ask his wife.' It was lucky for me that I had one as much disposed to industry and frugality as myself. She assisted me cheerfully in my business, folding and stitching pamphlets, tending shop, purchasing old linen rags for the paper-makers, &c. We kept no idle servants, our table was plain and simple, our furniture of the cheapest. For instance, my breakfast was for a long time bread and milk, (no tea), and I ate it out of a penny earthern porringer, with a pewter spoon. But mark how luxury will enter families, and make a progress in spite of principle; being called one morning to breakfast, I found it in a china bowl with a spoon of silver. They had been bought for me, without my knowledge by my wife, and had cost her the enormous sum of three and twenty shillings, for which she had no other excuse or apology to make, but that she thought her husband deserved a silver spoon and china bowl as well as any of his neighbours. This was the first appearance of plate and china in our house; which afterwards in a course of years, as our wealth increased, augmented gradually to several hundred pounds in value."

SCHEME OF VIRTUE.

About this period, Franklin framed what he justly calls the bold design of endeavouring to arrive at moral perfection. As he knew, he says, or thought he knew, right from wrong, he could not see why he might not always do the one, and avoid the other. The following is his scale of virtues and precepts:

1. Temperance.-Eat not to dulness; drink not to elevation.

2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others, or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

3. Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

4. Resolution.-Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Frugality.-Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, waste nothing.

6. Industry.-Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. Sincerity.-Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and if you speak,-speak accordingly.

8. Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. Moderation.-Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Cleanliness.--Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes, or habitation.

11. Tranquillity.-Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents, common or unavoidable.

12. Chastity.

13. Humility.-Imitate Jesus, and Socrates.

On imbibing the scepticism which Collins and Shaftesbury taught him very early in life, Franklin plainly saw, that if the influence of revealed religion was withdrawn, some severe system of personal discipline must be substituted for it; but he declares in his old age, that he never was without some religious principles; that he never, for instance, doubted the being of a God, or that He governed by his providence that world which he made in wisdom,—that he always believed the soul of man to be immortal, and would be here, or hereafter, punished or rewarded.

To insure the habit of attention to his thirteen rules of conduct, he considered it would be best, while aiming at the whole, to devote a week's particular attention to each of the virtues in succession and determined faithfully to mark in a book, with a black spot, each day's transgression of that virtue. Thus, in a quarter of a year, he proposed to try his strength upon the whole, proceeding, he says, like a man who, having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his strength and reach, but works on one of the beds first, and then proceeds to the second.

To

"I entered upon the execution of this plan for self-examination," says he, "and continued it with occasional intermission for some time. I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. avoid the trouble of renewing now and then my little book, which by scraping out the marks on the paper of old faults, to make room for new ones, in a new course, became full of holes, I transferred my tables and precepts to the ivory leaves of a memorandum book, on which the lines were drawn with red ink, that made a durable stain; and on those lines I marked my faults, with a blacklead pencil; which marks I could easily

wipe out with a wet sponge. After awhile I went through one course only in a year; and afterwards only one in several years, till at length I omitted them entirely, being employed in voyages and business abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs that interfered; but I always carried my little book with me.' ""

He once proposed to have enlarged the scheme with a book containing comments on each precept, to be called the " Art of Virtue," but never completed the design. He tells us, however, that his leading moral doctrine would have been, that vice is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but forbidden because it is hurtful. His basis of morality was therefore self-interest. The great question here relative to Franklin is, whether he had eyes and heart to contemplate that interest in a sufficiently elevated point of view.

In his scheme, Order, he tells us, gave him the most trouble; that, in truth, he found himself incorrigible with respect to this virtue. His faults here vexed him so much, and he made so little progress in amendment, that he was almost ready to give up the attempt, and content himself with being a faulty character in that respect. "Like the man,' observes he, (6 who, in buying an axe of a smith, my neighbour, desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as the edge; the smith consented to grind it bright for him, if he would turn the wheel; he turned, while the smith pressed the broad face of the axe hard and heavily on the stone, which made the turning of it very fatiguing. The man came every now and then from the wheel to see how the work went on; and at length would take the axe as it was, without further grinding. No,' said the smith, 'turn on, turn on, we shall have it bright by and bye; as yet it is only speckled.' 'Yes,' said the man, but I think I like the speckled axe best.' Franklin often felt inclined to give up the struggle with respect to perfect order, and to conclude that a speckled axe is best."

In 1732, he published his Almanack, which was continued about twenty-five years under the name of "Richard Saunders," and commonly called "POOR RICHARD'S ALMANACK."

The work was replete with useful information, and particularly suited to the thin and rising population of the colonies. it soon came into general demand, and Franklin vended annually ten thousand copies. In his own precise and clever way, he filled all the spaces that occurred between the remarkable days in the Calendar with proverbial sentences, including particularly honesty and frugality, adapted to the circum

stances of all readers. "It is hard for an empty sack to stand upright," was one of these proverbs. "God helps them that help themselves," "He that lives upon hope will die fasting,"-" At the working man's door, hunger looks in, but dares not enter," were others. In the Almanack of 1757, he brought all these scattered counsels together, and formed them into a connected discourse, as the harangue of a wise old man to the people attending an auction, and entitled them "The Way to Wealth." This piece has been printed in all the principal languages of Europe, in a variety of forms. Nothing of a more characteristic nature has proceeded from the author's pen.

In the conduct of his newspaper, as a vehicle of public instruction, Franklin acted with his usual good sense and promptitude; as far as it was compatible with the free discussion of public measures, he carefully excluded personal attacks. To the pleas of some zealots, for a different course, his reply was curious. "They would urge," he says, "the liberty of the press, and that a newspaper, like a stage-coach, should afford a place to all who would pay for it." His answer was,-"“ that he would furnish copies of the objectionable pieces for the private distribution of the parties; thus preserving their good will,-but not intrude on his subscribers what might be private scandal, or might be deemed so." His selections from the Spectator and other works of practical interest were very attractive to readers of such limited education and means of knowledge as surrounded him ; while his own original contributions evinced the rapid growth of his intellectual and literary powers. He particularizes a Socratic dialogue, and a discourse on selfdenial as amongst his most successful essays. The subjects were characteristic of the writer; the former being designed to prove, that no vicious man could be, strictly, a man of sense; and the other, that virtue is not secure until its practice becomes habitual, and free from the dominion of contrary desires.

He was a strenuous advocate for women of the middle classes being taught the practice of reading, writing, and accounts, in preference to music, dancing, and other genteel accomplishments. Of the importance of this substitution, he supplies an instance from his own observation and immediate cognizance. A journeyman of his was sent by him to Charleston, Carolina, where a printer was much wanted, provided with a press, type, &c., on an agreement of partnership, according to to which Franklin was to have one-third of the final profits of the trade. He was a well-educated young man, but ignorant of accounts,

and while he lived, they were never regularly remitted; but at his death, his wife,-educated in Holland,-gave the clearest statement of all the past transactions he had ever managed, and conducted the business afterwards with the greatest punctuality, and with remarkable success; so that after bringing up a large family respectably, she was at length able to buy the printing-house for her son.

In 1733, Franklin began to turn his attention to the acquirement of languages, and became familiar with the French, Italian, and Spanish successively. From these he proceeded to regain and extend his knowledge of Latin, in which he never had more than one year's instruction, in the early part of life. Here, the unexpected facility which he derived from his acquaintance with the European tongues, led him to suspect that boys are wrongly put to Latin first. It is, he says, as if we were placed on the top of a flight of stairs at once, for the sake of walking down them easily; whereas if we begin at the lower, we shall most easily reach the top. Franklin, however, seems to have argued too precisely and positively from his own peculiar case in this instance.

AFFLUENCE AND INFLUENCE.

Affluence, never better deserved, was now poured upon the aspiring printer; when, having been ten years absent from Boston, he made a second journey to visit his relations. He called at Newport on his return to see his brother James, who had removed thither with his printing-office; and their meeting was cordial, all former differences having been forgotten. His brother being in a declining state of health, requested him to take under his charge a son, and bring him up to the printing business; a kindness which Benjamin nobly considered to have been a matter of some "justice" to his brother, in recompense for the disadvantage James sustained from his leaving his service, so abruptly as already narrated.

In 1736, our philosopher was unanimously chosen clerk of the Pensylvanian Assembly. This, though a subordinate political post, introduced him to the public business of the colonies in its most important forms, as well as to the personal acquaintance of all the members of the house; and, by securing him the public printing and other business, was in every way subservient to his advancement.

His re-election in 1737 being opposed by a new member of some consequence, though ultimately carried,-is the occasion of furnishing one