a wish of marrying me to the daughter of one of her relations. She contrived various opportunities of bringing us together, till she saw that I was captivated; which was not difficult, the lady in question possessing great personal merit. The parents encouraged my addresses, by inviting me continually to supper, and leaving us together, till at last it was time to come to an explanation. Mrs. Godfrey undertook to negociate our little treaty. I gave her to understand, that I expected to receive with the young lady a sum of money that would enable me at least to discharge the remainder of my debt for my printing materials. It was then, I believe, not more than a hundred pounds. She brought me for answer, that they had no such sum at their dispo sal. I observed that it might easily be obtained, by a mortgage on their house. The reply of this was, after a few days interval, that they had consulted Bradford, and found that the business of a printer was not lucrative; that my letters would soon be worn out, and must be supplied by new ones; that Keimer and Harry had failed, and that probably I should do so too. Accordingly they forbade me the house, and the young lady was confined. I know not if they had really changed their minds, or if it was merely an artifice, supposing our affections to be too far engaged for us to desist, and that we should contrive to marry secretly, which would leave them at liberty to give or not, as they pleased. But, suspecting this motive, I never went again to their house.

Some time after, Mrs. Godfrey informed me that they were favorably disposed towards me, and wished me to renew the acquaintance; but I declared a firm resolution never to have any thing more to do with the family. The Godfreys expressed some

resentment at this; and as we could no longer agree, they changed their residence, leaving me in possession of the whole house. I then resolved to take no more lodgers. This affair having turned my thoughts to marriage, I looked around me, and made overtures of alliance in other quarters; but I soon found that the profession of a printer being generally looked upon as a poor trade, I could expect no money with a wife, at least if I wished her to possess any other charm. Meanwhile, that passion of youth, so difficult to govern, had often drawn me into intrigues with despicable women who fell in my way; which were not unaccompanied with expence and inconvenience, besides the perpetual risk of injuring my health, and catching a disease which I dreaded above all things. But I was fortunate enough to escape this danger.

As a neighbor and old acquaintance, I kept up a friendly intimacy with the family of Miss Read. Her parents had retained an affection for me from the time of my lodging in their house. I was often invited thither; they consulted me about their af. fairs, and I had been sometimes serviceable to them. I was touched with the unhappy situation of their daughter, who was almost always melancholy, and continually seeking solitude. I regarded my forgetfulness and inconstancy, during my abode in London, as the principal cause of her misfortune; though her mother had the candor to attribute the fault to herself, rather than to me, because, after having prevented our marriage previous to my departure, she had induced her to marry another in

my absence.

Our mutual affection revived; but there existed great obstacles to our union. Her marriage was considered, indeed, as not being valid, the man hay

ing, it was said, a former wife still living in England; but of this it was difficult to obtain a proof at so great a distance; and though a report prevailed of his being dead, yet we had no certainty of it; and ́ supposing it to be true, he had left many debts, for the payment of which his successor might be sued. We ventured nevertheless, in spite of all these difficulties, and I married her on the first of September .1730. None of the inconveniences we had feared happened to us-She proved to me a good and faithful companion, and contributed essentially to the success of my shop. We rospered together, and it was our mutual study to render each other happy. 'Thus I corrected, as well as I could, this great error of my youth.

Our club was not at that time established at a tavern. We held our meetings at the house of Mr. Grace, who appropriated a room to the purpose. Some members observed one day, that as our books were frequently quoted in the course of our discussions, it would be convenient to have them collected in the room in which we assembled, in order to be consulted upon occasion; and that, by thus forming a common library of our individual collections, each would have the advantage of using the books of all the other members, which would nearly be the same as if he possessed them all himself. The idea was approved, and we accordingly brought suchbooks as we thought we could spare, which were placed at the end of the club room. They amount ed not to so many as we expected; and though we made considerable use of them, yet some inconveniences resulting from the want of care, it was agreed, after about a year, to destroy the collection; and each took away such books as belonged to him.

It was now that I first stated the idea of establish

[The life of Dr. Franklin, as written by himself, so far as it has been communicated to the world, breaks off in this place. We understand that it was continued by him some what further, and we hope that the remainder will, at some future period, be communicated to the public. We have no hesitation in supposing that every reader will find himself greatly interested by the frank simplicity and the philosophical discernment by which these pages are so eminently characterised. We have therefore thought proper, in order as much as possible to relieve his regret, to subjoin the following continuation, by one of the doctor's intimate friends. It is extracted from an American periodical publication, and was written by the late Dr. Stuber* of Philadelphia.]

THE promotion of literature had been little attended to in Pennsylvania. Most of the inhabitants were too much immersed in business to think of scientific pursuits; and those few, whose inclinations led them to study, found it difficult to gratify them, from the want of sufficiently large libraries. In such cir

* Dr. Stuber was born in Philadelphia, of German parents. He was sent, at an early age, to the university, where his genius, diligence, and amiable temper soon acquired him the particular notice and favor of those. under whose immediate direction he was placed. After passing through the common course of study in a much shorter time than usual, he left the university, at the age of sixteen, with great reputation. Not long after, he entered on the study of Physic; and the zeal with

tutions calculated to diffuse knowledge among the people; and amongst these public libraries are not the least important.

In 1732, Franklin began to publish Poor Richard's Almanack. This was remarkable for the numerous and valuable concise maxims which it contained, all tending to exhort to industry and frugality. It was continued for many years. In the Almanack for the last year, all the maxims were col lected in an address to the reader, entitled, The Way to Wealth. This has been translated in various languages, and inserted in different publications. It has also been printed on a large sheet, and may be seen framed in many houses in this city. This address contains, perhaps, the best practical system of economy that ever has appeared. It is written in a manner intelligible to every one, and which cannot fail of convincing every reader of the justice and propriety of the remarks and advice which it contains. The demand for this almanack was so great, that ten thousand have been sold in one year; which must be considered as a very large number, especially when we reflect, that this country was, at that time, but thinly peopled. It cannot be doubted that the salutary maxims contained in these ́almanacks must have made a favorable impression upon many of the readers of them.

It was not long before Franklin entered upon his political career. In the year 1736 he was appoint ed clerk to the general assembly of P nnsylvania; and was re-elected by succeeding assemblies for several years, until he was chosen a representative for the city of Philadelphia.

Bradford was possessed of some advantages over Franklin, by being post master, thereby having an opportunity of circulating his paper more extensive