a fimilar fituation, derive fome advantage from my narrative. When I reflect, as I frequently do, upon the felicity I have enjoyed, I fometimes fay to myfelf, that, were the offer made me, I would engage to run again, from beginning to end, the fame career of life. All I would afk fhould be the privilege of an author, to correct, in a fecond edition, certain errors of the first. I could with, likewife, if it were in my power, to change fome trivial incidents and events for others more favourable. Were this however denied me, ftill would I not decline the offer. But fince a repetition of life cannot take place, there is nothing which, in my opinion, fo nearly refembles it, as to call to mind all its circumftances, and, to render their remembrance more durable, commit them to writing. By thus employing myself, I fhall yield to the inclination, fo natural in old men, to B 2 talk talk of themselves and their exploits, and may freely follow my bent, without being tiresome to those who, from refpect to my age, might think themselves obliged to liften to me; as they will be at liberty to read me or not as they please. In fine and I may as well avow it, fince nobody would believe me were I to deny it-I fhall perhaps, by this employment, gratify my vanity. Scarcely indeed have I ever heard or read the in- ` troductory phrafe, "I may fay without vanity," but fome striking and characteriftic inftance of vanity has immediately followed. The generality of men hate vanity in others, however ftrongly they may be tinctured with it themselves: for myfelf, I pay obeifance to it wherever I meet with it, perfuaded that it is advantageous, as well to the individual whom it governs, as to thofe who are within the fphere of its influence. Of confequence, it would, in many cafes, not not be wholly abfurd, that a man should count his vanity among the other fweets of life, and give thanks to providence for the bleffing. And here let me with all humility acknowledge, that to divine providence I am indebted for the felicity I have hitherto enjoyed. It is that power alone which has furnished me with the means I have employed, and that has crowned them with fuccefs. My faith in this refpect leads me to hope, though I cannot count upon it, that the divine goodness will ftill be exercised towards me, either by prolonging the duration of my happiness to the clofe of life, or by giving me fortitude to fupport any melancholy reverse, which may happen to me, as to fo many others. My future. fortune is unknown but to him in whofe hand is our destiny, and who can make our very afflictions fubfervient to our benefit. One of my uncles, defirous, like myfelf, of collecting anecdotes of our family, gave me fome notes, from which I have derived many particulars respecting our ancestors. From thefe I learn, that they had lived in the fame village (Eaton in Northamptonshire), upon a freehold of about thirty acres, for the fpace at least of three hundred years. How long they had refided there prior to that period, my uncle had been unable to discover; probably ever fince the inftitution of furnames, when they took the appellation of Franklin, which had formerly been the name of a particular order of individuals *. This * As a proof that Franklin was anciently the common name of an order or rank in England, fee Judge Fortescue, De laudibus legum Anglia, written about the year 1412, in which is the following paffage, to fhew that good juries might easily be formed in any part of England: "Regio This petty estate would not have sufficed for their fubfiftence, had they not added the trade of blacksmith, which was "Regio etiam illa, ita refperfa refertaque eft "poffefforibus terrarum et agrorum, quod in ea, vil"lula tam parva reperiri non poterit, in qua non "eft miles, armiger, vel pater-familias, qualis ibidem "franklin vulgariter nuncupatur, magnis ditatus "poffeffionibus, nec non libere tenentes et alii va « le&i plurimi, suis patrimoniis fufficientes, ad fa"ciendum juratam, in forma prænotata." "Moreover, the fame country is fo filled and re"plenished with landed menne, that therein fo finall " a thorpe cannot be found wherein dwelleth not a "knight, an efquire, or fuch a householder as is "there commonly called a franklin, enriched with great poffeffions; and alfo other freeholders and many yeomen, able for their livelihoodes to make a jury in form aforementioned." OLD TRANSLATION. Chaucer too calls his country gentleman a franklin, and, after defcribing his good housekeeping, thus characterises him : This worthy franklin bore a purse of silk, |