The following instance will show something of the terms on which we stood. Upon one of his arrivals from England at Boston he wrote to me that he should come soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where he could lodge when there, as he understood his old friend and host, Mr. Benezet, was removed to Germantown. My answer was, "You know my house; if you can make shift with its scanty accommodations, you will be most heartily welcome." He replied, that if I made that kind offer for Christ's sake, I should not miss of a reward. And I returned, "Don't let me be mistaken; it was not for Christ's sake, but for your sake." One of our common acquaintance jocosely remarked, that, knowing it to be the custom of the saints, when they received any favor, to shift the burden of the obligation from off their own shoulders, and place it in heaven, I had contrived to fix it on earth. The last time I saw Mr. Whitefield was in London, when he consulted me about his Orphan House concern, and his purpose of appropriating it to the establishment of a college. He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words and sentences so perfectly, that he might be heard and understood at a great distance, especially as his auditories, however numerous, observed the most exact silence. He preached one evening from the top of the Court-House steps,' which are in the middle of Market Street, and on the west side of Second Street, which crosses it at right angles. Both streets were filled with his hearers to a considerable distance. Being among the hindmost in Market Street, I had the curiosity to learn how far he could be heard, by retiring backwards down the street towards the river; and I found his voice distinct till I came near Front Street, when some noise in that street obscured it. Imagining then a semicircle, of which my distance should be the radius, and that it were filled with auditors, to each of whom I allowed two square feet, I computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand. This reconciled me to the newspaper accounts of his having preached to twentyfive thousand people in the fields, and to the ancient histories of generals haranguing whole armies, of which I had sometimes doubted. By hearing him often, I came to distinguish easily between sermons newly composed, and those which he 1 Court-house is shown in picture on p. 35. had often preached in the course of his travels. His delivery of the latter was so improved by frequent repetitions that every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice was so perfectly well turned and well placed, that, without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse; a pleasure of much the same kind with that received from an excellent piece of music. This is an advantage itinerant preachers have over those who are stationary, as the latter cannot well improve their delivery of a sermon by so many rehearsals. His writing and printing from time to time gave great advantage to his enemies; unguarded expressions, and even erroneous opinions, delivered in preaching, might have been afterwards explained or qualified by supposing others that might have accompanied them, or they might have been denied; but litera scripta manet. Critics attacked his writings violently, and with so much appearance of reason as to diminish the number of his votaries and prevent their increase; so that I am of opinion if he had never written anything, he would have left behind him a much more numerous and important sect, and his reputation might in that case have been still growing, even after his death, as there being nothing of his writing on which to found a censure and give him a lower character, his proselytes would be left at liberty to feign for him as great a variety of excellencies as their enthusiastic admiration might wish him to have possessed. My business was now continually augmenting, and my circumstances growing daily easier, my newspaper having become very profitable, as being for a time al most the only one in this and the neighboring provinces. I experienced, too, the truth of the observation, "that after getting the first hundred pound, it is more easy to get the second," money itself being of a prolific nature. The partnership at Carolina having succeeded, I was encouraged to engage in others, and to promote several of my workmen, who had behaved well, by establishing them with printing-houses in different colonies, on the same terms with that in Carolina. Most of them did well, being enabled at the end of our term, six years, to purchase the types of me and go on working for themselves, by which means several families were raised. Partnerships often finish in quarrels; but I was happy in this, that mine were all carried on and ended amicably, owing, I think, a good deal to the precaution of having very explicitly settled, in our articles, everything to be done by or expected from each partner, so that there was nothing to dispute ; which precaution I would therefore recommend to all who enter into partnerships; for, whatever esteem partners may have for, and confidence in each other at the time of the contract, little jealousies and disgusts may arise, with ideas of inequality in the care and burden of the business, etc., which are attended often with breach of friendship and of the connection, perhaps with lawsuits and other disagreeable consequences. VIII. CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA 1748-1753 COMMENT. Franklin's life was sharply divided into periods: his youth; his year or more of wandering and adventure; his appearance in business, marriage, and active participation in the public affairs of the community. This period of Franklin's life shows him at the beginning of those greater activities which came to fill the years after his retirement from business; several points are of interest to those who would learn of him the secret of continued advancement in life and prolonged activity in age. Early in his career, he turned his attention to those small affairs near at hand which affected his own welfare and that of his neighbors; such were the support of a small library, a better school, better management of the city watch, protection of property from fire. From each of these Franklin hoped to gain some personal advantage, it is true, but he might have provided for himself alone for a small part of the effort and money the public institution cost him. We see here an important characteristic of the man, namely, his habit of considering his own need as, in a larger sense, the need of his fellow-citizens. He did not rest until he had devised a plan broad enough to meet the requirement of all in the same case as himself. In these enterprises he displayed another quality for which he was perhaps more remarkable than any other man in his generation. He did not content himself with small schemes which would benefit the community for a few years only; he had a rare prevision of the future greatness of his city and country, and with this in view he devised for each enterprise some permanent form of organization not dependent upon himself or any single group of promoters for continuation. Thus, from the small beginnings spoken of in this chapter have come |