enough for the greater part even of that. Fortunately, however, he found also, on the same shelves, Plutarch's Lives, which he read with more avidity as well as profit; An Essay on Projects, by Daniel De Foe, an Englishman, the author of the famous Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; and An Essay to do Good, by the celebrated Cotton Mather of Boston. In speaking of these works, he intimates the belief that the reading of the two essays mentioned, gave him a turn of thinking which probably exerted an influence upon some of the principal events of his subsequent life.

APPRENTICED TO HIS BROTHER.

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CHAPTER II.

HE BECOMES A. PRINTER.

BENJAMIN was now twelve years old. There being no type-foundry in the colony, his brother James, during the preceding year, 1717, had been to England to procure the necessary apparatus for a printing-office, and on his return had established himself in Boston, as a printer; and his father, still anxious lest Benjamin, in his unsettled and discontented state of mind, might gratify that "hankering for the sea," which continued as strong in him as ever, was now very urgent to have him regularly apprenticed to James. As this proposal was far more agreeable to the lad than remaining in the chandler's shop, he at length, after much solicitation, yielded to the wishes of his father; and in the course of the year he was duly indentured as an apprentice to his brother, so to continue till he should be twenty-one years old, and, for the closing year of the term, to be paid the full wages of a journeyman.

He took readily to his new employment, and soon became so expert in it as to be exceedingly useful to his brother. A freer access to a wider range of reading helped, very materially, to increase his content with the situation, which thus contributed to gratify one of his strongest propensities. His intercourse with the ap

prentices of booksellers, gave him more frequent opportunities to borrow; and he had the prudence and good sense to preserve this privilege, by losing no time in reading the books thus obtained, and promptly returning them in good condition. "Often," says he, "I sat up in my chamber reading the greatest part of the night, when the book was borrowed in the evening to be returned in the morning, lest it should be found missing;" and he further relates that he was greatly favored, in this particular, by the kindness of a neighboring merchant, 66 an ingenious and sensible man," named Matthew Adams, who, in his frequent visits to the printing-office, finding his attention peculiarly attracted to Benjamin, invited him to see his library, and of his own accord proffered him the loan of any books it contained, which he might wish to read.

At this period, moreover, as he relates, a strong inclination for poetry took possession of him, and he wrote some small pieces. His brother James, thinking it might be directed to the advantage of his business, encouraged the propensity. Of the performances of our apprentice-muse, about that time presented to the public, two ballads only are specially named. One of them, entitled, "The Light-House Tragedy," recorded and bewailed the shipwreck of one Captain Worthilake, with two daughters; and the other sung the capture of a truculent pirate named Teach, but better known to fame by the more impressive and appropriate appellation of Black-Beard. He pronounces them "wretched stuff;" but they were printed, and the author, not known as such, however, except only to himself and his brother, was sent forth to hawk them about the streets. The tragedy "sold prodigiously," for the disaster was recent, well known, and affecting. His father, however, soon took down the vanity of the young ballad-writer, by

his plain and searching criticism, and by telling him that "verse-makers were generally beggars."

Though rescued thus from the perils of rhyme, he felt nevertheless a strong propensity to employ his pen; and the method, which, incited by a generous ambition, he now pursued in order to attain a ready command of his mother-tongue, and to form that clear, flowing, and happy prose style, for which he afterward became distinguished, and which proved one of the most efficient means of advancing his fortunes, was so well conceived, so practical, so remarkable in a youth but little more than twelve years old, and for that reason among others so valuable as an example, that a somewhat particular account of the method ought not to be omitted.

One of Benjamin's most intimate companions at this time, was another "bookish lad" by the name of John Collins. They both had an itch for arguing, which grew into a disputatious habit, and led to frequent and eager struggles for victory. This habit, as he admits, is by no means a desirable one, and he subsequently corrected it in himself entirely; but it served, at the time, to stimulate him to the assiduous employment of his pen, and was, in part, the means, aided again by his judicious father, of leading him to the practice which he soon resorted to, for improving his style and enlarging his command of language.

In the course of his discussions with Collins, the old question was started, whether the capacities of females fitted them for the more profound and abstruse sciences, and whether such sciences should be made part of their course of study, either for the sake of positive acquirement, or for the purpose of mental discipline. Collins took the negative side of the question, and Benjamin the affirmative, the latter, in his own account of the contest, adding-" perhaps a little for dispute's sake." They

commenced the discussion orally; but parting before the debate was ended, and not being likely to meet again for some little time, Benjamin embraced the occasion to write out his arguments and send them to Collins, who replied in the same way.

Several communications on each side had been made in this form, when they fell under the eye of Benjamin's father, who, without touching at all on the merits of the question, availed himself of the opportunity to comment freely on the performances of the young disputants, showing his son, as he candidly states, that, although he was more accurate in his spelling and punctuation, than his antagonist, yet that the latter much excelled him in elegance of expression, method, and perspicuity, and supporting his criticisms by reference to various passages. Benjamin saw that his father was

right, and instead of being either offended, or discouraged, resolved to make more vigorous efforts to improve his manner of writing.

Fortunately for his purpose, about this time he came across a stray volume containing some of the celebrated essays of the Spectator, none of which had he ever seen before. This book he purchased, read the essays again and again, and having good sense and taste enough to perceive and admire their various merits, the desire to form his style on the model they presented, took full possession of him. The method, already alluded to, which he pursued to attain his end, he describes as follows:

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I took some of the papers, and making short hints of the sentiments in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then without looking at the book, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should occur to me.