RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS AND PRINCIPLES. that he would advance whatever might be necessary to establish us, if I was willing to enter into partnership with him. "My time with Keimer," added he, "will be at an end next spring. In the mean time, we may send to London for our press and types. I know that I am no workman; but if you agree to the proposal, your skill in the business will be balanced by the capital I shall furnish, and we will share the profits equally." His proposal was reasonable, and I fell in with it. His father, who was then in the town, approved of it. He knew that I had some ascendancy over his son, 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 should cure him entirely of this unfortunate habit. I gave the father a list of what it would be necessary to import from London. He took it to a merchant, and the order was given. We agreed to keep the secret till the arrival of the materials, and I was in the meantime to procure work, if possible, in another printinghouse; but there was no place vacant, and I remained idle. After some days, Keimer having the expectation of being employed to print some New Jersey moneybills, that would require types and engravings which I only could furnish, and fearful that Bradford, by engaging me, might deprive him of this undertaking, sent me a very civil message, telling me that old friends ought not to be disunited on account of a few words, which were the effect only of a momentary passion, and inviting me to return to him. Meredith persuaded me to comply with the invitation, particularly as it would afford him more opportunities of improving himself in the business by means of my instructions. I did so ; and we lived upon better terms than before our separation. He obtained the New Jersey business; and, in order to execute it, I constructed a copperplate printing-press, the first that had been seen in the country. I engraved various ornaments and vignettes for the bills; and we repaired to Burlington together, where I executed the whole to general satisfaction; and he received a sum of money for this work, which enabled him to keep his head above water for a considerable time longer. At Burlington I formed an acquaintance with the principal personages of the province; many of whom were commissioned by the Assembly to superintend the press, and to see that no more bills were printed than the law had prescribed. Accordingly, they were constantly 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 reason probably that they set more value on my conversation. They took me to their houses, introduced me to their friends, and treated me with the greatest civility; while Keimer, though master, saw himself a little neglected. He was, in fact, a strange animal, ignorant of the common modes of life, apt to oppose with rudeness generally received opinions, an enthusiast in certain points of religion, disgustingly unclean in his person, and a little knavish withal. We remained there nearly three months; and at the expiration of this period I could include in the list of my friends, Judge Allen, Samuel Bustil, secretary of the province, Isaac Pearson, Joseph Cooper, several of the Smiths, all members of the Assembly, and Isaac Decon, inspector-general. The last was a shrewd and subtle old man. He told me, that when a boy, his first employment had been that of carrying clay to brick makers; that he did not learn to write till he was somewhat advanced in life; that he was afterwards employed as an underling to a surveyor, who taught him his trade; and that by industry he had at last acquired a competent fortune. "I foresee," said he to me one day, "that you will soon supplant this man (speaking of Keimer), and get a fortune in the business at Philadelphia." He was totally ignorant at the time, of my intention of establishing myself there or anywhere else. These friends were very serviceable to me in the end, as was I also, upon occasion, to some of them; and they have continued ever since their esteem for me. 19 Before I relate the particulars of my entrance into business, it may be proper to inform you what was at that time the state of my mind as to moral principles, that you may see the degree of influence they had upon the subsequent events of my life. My parents had given me betimes religious impressions, and I received from my infancy a pious education in the principles of Calvinism. But scarcely was I 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 deism fell into my hands. They were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle's Lecture. It happened that they produced on me an effect precisely the reverse of what was intended by the writers; for the arguments of the deists, which were cited in order to be refuted, appeared to me much more forcible than the refutation itself.* In a word, I soon became a perfect deist. My arguments perverted some other young persons, particularly Collins and Ralph. But in the sequel, when I recollected that they had both used me extremely ill, without the smallest remorse; when I considered the behaviour of Keith, another free-thinker, and my own conduct towards Vernon and Miss Read, which at times gave me great uneasiness, I was led to suspect that this doctrine, though it might be true, was not very useful. I began to entertain a less 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 attri butes of God, his goodness, wisdom, and power, that there could be no such thing as evil in the world-that vice and virtue did not in reality exist, and were nothing more than vain distinctions. I no longer regarded it as so blameless a work as I had formerly imagined; and I suspected that some 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 metaphysical reasonings. In a word, I was at last convinced that truth, probity, and of the utmost importance to the happiness of life; and sincerity, in transactions between man and man, were I resolved from that moment, and wrote the resolution in my journal, to practise them as long as I lived. Revelation, indeed, as such, had no influence on my mind; but I was of opinion that, though certain actions could not be bad merely because revelation had prohibited them, or good because it enjoined them, yet it was probable that those actions were prohibited because they were bad for us, or enjoined because advantageous in their nature, all things considored. This persuasion, Divine Providence, or some guardian angel, and perhaps a concurrence of favourable circumstances co-operating, preserved me from all immorality, or gross and voluntary injustice, to which my want of religion was calculated to expose me, in the dangerous period of youth, and in the hazardous situations in which I sometimes found myself, among strangers, and at a distance from the eye and admonitions of my father. I may say voluntary, because the errors into which I had fallen had been, in a manner, the forced result either of my own inexperience, or the dishonesty of others. Thus, before I entered on my new career, I had imbibed solid principles, and a character of probity. I knew their value; and I made a solemn engagement with myself never to depart from them. I had not long returned from Burlington before our printing materials arrived from London. I settled my accounts with Keimer, and quitted him, with his own consent, before he had any knowledge of our plan. We * [This shows the extreme danger of unskilful though zealous men attempting to refute doctrinal errors. Franklin lived to think very differently] found a house to let near the market. We took it; and to render the rent less burdensome (it was then twentyfour pounds a-year, but I have since known it let for seventy), we admitted Thomas Godfrey, a glazier, with his family, who eased us of a considerable part of it: and with him we agreed to board. We had no sooner unpacked our letters, and put our press in order, than a person of my acquaintance, George House, brought us a countryman whom he had met in the streets inquiring for a printer. Our money was almost exhausted by the number of things we had been obliged to procure. The five shillings we received from this countryman, the first fruit of our earnings, coming so seasonably, gave me more pleasure than any sum I have since gained; and the recollection of the gratitude I felt on this occasion to George House, has rendered me often more disposed than perhaps I should otherwise have been, to encourage young beginners in trade. There are in every country morose beings, who are always prognosticating ruin. There was one of this stamp at Philadelphia. He was a man of fortune, declined in years, had an air of wisdom, and a very grave manner of speaking. His name was Samuel Mickle. I knew him not; but he stopped one day at my door, and asked me if I was the young man who had lately opened a new printing-house. Upon my answering in the affirmative, he said that he was very sorry for me, as it was an expensive undertaking, and the money that had been laid out upon it would be lost, Philadelphia being a place falling into decay-its inhabitants having all, or nearly all, of them, been obliged to call together their creditors. That he knew, from undoubted fact, the circumstances which might lead us to suppose the contrary-such as new buildings, and the advanced price of rent-to be deceitful appearances, which in reality contributed to hasten the general ruin: and he gave me so long a detail of misfortunes, actually existing, or which were soon to take place, that he left me almost in a state of despair. Had I known this man before I entered into trade, I should doubtless never have ventured. He continued, however, to live in this place of decay, and to declaim in the same style, refusing for many years to buy a house because all was going to wreck; and in the end I had the satisfaction to see him pay five times as much for one as it would have cost him had he purchased it when he first began his lamentations. I ought to have related that, during the autumn of the preceding year, I had united the majority of wellinformed persons of my acquaintance into a club, which we called by the name of the "Junto," and the object of which was to improve our understandings. We met every Friday evening. The regulations I drew up obliged every member to propose, in his turn, one or more questions upon some point of morality, politics, or philosophy, which were to be discussed by the society; and to read, once in three months, an essay of his own composition, on whatever subject he pleased. Our debates were under the direction of a president, and were to be dictated only by a sincere desire of truth-the pleasure of disputing, and the vanity of triumph, having no share in the business; and in order to prevent undue warmth, every expression which implied obstinate adherence to an opinion, and all direct contradiction, were prohibited, under small pecuniary penalties. The first members of our club were Joseph Breintnal, whose occupation was that of a scrivener. He was a middle-aged man, of a good natural disposition, strongly attached to his friends, a great lover of poetry, reading every thing that came in his way, and writing tolerably well, ingenious in many little trifles, and of an agreeable conversation. Thomas Godfrey, a skilful, though self-taught mathematician, and who was afterwards the inventor of what now goes by the name of Hadley's dial; but he had little knowledge out of his own line, and was insupportable in company, always requiring, like the majority of mathematicians that have fallen in my way, an unusual precision in every thing that is said, continually contradicting, or making trifling distinctions-a sure way of defeating all the ends of conversation. He very soon left us. Nicolas Scull, a surveyor, and who became afterwards surveyor-general. He was fond of books, and wrote verses. William Parsons, brought up to the trade of a shoemaker, but who, having a taste for reading, had acquired a profound knowledge of mathematics. He first studied them with a view to astrology, and was afterwards the first to laugh at his folly. He also became surveyorgeneral. William Mawgride, a joiner, and very excellent mechanic; and in other respects a man of solid understanding. Hugh Meredith, Stephen Potts, and George Webb, of whom I have already spoken. Robert Grace, a young man of fortune-generous, animated, and witty; fond of epigrams, but more fond of his friends. And, lastly, William Coleman, at that time a merchant's clerk, and nearly of my own age. He had a cooler and clearer head, a better heart, and more scrupulous morals, than almost any other person I have ever met with. He became a very respectable merchant, and one of our provincial judges. Our friendship subsisted, without interruption, for more than forty years, till the period of his death; and the club continued to exist almost as long. This was the best school for politics and philosophy that then existed in the province; for our questions, which were read once a-week previous to their discussion, induced us to peruse attentively such books as were written upon the subjects proposed, that we might be able to speak upon them more pertinently. We thus acquired the habit of conversing more agreeably; every object being discussed conformably to our regulations, and in a manner to prevent mutual disgust. To this circumstance may be attributed the long duration of the club; which I shall have frequent occasion to mention as I proceed. I have introduced it here, as being one of the means on which I had to count for success in my business, every member exerting himself to procure work for us. Breintnal, among others, obtained for us, on the part of the Quakers, the printing of forty sheets of their history; of which the rest was to be done by Keimer. Our execution of this work was by no means masterly, as the price was very low. It was in folio, upon pro patria paper, and in the pica letter, with heavy notes in the smallest type. I composed a sheet a-day, and Meredith put it to press. It was frequently eleven o'clock at night, sometimes later, before I had finished my distribution for the next day's task; for the little things which our friends occasionally sent us, kept us back with this work: but I was so determined to compose a sheet a-day, that one evening, when my form was imposed, and my day's work, as thought, at an end, an accident having broken this form, and deranged two complete folio pages, I immediately distributed and composed them anew before I went to bed. This unwearied industry, which was perceived by our neighbours, began to acquire us reputation and credit. I learned, among other things, that our new printing-house being the subject of conversation at a club of merchants, who met every evening, it was the general opinion that it would fail-there being already two printing-houses in the town, Keimer's and Bradford's. But Dr Bard, whom you and I had occasion to see, many years after, at his native town of St. Andrew's, in Scotland, was of a different opinion. "The industry of this Franklin," says he, "is superior to any thing of the kind I have ever witnessed. I see him still at work when I return from the club at night, and he is at it again in the morning before his neighbours are out of bed." This account struck the rest of the assembly, and shortly after one of its members came to our house, and offered to supply us with articles of stationery; but we wished not as yet to embarrass ourselves DISSOLVES PARTNERSHIP WITH MEREDITH. 21 with keeping a shop. It is not for the sake of applause | with many expressions of gratitude; so that this error that I enter so freely into the particulars of my industry, of my life was in a manner atoned for. but that such of my descendants as shall read these memoirs may know the use of this virtue, by seeing in the recital of my life the effects it operated in my favour. George Webb, having found a friend who lent him the necessary sum to buy out his time of Keimer, came one day to offer himself to us as a journeyman. We could not employ him immediately; but I foolishly told him, under the rose, that I intended shortly to publish a new periodical paper, and that we should then have work for him. My hopes of success, which I imparted to him, were founded on the circumstance, that the only paper we had in Philadelphia at that time, and which Bradford printed, was a paltry thing, miserably conducted, in no respect amusing, and which yet was profitable. I consequently supposed that a good work of this kind could not fail of success. Webb betrayed my secret to Keimer, who, to prevent me, immediately published the "prospectus" of a paper that he intended to institute himself, and in which Webb was to be engaged. I was exasperated at this proceeding, and, with a view to counteract them, not being able at present to institute my own paper, I wrote some humorous pieces in Bradford's, under the title of the Busy Body; and which was continued for several months by Breintnal. I hereby fixed the attention of the public upon Bradford's paper; and the "prospectus" of Keimer, which we turned into ridicule, was treated with contempt. He began, notwithstanding, his paper; and, after continuing it for nine months, having at most not more than ninety subscribers, he offered it me for a mere trifle. I had for some time been ready for such an engagement; I therefore instantly took it upon myself, and in a few years it proved extremely profitable to me. I perceive that I am apt to speak in the first person, though our partnership still continued. It is perhaps because, in fact, the whole business devolved upon me. Meredith was no compositor, and but an indifferent pressman; and it was rarely that he abstained from hard drinking. My friends were sorry to see me connected with him; but I contrived to derive from it the utmost advantage the case admitted. But another trouble now happened to me, which I had not the smallest reason to expect. Meredith's father, who, according to our agreement, was to defray the whole expense of our printing materials, had only paid a hundred pounds. Another hundred was still due, and the merchant being tired of waiting, commenced a suit against us. We bailed the action, but with the melancholy prospect, that if the money was not forthcoming at the time fixed, the affair would come to issue, judgment be put in execution, our delightful hopes be annihilated, and ourselves entirely ruined; as the types and press must be sold, perhaps at half their value, to pay the debt. In this distress, two real friends, whose generous conduct I have never forgotten, and never shall forget while I retain the remembrance of any thing, came to me separately, without the knowledge of each other, and without my having applied to either of them. Each offered whatever money might be necessary to take the business into my own hands, if the thing was practicable, as they did not like I should continue in partnership with Meredith, who, they said, was frequently seen drunk in the streets, and gambling at ale-houses, which very much injured our credit. These friends were William Coleman and Robert Grace. I told them, that while there remained any probability that the Merediths would fulfil their part of the compact, I could not propose a separation, as I conceived myself to be under obligations to them for what they had done already, and were still disposed to do, if they had the power; but, in the end, should they fail in their engagement, and our partnership be dissolved, I should then think myself at liberty to accept the kindness of my friends. Things remained for some time in this state. At last, I said one day to my partner, "Your father is perhaps dissatisfied with your having a share only in the business, and is unwilling to do for two what he would do for you alone. Tell me frankly if that be the case, and I will resign the whole to you, and do for myself as well as I can." "No," said he, "my father has really been disappointed in his hopes; he is not able to pay, and I wish to put him to no further Our first number produced no other effect than any inconvenience. I see that I am not at all calculated other paper which had appeared in the province, as to for a printer; I was educated as a farmer, and it was type and printing: but some remarks, in my peculiar absurd in me to come here, at thirty years of age, and style of writing, upon the dispute which then prevailed bind myself apprentice to a new trade. Many of my between Governor Burnet and the Massachusetts As-countrymen are going to settle in North Carolina, sembly, struck some persons as above mediocrity, where the soil is exceedingly favourable. I am caused the paper and its editors to be talked of, and tempted to go with them, and to resume my former in a few weeks induced them to become our subscribers. occupation. You will doubtless find friends who will Many others followed their example; and our subscrip- assist you. If you will take upon yourself the debts tion continued to increase. This was one of the first of the partnership, return my father the hundred good effects of the pains I had taken to learn to put pounds he has advanced, pay my little personal debts, my ideas on paper. I derived this farther advantage and give thirty pounds and a new saddle, I will refrom it, that the leading men of the place, seeing in nounce the partnership, and consign over the whole the author of this publication a man so well able to use stock to you." his pen, thought it right to patronise and encourage me. I accepted this proposal without hesitation. It was The votes, laws, and other public pieces, were printed committed to paper, and signed and sealed without deby Bradford. An address of the House of Assembly lay. I gave him what he demanded, and he departed to the Governor had been executed by him in a very soon after for Carolina, from whence he sent me, in the coarse and incorrect manner. We reprinted it with following year, two long letters, containing the best acaccuracy and neatness, and sent a copy to every mem- counts that had yet been given of that country, as to ber. They perceived the difference; and it so strength-climate, soil, agriculture, &c., for he was well versed in ened the influence of our friends in the Assembly, that we were nominated its printer for the following year. Among these friends I ought not to forget one member in particular, Mr Hamilton, whom I have mentioned in a former part of my narrative, and who was now returned from England. He warmly interested himself for me on this occasion, as he did likewise on many others afterwards; having continued his kindness to me till his death. About this period, Mr Vernon reminded me of the debt I owed him, but without pressing me for payment. I wrote a handsome letter on the occasion, begging him to wait a little longer, to which he consented; and as soon as I was able, I paid him principal and interest, these matters. I published them in my newspaper, and they were received with great satisfaction. As soon as he was gone, I applied to my two friends, and not wishing to give a disobliging preference to either of them, I accepted from each half what he had offered me, and which it was necessary I should have. I paid the partnership debts, and continued the business on my own account, taking care to inform the public, by advertisement, of the partnership being dissolved. This was, I think, in the year 1729, or thereabouts. Nearly at the same period, the people demanded a new emission of paper-money; the existing and only one that had taken place in the province, and which 22 OPENS A STATIONER'S SHOP. amounted to £15,000, being soon to expire. The wealthy inhabitants, prejudiced against every sort of paper currency, from the fear of its depreciationof which there had been an instance in the province of New England, to the injury of its holders-strongly opposed this measure. We had discussed this affair in our Junto, in which I was on the side of the new emission; convinced that the first small sum, fabricated in 1723, had done much good in the province, by favouring commerce, industry, and population, since all the houses were now inhabited, and many others building; whereas I remembered to have seen, when I first paraded the streets of Philadelphia, eating my roll, the majority of those in Walnut Street, Second Street, Fourth Street, as well as a great number in Chesnut and other streets, with papers on them signifying that they were to be let; which made me think at the time that the inhabitants of the town were deserting it one after another. Our debates made me so fully master of the subject, that I wrote and published an anonymous pamphlet, entitled, An Inquiry into the Nature and Necessity of Paper Currency. It was very well received by the lower and middling classes of people; but it displeased the opulent, as it increased the clamour in favour of the new emission. Having, however, no writer among them capable of answering it, their opposition became less violent and there being in the House of Assembly a majority for the measure, it passed. The friends I had acquired in the House, persuaded that I had done the country essential service on this occasion, rewarded me by giving me the printing of the bills. It was a lucrative employment, and proved a very seasonable help to me; another advantage which I derived from having habituated myself to write. Time and experience so fully demonstrated the utility of paper currency, that it never after experienced any considerable opposition; so that it soon amounted to £55,000, and in the year 1739 to £80,000. It has since risen, during the last war, to £350,000— trade, buildings, and population, having in the interval continually increased: but I am now convinced that there are limits beyond which paper money would be prejudicial. I soon after obtained, by the influence of my friend Hamilton, the printing of the Newcastle paper money, another profitable work, as I then thought it-little things appearing great to persons of moderate fortune; and they were really great to me, as proving great encouragements. He also procured me the printing of the laws and votes of that great government, which I retained as long as I continued in the business. I now opened a small stationer's shop. I kept bonds and agreements of all kinds, drawn up in a more accurate form than had yet been seen in that part of the world a work in which I was assisted by my friend Breintnal. I had also paper, parchment, pasteboard, books, &c. One Whitemash, an excellent compositor, whom I had known in London, came to offer himself; I engaged him, and he continued constantly and diligently to work with me. I also took an apprentice, the son of Aquila Rose. I began to pay, by degrees, the debt I had contracted; and in order to insure my credit and character as a tradesman, I took care not only to be really industrious and frugal, but also to avoid every appearance of the contrary. I was plainly dressed, and never seen in any place of public amusement. I never went a-fishing or hunting. A book indeed enticed me sometimes from my work, but it was seldom, by stealth, and occasioned no scandal; and to show that I did not think myself above my profession, I conveyed home sometimes in a wheelbarrow the paper I had purchased at the warehouses. I thus obtained the reputation of being an industrious young man, and very punctual in his payments. The merchants who imported articles of stationery, solicited my custom; others offered to furnish me with books, and my little trade went on prosperously. Meanwhile the credit and business of Keimer diminishing every day, he was at last forced to sell his stock to satisfy his creditors; and he betook himself to Barbadoes, where he lived for some time in a very impoverished state. His apprentice, David Harry, whom I had instructed while I worked with Keimer, having bought his materials, succeeded in the business. I was apprehensive, at first, of finding in Harry a powerful competitor, as he was allied to an opulent and respectable family; I therefore proposed a partnership, which, happily for me, he rejected with disdain. He was extremely proud, thought himself a fine gentleman, lived extravagantly, and pursued amusements which suffered him to be scarcely ever at home; consequently he fell into debt, neglected his business, and business neglected him. Finding in a short time nothing to do in the country, he followed Keimer to Barbadoes, carrying his printing materials with him. There the apprentice employed his old master as a journeyman. They were continually quarrelling; and Harry, still getting in debt, was obliged at last to sell his press and types, and to return to his old occupation of husbandry in Pennsylvania. The person who purchased them employed Keimer to manage the business; but he died a few years after. I had now at Philadelphia no competitor but Bradford, who, being in easy circumstances, did not engage in the printing of books, except now and then as workmen chanced to offer themselves, and was not anxious to extend his trade. He had, however, one advantage over me, as he had the direction of the post-office, and was of consequence supposed to have better opportunities of obtaining news. His paper was also supposed to be more advantageous to advertising customers; and in consequence of that supposition, his advertisements were much more numerous than mine: this was a source of great profit to him, and disadvantageous to me. It was to no purpose that I really procured other papers and distributed my own, by means of the post: the public took for granted my inability in this respect; and I was indeed unable to conquer it in any other mode than by bribing the post-boys, who served me only by stealth, Bradford being so illiberal as to forbid them. This treatment of his excited my resentment; and my disgust was so rooted, that when I afterwards succeeded him in the post-office, I took care to avoid copying his example. I had hitherto continued to board with Godfrey, who, with his wife and children, occupied part of my house, and half of the shop for his business; at which indeed he worked very little, being always absorbed by mathematics. Mrs Godfrey formed 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 negotiate 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 the 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 disposal. I observed that it might easily be obtained, by a mortgage on their house. The reply to this was, after a few days' interval, that they did not approve of the match; 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. MARRIAGE-REGULATION OF LIFE. Some time after, Mrs Godfrey informed me that they were favourably 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 round 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 expense 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. 23 CONTINUATION OF LIFE BY THE EDITORS. 1731 TILL 1757. The effort made by Franklin to promote a taste for literature in Philadelphia, by the establishment of a public library, was eminently successful. The number of subscribers increased; and in 1742 the company was incorporated by the name of "The Library Company of Philadelphia." Several other companies were formed in the city in imitation of it, and the whole were finally united in one institution.* The beneficial influence of this establishment was soon evident. A taste for reading spread around, and libraries were formed in various places throughout Pennsylvania. Franklin was much gratified by the success of his scheme, and continued by his example to encourage habits of industry in the young, and to raise a taste for literary and other rational recreations. We now find him, at the early age of twenty-five or twenty-six, fairly embarked in life as a tradesman, citizen, and a lover As a neighbour and old acquaintance, I had kept up of literary and scientific pursuits. His first consideraa friendly intimacy with the family of Miss Read. Her tion was scrupulous attention to business and to his parents had retained an affection for me from the time family. He mentions, in the papers which he left beof my lodging in their house. I was often invited hind him, that at this period of his life he avoided all thither; they consulted me about their affairs, and I frivolous amusements; his only relaxation being in a had been sometimes serviceable to them. I was touched game at chess, of which he was very fond. He methowith the unhappy situation of their daughter, who was dised the expenditure of his time through the twentyalmost always melancholy, and continually seeking soli-four hours of the day, devoting so many hours to sleep, tude. I regarded my forgetfulness and inconstancy, during my abode in London, as the principal part of her misfortune, though her mother had the candour to attribute the fault to herself rather than to me, because, after having prevented our marriage previously 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 having, 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 successors might be sued. We ventured, nevertheless, in spite of all these difficulties; and I married her on the 1st 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 prospered 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 member 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 such books as we thought we could spare, which were placed at the end of the club-room. They amounted not to so many as we expected; and though we made considerable use of them, yet some inconveniences resulting from want of care, it was agreed, after about a year, to discontinue the collection; and each took away such books as belonged to him. It was now (1731) that I first started the idea of establishing, by subscription, a public library. I drew up the proposals, had them engrossed in form by Brockden, the attorney, and my project succeeded, as will be seen in the sequel. [The narrative of Franklin's life, as written by himself and originally published, here ceases; and we continue it as follows.] so many to work, and the remainder to self-examination and improvement. One of his rules consisted of an obligation to rise every morning at five o'clock, by which means he enjoyed an opportunity of self-instruction, which was and is commonly lost by young men. This is a point in the habits of Franklin exceedingly worthy of imitation; for there can be little doubt that early rising was one of the chief causes of his success in life. Among other studies to which he directed his attention at this period was that of languages, to which his capacity seems to have been suitable. He mentions, that he thus acquired a competent knowledge of the French, Italian, and Spanish languages, and also made himself acquainted in some degree with Latin, of which he had acquired only a limited knowledge at school. It appears from some notes in the autobiographic sketch of Franklin, already given, that his conduct in some respects was not that which he could look back upon with pleasure in after life-that he committed some serious errors, of which he heartily repented. As soon as he was married, he hastened, as we have just seen, to lead a much more orderly and becoming life than he had done when a bachelor. He laid down a set of rules of conduct, referring to the exercise of certain virtues, to which he made the most manful endeavour to conform. He also kept a journal of his behaviour, to enable him to observe how he advanced in virtue, or moral and religious perfection, and how far he abstained from error.+ To this journal he attached certain mottoes, one of which was a verse from the Proverbs of Solomon, in which Wisdom is eulogised :-" Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Another of his mottoes was in the form of a pious aspiration or prayer, in which he implored the divine blessing on his labours, and an increase of that wisdom which was most beneficial to him. One of his favourite passages which he occasionally repeated, was the beautiful address to the Deity in Thomson's Poem on the Seasons: east side of Fifth Street, opposite to the State-house Square, for * In 1790, a neat and ornamental edifice was erected on the the reception of the library established by Franklin. Over the front door is placed a marble statue of its founder, executed in Italy, and presented by William Bingham, Esq. The number of books at present is about 24,000, exclusive of the collection bequeathed to it by Mr Logan, called the Loganian collection, which is about 11,000 volumes.-Encyclopædia Americana, 1832. For a minute account of these rules and arrangements, we refer to the Memoirs of Franklin, by his grandson, William Temple Franklin. 3 vols. 8vo. Colburn, London. |
