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them to require the crucible of writing or further thought; and with but a pair of cases, this metalic stream was proceeding solely out of" one small head." However, Franklin was the only pressman of the two, and found himself quickly the sole person in Philadelphia, who was well acquainted with the whole printing business. After getting Keimer's press into order, and working it for him, the worthy poet in metal provided for the youth a lodging at Mr. Read's, his own landlord; and thus commenced Franklin's acquaintance with his future wife's family.

It was during his first voyage to Philadelphia, while they were becalmed off Block Island,-the crew employing themselves in catching cod, that Franklin was cured of his youthful fancy to relinquish animal food. "Till then," says the autobiography, "I had stuck to my resolution to eat nothing that had had life; and on this occasion I considered according to my master Tryon, the taking of every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them had, nor could do us any injury that might justify this massacre. All this seemed very reasonable. But I had been formerly a great lover of fish, and when it came out of the frying-pan it smelt admirably well. I balanced sometime between principle and inclination, till recollecting, that, when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs; then, thought I, 'If you eat one another, don't see why we may not eat you:' so I dined upon cod very heartily, and have since continued to eat as other people; returning only now and then occasionally to a vegetable diet. So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature; since it enables one to find, or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do."

Franklin has bequeathed several diverting anecdotes about Keimer, with whom, he says, he lived on a pretty good familiar footing, agreeing tolerably well. "He retained a great deal of his old enthusiasm, and loved argumentation. We therefore had many disputations. I used to work him so with my Socratic method, and had trepanned him so often by questions so apparently distant from any point we had in hand, yet by degrees leading to the point and bringing him into difficulties and contradictions, that at last he grew ridiculously cautious, and would hardly answer me the most common question, without asking first, what do you intend to infer from that.' However it gave him such an opinion of my abilities in the confuting way, that he seriously proposed my being his colleague in a project he had of setting up a new sect. He was to preach the doctrines, and I was to confound

all apponents. When he came to explain with me upon the doctrines, I found several conundrums which I objected to, unless I might have my way a little too, and introduce some of mine.

"Keimer wore his beard at full length, because somewhere in the Mosaic law it is said, 'Thou shalt not mar the corners of thy beard.' He likewise kept the seventh day Sabbath; and these two points were essential with him. I disliked both; but agreed to them on condition of his adopting the doctrine of not using animal food. 'I doubt,' said he, 'my constitution will not bear it.' I assured him it would, and that he should be the better for it. He was usually a great eater, and I wished to give myself some diversion in half starving him. He consented to try the practice, if I would keep him company. I did so, and we had it for three months. Our provisions were purchased, cooked, and brought to us regularly by a woman in the neighbourhood, who had from me a list of forty dishes, which she prepared for us at different times in which there entered neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. This whim suited me the better, as at this time, from the cheapness of it, not costing us above eighteenpence sterling each, per week. I have since kept several lents most strictly, leaving the common diet for that, and that for the common abruptly, without the least inconvenience; so that I think there is little in the advice of making those changes by easy gradations. I went on pleasantly, but 'poor Keimer suffered greivously, grew tired of the project, longed for the fleshpots of Egypt, and ordered a roast pig. He invited me and two women friends to dine with him; but it being brought too soon to table, he could not resist the temptation, and ate the whole before we came."

In Philadelphia, Franklin soon contracted an acquaintance with several young men fond of reading, in whose society he spent his evenings, and improved his literary taste. He has left a character of his three principle associates at this time, which throws considerable light on his own. Watson, according to the autobiographer's description, was a religious, intelligent, and very worthy youth; the other two, Ralph and Osborne, were unsettled in their religious principles, chiefly by his own arguments. The whole party were of course professed critics, and Ralph and Osborne poetical enthusiasts.

After some time Franklin became known to Sir William Keith, the governor of the province, who took much notice of him. Keith had accidentally seen the young printer's first letter from Philadelphia to his parents, and was impressed so favourably with its contents as to declare that he

would soon deservedly be at the head of his profession in that city, and accordingly he urged the youth to set up for himself, with many promises of support. At his instigation, Franklin paid a visit to his family at Boston, in order to obtain an advance of money for his project, but though he was kindly received, he was unable to gain his point. Upon his return to Philadelphia, the governor offered to take the whole burden upon himself, and proposed to the young man to make a voyage to England, in order to furnish himself with all the necessaries of a new printing-office. Franklin gladly embraced the proposal, and set sail towards the close of 1724; accompanied by his intimate companion, Ralph, who afterwards became a political writer in England of considerable note, and is commemorated in the Dunciad. Before his departure from Ame→ rica, Franklin exchanged promises of fidelity with Miss Read, having lodged in her father's house, for a considerable period..

FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND.-1724.

No sooner did Franklin arrive in London, than he discovered that Sir William Keith, upon whose assurances of letters of credit, and recommendation he so implicitly relied, had entirely deceived him. It is in a strain of very impartial and manly forbearance that he speaks of Sir William's conduct and character. "What shall we think," says he, "of a governor so grossly imposing on a poor ignorant boy? It was a habit he had acquired. He wished to please everybody, and having little to give, he gave expectations. He was otherwise an ingenious, sensible man, a pretty good writer, and a good governor for the people, though not for his constituents, the proprietaries, whose instructions he sometimes disregarded. Several of our best laws were of his planning, and passed during his administration."

On arriving in the British metropolis, and finding himself so cruelly disappointed, Franklin was obliged to have recourse to the business he had learnt for a support; so that, having been introduced to that country whose very throne he was destined to shake, our young philosopher obtained employment at one Palmer's, a considerable printer in Bartholomew Close. His friend Ralph, whose dependence was upon his head, did not so readily get work, and was a heavy drain upon Franklin's earnings, The morals of the two did not improve from their society. Ralph forgot his wife and child in America, and the other in a great

measure, gave up all recollections of Miss Read. He has candidly marked this as one of his errors; to which he has added, as another, the printing "A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure, and Pain, " dedicated to Ralph, and intended as an answer to some of the arguments of Woollaston's "Religion of Nature," which passed through his hands at the press. The metaphysical piece, however, gained him some fame, and introduced him to the acquaintance among others, of Dr. Mandeville, author of the celebrated "Fable of the Bees." In whatever other virtues Franklin might be defective, he still retained in a high degree those of industry, and temperance, which eventually were the means of securing his morals, as well as raising his fortune. He has left a curious and instructive account of his endeavours, at the second printing office in which he was employed while in London (Watt's near Lincoln's-inn-fields), to reform the sottish habits of his fellow-workmen. He attempted to persuade them there was more real sustenance in a penny roll, than in a pint of porter; and though he was at first stigmatized by the name of the "Water-American," he was able in the end to induce several of them to substitute gruel and toasted bread as a breakfast, in place of their usual morning libations from the tankard. They who are acquainted with the habits of the London artificers-especially printers-will consider this no small proof of his persuasive powers and tact.

The young printer taught some of his English friends to swim, at twice going into the water. On one occasion at the request of the company along with which he had gone up the Thames, he leaped into the river and swam from near Chelsea to Blackfriars, "performing in the way many feats of activity, both upon and under the water, that surprised and pleased those to whom they were novelties." He had from a child been delighted with this exercise, had studied and practised Thevenot's motions and positions, and added some of his own, 66 aiming at the graceful and easy, as well as the useful." The feat between Chelsea and Blackfriars having come to the ear of Sir William Wyndham, that gentleman sent for the young printer, being desirous to have his two sons, who were on the point of setting out on their travels, previously taught to swim, and offering a very liberal reward, if Franklin would undertake to instruct them. They were not, however, yet arrived in town, and the stay which Franklin should have to make was uncertain; so that in consequence of a previous engage ment, to be fulfilled in America, he could not accept of the baronet's

proposal. The autobiographer nevertheless was led to suppose from this incident, that if he had wished to remain in London, and open a swimming-school, he should perhaps have earned a great deal of money. This idea struck him so forcibly that had the offer been made sooner, he should have dismissed the thought of returning as yet to America. Some years after he had something of more importance to transact with one of the sons of Sir William Wyndham, then Earl of Egremont. Connected with the subject of swimming, it may here be mentioned that our young philosopher, frequently used a kite, when a boy, as a sort of sail for the human body. Swimming he calls a kind of rowing with the arms and legs; and the addition of a sail, as he terms it, was suggested by his approaching a pond, while flying a kite on a summer's day. He fancied it possible to cross in this manner from Dover to Calais, but observes that "the packet is still preferable."

QUITS ENGLAND AND SETTLES IN PHILADELPHIA.

AFTER an abode of some eighteen months in London, Franklin set sail for Philadelphia, where he had found an engagement to act in the capacity of clerk to a Mr. Denham, a worthy person who was returning thither in order to open a warehouse in that city. They entered upon their voyage in July, 1726. The leisure hours of the passage were memorable for producing the first draft of Franklin's plan for his conduct in life, "being pretty faithfully adhered to, quite through to old age.” He landed at Philadelphia in October, where he found sundry alterations. "Keith was no longer governor, being superseded by Major Gordon; I met him walking the streets, as a common citizen. He seemed a little ashamed at seeing me, and passed without saying anything. I should have been as much ashamed at seeing Miss Read had not her friends, despairing with reason of my return, persuaded her to marry another, one Rogers, a potter, which was done in my absence. With him, however, she was never happy, and soon parted from him, refusing to cohabit with him, or bear his name, it being now said he had another wife. He was a worthless fellow, though an excellent workman, which was the temptation to her friends. He got into debt, ran away in 1727 or 1728, went to the West Indies, and died there."

Franklin soon acquired a considerable knowledge of trade in the employ of Mr. Denham, and passed his time very happily, till that individual's death, in 1727, dissolved the connexion. He was again therefore obliged to apply for support to the press, and accepted an offer from

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