston.

Situated as he was, and being the lad he was, there was no escape from this painful and perilous experience. It was not his fault, that his elders supported immortal truths on untenable grounds, and demanded that he should save his soul by denying his understanding. It was nobody's fault. It is human to be blind and weak, ignorant and fearful; and it is only by the rebellion of bolder and keener spirits that our horizon is enlarged and our fear allayed. But rebellion, in itself considered, is an evil. We see, in the ancient writings, that the revolters against the mythology of Greece and Rome experienced moral injury, as well as social inconveniences, similar to those which attend a questioning of modern creeds. Nor have the American people recovered from all the moral damage incurred in their most just and necessary rebellion against George the Third.

How Franklin emerged at length from the shades of denial into the light of belief; and from wandering in the wilderness, aimless, unto the Canaan of orderly, noble endeavor, we shall see, at the proper time. For the present he remains a thorough deist, excessively fond of perplexing the unwary believer by involving him in self-contradictions, after the manner of Socrates. His friend, John Collins, was brought over to deism. There are reasons for believing that James Franklin was something of a deist also at least, no friend to the Lord Brethren. Their father, we may infer from one of his later letters, had no suspicion then of the change that had occurred in Benjamin's opinions.

While the apprentice was thus reveling in his books, extracting from each all its honey and some of its poison, his brother's business was expanding, and events were occurring which influenced the

destinies of both. These audacious young printers, while the younger of the two was only sixteen, found themselves, as might have been anticipated, in collision with the Lord Brethren.

CHAPTER VII.

THE FIRST SENSATION NEWSPAPER.

THERE was talk of a second newspaper in Boston when Benjamin had served a year of his apprenticeship, and James Franklin had hopes of being employed to print it.

Nothing made slower progress in Colonial America than journal

ism.

The date of the first London newspaper is 1622 of the first French newspaper, 1632;* of the first Scotch newspaper, 1654; of the first Irish newspaper, 1685. The first American newspaper appeared at Boston, on Thursday, the twenty-fifth of September, 1690. It was a sheet of four pages, each page seven inches wide and eleven long; two columns on a page, and the last page blank. At the top of the first page were printed, in large letters, the words "Publick Occurrences, both Foreign and Domestic." It was designed to be published once a month, or oftener, "if any glut of occurrences happens."

* Hunt's "Fourth Estate," i., 10, 20.

+ The following is a copy of the Prospectus:

"PUBLICK OCCURRENCES, FOREIGN AND DOMESTICK.

It is designed, that the Countrey shall be furnished once a moneth (or if any Glut of Occurrences happen oftener) with an Account of such considerable things as have arrived unto our Notice.

In order here unto, the Publisher will take what pains he can to obtain a Faithful Relation of all such things; and will particularly mako himself beholden to such Persons in Boston whom he knows to have been for their own use the diligent Observers of such matters.

That which is herein proposed, is, First, That Memorable Occurrents of Divine Providence may not be neglected or forgotten, as they too often are. Secondly, that people everywhere may better understand the Circumstances of Publique Affairs, both abroad and at home: which may not only direct their Thoughts at all times, but at some times also to assist their Business and Negotiations.

Thirdly, That some thing may be done toward the Curing, or at least the Charming of the Spirit of Lying, which prevails among us, wherefore nothing shall be entered, but what wo have reason to believe is truc, repairing to the best fountains for our Information. And