will fhare the profits equally." His propofal was reasonable, and I fell in with it. His father, who was then in the town, approved of it. He knew that I had fome afcendancy over his fon, 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 fhould cure him entirely of this unfortunate habit. I gave the father a lift of what it would be neceflary to import from London. He took it to a merchant, and the order was given. We agreed to keep the fecret till the arrival of the materials, and I was in the mean time to procure work, if poffible, in another printing-houfe; but there was no place vacant, and I remained idle. After fome days, Keimer having the expectation of being employed to print fome New-Jersey money-bills, that would require types and engravings which I only could furnish, and fearful that Bradford, by engaging me, might deprive him of this undertaking, fent me a very civil meffage, telling me that old friends ought not to be difunited on account of a few words, which were the effect only of a momentary paffion, and inviting me to return to him. Meredith perfuaded me to comply with the invitation, particularly as it would afford him more opportunities of improving himself in the bufinefs by means of my inftructions. I did fo; and we lived upon better terms than before our feparation. He obtained the New-Jersey business; and, in order to execute it, I conftructed a copper-plate printing-prefs; the firft that had been feen in the country. I engraved various ornaments and vignettes for the bills; and we repaired to Burlington together, where I executed the whole to the general fatisfaction; and he received a fum of money money for this work, which enabled him to keep his head above water for a confiderable time longer. At Burlington I formed acquaintance with the principal perfonages of the province; many of whom were commiffioned by the affembly to fuperintend the prefs, and to fee that no more bills were printed than the law had prescribed. Accordingly they were conftantly 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 reafon, probably, that they fet more value on my converfation. They took me to their houses, introduced me to their friends, and treated me with the greateft civility; while Keimer, though mafter, faw himself a little neglected. He was, in fact, a ftrange animal, ignorant of the common modes of life, apt to oppofe with rudeness generally received opinions, an enthufiaft in certain points of religion, difguftingly unclean in his perfon, and a little knavifh withall. We remained there nearly three months; and at the expiration of this period I could include in the lift of my friends, Judge Allen, Samuel Buftil, fecretary of the province, Ifaac Pearfon, Jofeph Cooper, feveral of the Smiths, all members of the affembly, and Ifaac Deacon, infpector-general. The laft was a fhrewd and fubtle old man. He told me, that, when a boy, his firft employment had been that of carrying clay to brick-makers; that he did not learn to write till he was fomewhat advanced in life; that he was afterwards employed as an underling to a furveyor, who taught him his trade, and that by industry he had at laft acquired a competent fortune. " I "forefee," faid he one day to me," that you will "foon foon fupplant this man," fpeaking of Keimer, "and get a fortune in the bufinefs at Philadelphia." He was wholly ignorant at the time of my intention of establishing myself there, or any where else. These friends were very ferviceable to me in the end, as was I alfo, upon occafion, to fome of them; and they have continued ever fince their efteem for me. Before I relate the particulars of my entrance into bufinefs, it may be proper to inform you what was at that time the state of my mind as to moral principles, that you may fee the degree of influence they had upon the fubfequent events of my life. My parents had given me betimes religious impreffions; and I received from my infancy a pious education in the principles of Calvinifm. But fcarcely was 1 arrived at fifteen years of age, when, after having doubted in turn of different tenets, according as I found them combated in the different books that I read, I began to doubt of revelation itself. Some volumes against deifma fell into my hands. They were faid to be the fubftance of fermons preached at Boyle's lecture. It happened that they produced on me an effect precifely the reverfe of what was intended by the writers; for the arguments of the deifts, which were cited in order to be refuted, appeared to me much more forcible than the refutation itself. In a word, I foon became a perfect deift. My arguments perverted fome other young perfons; particularly Collins and Ralph. But in the fequel, when I recollected that they had both used me extremely ill, without the fmalleft remorfe; when I confidered the behaviour of Keith, another freethinker, and my own conduct towards Vernon and Mifs Read, which at times, gave me much uneafiness, I was led to suspect that this doctrine, though though it might be true, was not very useful. 1 began to entertain a lefs favourable opinion of my London pamphlet, to which I had prefixed, as a motto, the following lines of Dryden; Whatever is, is right; though purblind man and of which the object was to prove, from the attributes of God, his goodness, wisdom, and power, that there could be no fuch thing as evil in the world; that vice and virtue did not in reality exist, and were nothing more than vain diftinctions. I no longer regarded it as fo blamelefs a work as I had formerly imagined; and I fufpected that fome error must have imperceptibly glided into my argument, by which all the inferences I had drawn from it had been affected, as frequently happens in metaphyfical reasonings. In a word, I was at laft convinced that truth, probity, and fincerity, in tranfactions between man and man, were of the utmost importance to the happiness of life; and I refolved from that moment, and wrote the refolution in my journal, to practise them as long as I lived. Revelation indeed, as fuch, had no influence on my mind; but I was of opinion that, though certain actions could not be bad merely because. revelation prohibited, or good because it enjoined them, yet it was probable that thofe actions were prohibited because they were bad for us, or enjoined because advantageous in their nature, all things confidered. This perfuafion, Divine Providence, or fome guardian angel, and perhaps a concurrence of favourable circumftances cooperating, preferved me from all immorality, or grofs and voluntary injuftice, to which my want of religion was calculated to expofe me, in the dangerous dangerous period of youth, and in the hazardous fituations in which I fometimes found myself, among ftrangers, and at a diftance from the eye and admonitions of my father. I may fay voluntary, because the errors into which I had fallen, had been in a manner the forced refult either of my own inexperience, or the difhonefty of others. Thus, before I entered on my new career, I had imbibed folid principles, and a character of probity. I knew their value; and I made a folemn engagement with myfelf never to depart from them. I had not long returned from Burlington before our printing materials arrived from London. I fettled my accounts with Keimer, and quitted him, with his own confent, before he had any knowledge of our plan. We found a houfe to let near the market. We took it; and to render the rent lefs burthenfome (it was then twenty-four pounds a-year, but I have fince known it to let for seventy), we admitted Thomas Godfrey, a glazier, with his family, who eafed us of a confiderable part of it; and with him we agreed to board. We had no fooner unpacked our letters, and put our press in order, than a perfon of my acquaintance, George Houfe, brought us a countryman, whom he had met in the ftreets enquiring for a printer. Our moncy was almoft exhaufted by the number of things we had been obliged to procure. The five fhillings we received from this countryman, the firft fruit of our earnings, coming fo seasonably, gave me more pleasure than any fum I have fince gained; and the recollection of the gratitude I felt on this ocafion to George House, has rendered me often more difpofed, than perhaps I should otherwife have been, to encourage young beginners in trade. There |