THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
GENERAL EDITOR 
 
 WILBUR LUCIUS CROSS 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN YALE UNIVERSITY 
 
Benjamin Franklin 
 After a portrait by J. A. Duplessis 
 
FRANKLIN S 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 FRANK WOODWORTH PINE 
 
 HEAD MASTER OF THE OILMAN COUNTRY SCHOOL, BALTIMORE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1912 
 
 BY 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 August, 1931 
 
 PRINTED IN THE U. 3, A. 
 
F8A3 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION PAGE 
 
 I. Franklin s Career vii 
 
 II. Autobiography xxiii 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY xxvii 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY i 
 
 ELECTRICAL KITE 197 
 
 THE WAY TO WEALTH 199 
 
 THE WHISTLE 203 
 
 A LETTER TO SAMUEL MATHER 206 
 
 NOTES AND COMMENT 207 
 
 Portrait of Franklin Frontispiece 
 
 Father Abraham in his Study 196 
 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 FRANKLIN S CAREER 
 
 THE life of Benjamin Franklin is of importance to 
 every American primarily because of the part he played 
 in securing the independence of the United States and 
 ja_jestablishing it as a nation. Franklin shares with 
 Washington the honors of the Revolution, and of the 
 events leading to the birth of the new nation. While 
 Washington was- the. animating spirit of the struggle in 
 the, colonies, Franklin was its ablest champion abroad. 
 To Franklin s cogent reasoning and keen satire, we owe 
 the clear and forcible presentation of the American case 
 in England and France; while to his personality and di 
 plomacy as well as to his facile pen, we are indebted for 
 the foreign alliance and the funds without which Wash 
 ington s work must have failed. His patience, forti 
 tude, and practical wisdom, coupled with self -sacrificing 
 devotion to the cause of his country, are hardly less no 
 ticeable than similar qualities displayed by Washington. 
 In fact, Franklin as a public man was much like Wash 
 ington, especially in the entire disinterestedness of his 
 public service. 
 
 Franklin is also interesting to us because by his life 
 and teachings he has done more than any other American 
 to advance the material prosperity of his countrymen. 
 It is said that his widely and faithfully read maxims made 
 Philadelphia and Pennsylvania wealthy, while Poor 
 
 vii 
 
viii Introduction 
 
 Richard s pithy sayings, translated into many languages, 
 have had a world-wide influence. 
 
 Franklin is a good type of our American manhood. 
 Although not the wealthiest or the most powerful, he 
 is undoubtedly, in the versatility of his genius and achieve 
 ments, the greatest of our self-made men. The simple 
 yet graphic story in the Autobiography of his steady rise 
 from humble boyhood in a tallow-chandler shop, by in 
 dustry, economy, and perseverance in self-improvement, 
 to eminence, is the most remarkable of all the remarkable 
 histories of our self-made men. It is in itself a wonder 
 ful illustration of the results possible to be attained in a 
 land of unequaled opportunity by following Franklin s 
 maxims. 
 
 Franklin s fame, however, was not confined to his own 
 country. Although he lived in a century notable for the 
 rapid evolution of scientific and political thought and ac 
 tivity, yet no less a keen judge and critic than Lord Jeffrey, 
 the famous editor of the Edinburgh Review, a century 
 ago said that " in one point of view the name of Frank 
 lin must be considered as standing higher than any of the 
 others which illustrated the eighteenth century. Distin 
 guished as a statesman, he was equally great as a phi 
 losopher, thus uniting in himself a rare degree of excellence 
 in both these pursuits, to excel in either of which is deemed 
 the highest praise." 
 
 Franklin has indeed been aptly called " many-sided." 
 He was eminent in science and public service, in diplo 
 macy and in literature. He was the Edison of his day, 
 turning his scientific discoveries to the benefit of his fel 
 low-men. He perceived the identity of lightning and 
 electricity and set up the lightning rod. He invented 
 the Franklin stove, still widely used, and refused to patent 
 it. He possessed a masterly shrewdness in business and 
 
Franklin s Career ix 
 
 practical affairs. Carlyle called him the father of all the 
 Yankees. He_^ojjad^---4r^companj, assisted in found 
 ing a hospital, and improved the cleaning and lighting of 
 streets. He developed journalism, established the Ameri 
 can Philosophical Society, the public library in Philadel 
 phia, and the University of Pennsylvania. He organized 
 a postal system for the colonies, which was the basis of 
 the" present United States Post Office. Bancroft^ the 
 eminent historian, called him " the greatest diplomatist of 
 his century." He perfected the Albany Plan of Union 
 for the colonies. He is the only statesman who signed the 
 Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with 
 France, the Treaty of Peace with England, and the Con 
 stitution. As a writer, he has produced, in his Autobi 
 ography andin Poor Richard s Almanac, two works that 
 are not surpassed by similar writing. He received hon 
 orary degrees from Harvard and Yale, from Oxford and 
 St. Andrews, and was made a fellow of the Royal So 
 ciety, which awarded him the Copley gold medal for im 
 proving natural knowledge. He was one of the eight 
 foreign associates of the French Academy of Science, an 
 honor which he has shared with only one other American. 
 
 Franklin s life falls naturally into three parts; his early 
 years in Boston, his business and scientific career in Phil 
 adelphia, and his political career at home and abroad. 
 
 It is a strange coincidence that the sturdy, democratic 
 blacksmiths from whom Franklin was descended, lived 
 for at least two hundred years at Ecton in Northamp 
 tonshire, England, only twelve miles from the manor 
 house of Washington s aristocratic ancestors at Sulgrave. 
 One of Franklin s latest biographers notes that " the 
 pink-coated huntsmen of the Washington family may often 
 have stopped in Ecton to have their horses shod by the 
 leather-aproned Franklins at the forge." 
 
x Introduction 
 
 Benjamin Franklin was born opposite the old South 
 Church in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706. 
 From his father he inherited his marked business capacity; 
 and from his mother, a descendant of a progressive New 
 England family, his fine physique and liberal mind. Af 
 ter a brief schooling, which ended when he was only ten 
 years old, he began his career humbly in the tallow- 
 chandler shop of his father. A little later he was appren 
 ticed to his brother, James, a printer and editor of a 
 newspaper. 
 
 Young Franklin had already begun that eager and care 
 ful reading which was to fortify him for his life work 
 better than a school or college education could have done. 
 In the New England libraries and book-shops, almost bar 
 ren of reading matter except treatises on religious subjects, 
 which had little or no claim to be called literature, Frank 
 lin managed to get hold of Plutarch s Lives, some of De 
 foe s writings, Bunyan s Pilgrims Progress which the 
 boy read and re-read and a volume of Addison s Spec 
 tator. The witty, graceful, worldly-wise style of Ad- 
 dison appealed to Franklin, and he imitated it with pa 
 tient zeal, thus laying the foundation for his own style. 
 He soon put his new accomplishment to the test by contrib 
 uting to his brother s paper a series of letters signed by 
 " Silence Dogood." These Dogood papers were a pal 
 pable imitation of Addison, but they were so fair an imi 
 tation as to give Franklin a start in journalism. As a 
 result of these contributions young Franklin soon came to 
 manage the paper. However, the two brothers could not 
 agree; and Benjamin finally declared himself free and 
 sailed away from the Puritan town, which was too nar 
 row and strict for his rapidly developing tendency to free- 
 thinking. 
 
 After an interesting journey, Franklin landed in Phil 
 adelphia on an October Sunday in 1723. His awkward 
 
Franklin s Career xi 
 
 appearance as he walked up Market Street, and the 
 amusement it afforded his future wife, is one of the fa 
 miliar pictures of the Autobiography. 
 
 The period which now began (1723-1756) saw the 
 struggle of the young printer to secure a foothold in the 
 world, and his gradual rise to independence, wealth, and 
 eminence as a scientist and man of affairs. During this 
 time Franklin laid the foundation for his later reputation 
 by many of the most remarkable of his achievements. 
 
 At this time, Franklin had no strong religious principle 
 of morals. He was a free-thinker and even wrote a pam 
 phlet, while spending a year in London, to prove that 
 man is no better than the brutes that there is no future 
 life and no religion. Of these early irregularities or 
 " errata," as he calls them, he was later heartily ashamed, 
 and he made amends for them as far as he could by pre 
 cept and practice. While he never professed any partic 
 ular form of the Christian faith; he taught and practiced 
 consistently the fundamental principles of Christianity. 
 ~ TranHirf soon settled down in his adopted city to the 
 steady occupation of printer. By enterprise, shrewdness 
 and common sense, he developed the character, the key 
 note of which is cleverly expressed in a comparison made 
 by Mr. Brander Matthews between Emerson s teachings 
 and Franklin s. " Emerson," says Mr. Matthews, " ex 
 horts you to hitch your wagon to a star, Franklin is ready 
 with an improved axle-grease for the wheels." Frank 
 lin s ideals were circumscribed by the practicable. His 
 virtues did not find their reward in themselves but in 
 tangible benefits. If he was honest it was not because of 
 the commandment " Thou shalt not steal," but because 
 " honesty is the best policy." He found by experience that 
 the way to health, wealth, and happiness lay in obeying 
 the commandment of God to live a virtuous life. 
 
 He wrote a clear argument in favor of paper money 
 
xii Introduction 
 
 and then secured the printing of the large issue that fol 
 lowed as a result of his pamphlet. He contributed a 
 series of breezy papers to the Mercury signed " The 
 Busybody," in order to destroy a rival newspaper that 
 had unfairly forestalled his own scheme to start a paper 
 in opposition to the Mercury. When his plan suc 
 ceeded, he bought the defeated rival s publication at his 
 own price and set up the Pennsylvania Gazette^ which 
 soon became the most popular newspaper in the colonies. 
 To the Gazette, Franklin contributed for almost twenty 
 years, his writings ranging all the way from stories of his 
 own mishaps or bits of foolish pleasantry to moral and po 
 litical essays. Most of the reforms he brought about 
 were first suggested in letters to the paper signed by some 
 fictitious name. Franklin would then carry on with him 
 self a lively discussion for and against the proposed change. 
 Thus the Council or Assembly would soon have the mat 
 ter under advisement and the reform would be secured. 
 He obtained the public printing, bought out his partner, 
 and became the chief printer in the province. 
 
 He soon added to his fame as well as to his wealth by 
 Poor Richard s Almanac, the most successful and widely 
 influential of his publications. For the twenty-five years 
 of its existence it had an annual sale of 10,000 copies. 
 Its homely wit and wisdom, its shrewd maxims, its worldly 
 honesty, not only became a great force in shaping Ameri 
 can national character, but the little book was translated 
 into many languages and proved a guide and teacher to 
 no small part of humanity. Having thus acquired a 
 fortune, Franklin now retired from business at the age of 
 forty-two, in order that he might devote his entire time 
 to the scientific studies in which he had already become 
 interested. 
 
 Franklin s success in practical affairs brought him at 
 tention and influence. He was public-spirited and soon 
 
Franklin s Career xiii 
 
 became a leader in the community, which he greatly bene 
 fited by his genius and practical wisdom. He started 
 and urged forward scheme after scheme of social and pub 
 lic improvement; among others, a circulating library, the 
 Union Fire Company, a plan for defending the city and 
 province, the Philadelphia Academy, which developed later 
 into the University of Pennsylvania, a hospital, and a sys 
 tem of cleaning and lighting the streets. He also in 
 vented the Franklin stove, which marks the beginning 
 of the great American stove industry. 
 
 In the midst of all these employments Franklin found 
 time to indulge his fondness for experiments in science. 
 Here again his philosophy was the philosophy of the use 
 ful. He pursued scientific studies only to make life safer 
 or easier for mankind. He became deeply engrossed 
 in the study of electricity, but his experiments aimed to 
 demonstrate the practical application of the newly discov 
 ered energy, or the means of protecting property and life 
 from the effects of its destructive power as displayed in 
 lightning. He wrote numerous letters explaining his ex 
 periments, many of which were published in magazines and 
 pamphlets. The most important of these publications was 
 Opinions and Conjectures, containing the paragraph on 
 the uses of the lightning-rod. This pamphlet, published 
 in England and France, and later printed in German, 
 Latin, and Italian, created a great sensation among the 
 leading scientists of the world, and led to the famous kite 
 experiment of Franklin himself, by which he proved that 
 lightning and electricity are the same. He was now made 
 a member of the Royal Society and honored with the 
 Copley medal. His fame in the scientific world was due 
 almost as much to his modest, simple, and sincere manner 
 of presenting his discoveries and to the precision and clear 
 ness of the style in which he described his experiments, as 
 to the results he was able to announce. Sir Humphrey 
 
xiv Introduction 
 
 Davy, the celebrated English chemist, himself an ex 
 cellent literary critic as well as a great scientist, said: " A 
 singular felicity guided all Franklin s researches, and by 
 very small means he established very grand truths. The 
 style and manner of his publication on electricity are 
 almost as worthy of admiration as the doctrine it con 
 tains." 
 
 Science was always a diversion with Franklin, sharing 
 with politics his interest and spare time. He was early 
 elected to various offices in the city and province, and was 
 finally made joint Postmaster-General of the colonies. 
 He reformed the entire postal service of the country and 
 made it pay. He drew up for the colonies the details of 
 the Albany Plan of Union, which he adapted from an ear 
 lier plan. This was one of the first practical applications 
 of the national idea later embodied in the Articles of Con 
 federation and the Constitution. He secured the trans 
 portation for Braddock s ill-fated army through Pennsyl 
 vania, and advanced the money to pay for the horses and 
 wagons, most of which were destroyed in the battle and 
 rout. For this outlay he was never wholly repaid. 
 
 This is only one of many illustrations of the patriot 
 ism and liberality of Franklin. His shrewdness never 
 degenerated into meanness or sordidness. He was care 
 ful always, but generous and humane. No man was less 
 sparing of himself or of his means when an individual or 
 a cause that he had an interest in, needed help. When a 
 young printer in London, he loaned his money freely to his 
 friends. He advanced nearly his entire fortune to pay 
 for the transportation of Braddock s army, and before 
 leaving for France he loaned Congress all the ready money 
 he could get together. 
 
 In 1757 Franklin entered upon the diplomatic and po 
 litical career which was to engage most of his attention 
 
Franklin s Career XV 
 
 until the end of his life. For eighteen years he was al 
 most continuously in England; first, as representative of 
 Pennsylvania in the controversy between that province and 
 the proprietors; and second, as agent of Pennsylvania and 
 several other colonies in opposing the Parliamentary taxa 
 tion of America that led to the Revolution. He won his 
 first diplomatic victory when he succeeded in establishing 
 the right of the Pennsylvania Assembly to tax the estates 
 of the proprietors. He was the ablest of all the American 
 advocates of the principle of " no taxation without repre 
 sentation." His famous contemporary, Dr. Samuel John 
 son, who was by nature a lover of liberty, but by his 
 prejudices an ardent Tory, called Franklin, " the master of 
 mischief." During all the period of agitation preceding 
 the Revolution, he was conservative, hoping to the end 
 for a compromise that might prevent the separation of Eng 
 land and the colonies. He even incurred the temporary 
 hostility of his country by advocating the acceptance of 
 the Stamp Act, after he had exhausted every means at 
 his command to prevent its passage. His vigorous and 
 effective opposition to the various measures of Parliament 
 for the taxation and coercion of the Americans finally 
 made him so unpopular with the British government that 
 he felt his usefulness in England to be at an end, and so 
 sailed for home in 1775. Finding on his arrival that the 
 die had already been cast by the conflicts at Lexington and 
 Concord, he threw himself heart and soul into the strug 
 gle for independence. 
 
 Much of Franklin s work for the colonies as their 
 agent in England was accomplished by his writings. 
 When he first went to London he wrote a letter, which 
 attracted considerable attention at the time, satirizing the 
 party that wished to make peace with France ; and he was 
 the principal author of the pamphlet that argued success^ 
 
xvi Introduction 
 
 fully for the retention of Canada at the close of the French 
 and Indian wars. Between 1765 and 1775 he wrote 
 some thirty articles attacking the government s attitude 
 toward America. Two of these were satires in his best 
 vein. One he called Rules by which a Great Empire May 
 Be Reduced To a Small One. He addressed some twenty 
 rules to all ministers charged with the management of 
 dominions so extensive as to be troublesome to govern, 
 and advocated as the best means of reducing such an em 
 pire, the line of conduct England was pursuing with Amer 
 ica. The other satire he named An Edict of the King 
 of Prussia. It purported to be a decree of the King of 
 Prussia declaring that England was a colony of Prussia, 
 that the island had been originally settled by emigrants 
 from Germany under Hengist, Horsa, and Hella, that 
 it had flourished for ages under Prussian tutelage, and that 
 only recently the King of Prussia had been compelled to 
 assist his British subjects against France. The edict 
 added that the English colony for years had not contrib 
 uted properly to the expense incurred in its defense. 
 Therefore it was decreed that taxes and commercial re 
 strictions should be laid on all English exports and im 
 ports. The decree went on to describe in detail measures 
 exactly similar to those of which the Americans were com 
 plaining. 
 
 The success of these pieces was great. Franklin re 
 lates that he was one of a group of public men visiting 
 at a country house when the newspaper containing the 
 Edict was received. One of the gentlemen, who usually 
 looked over the mail early, came running into the room 
 where the others sat, and shouted, " Here! here s news for 
 ye! Here s the King of Prussia claiming a right to this 
 kingdom 1 " An excited discussion followed. One of 
 the group said he had no doubt Frederic was even then 
 
Franklin s Career xvii 
 
 on his way with a hundred thousand men to make good 
 his proclamation. It was not for some minutes that any 
 one saw through the jest. 
 
 This was not the only time that Franklin s humor 
 proved too subtle for great minds. Later in life he wrote 
 a Biblical paraphrase that deceived at least one eminent 
 scholar. Pretending to think that he could improve on 
 the language and style of the King James version of the 
 Bible, he parodied a part of the first chapter of Job, 
 making it a satire on monarchical government. No less 
 skilled a critic than Matthew Arnold was so deceived 
 by this clever bit of irony that he wrote of his relief at 
 finding Franklin s usual common sense so far deserting 
 him as to make him think he could improve on the match 
 less style of the standard version of the Bible story. 
 
 Perhaps the best illustration, however, of Franklin s 
 skilful use of satire as a weapon is a letter that he had 
 printed purporting to be written by a petty German prince 
 to the commander of the troops he had sold to England 
 for the war against the Americans. Franklin makes the 
 writer say in part: 
 
 " I am about to send you some new recruits. Don t 
 economize them. . . . You did right to send back to 
 i Europe that Dr. Crumerus, who was so successful in 
 curing dysentery. That disease makes bad soldiers. One 
 coward will do more mischief in an engagement than two 
 brave men will do good. Besides, you know that they 
 pay me as killed for all who die from disease, and I don t 
 get a farthing for runaways. My trip to Italy, which has 
 cost me enormously, makes it desirable that there should 
 be a great mortality among them. . . . You will say 
 to Major Maundorfr" that I am not at all content with 
 his saving 345 men, who escaped the massacre at Trenton. 
 Through the whole campaign he has not had ten men 
 
xviii Introduction 
 
 killed in consequence of his orders. Finally, let it be your 
 principal object to prolong the war and avoid a decisive 
 engagement on either side, for I have made arrangements 
 for a grand Italian opera, and I do not wish to be obliged 
 to give it up." 
 
 After serving on the committee to draw up the Declar 
 ation of Independence and on several important com 
 missions, Franklin was chosen, in 1776, as one of three 
 commissioners to secure the support of the French govern 
 ment for the American cause. Already a member of 
 every important learned society of Europe, Franklin was 
 received in Paris as one of the very greatest men of the 
 age. His simplicity of dress and manner, his supreme 
 good taste and apparent humility, won the friendship of 
 the French nobility for the cause of liberty. To the 
 people he was the apostle of freedom and its exemplar. 
 They named him Bonhomme Richard. His maxims of 
 Poor Richard, published under the title of The Way to 
 Wealth, became a text-book for the French schools. 
 When he appeared on the streets of Paris, " his dress, his 
 wigless head, his spectacles, his walking-stick, and his great 
 fur cap," became at once the center of attraction. Crowds 
 followed him, and his appearance in public places was 
 greeted with applause. Franklin wrote to his daughter 
 that so many pictures, busts, and prints of him had been 
 spread abroad as to make her " father s face as well 
 known as the moon, so that he durst not do anything that 
 would oblige him to run away, as his phiz would dis 
 cover him wherever he should venture to show it." 
 
 Franklin had the wisdom to make the most of this 
 personal popularity for the interest of his country. He 
 took up his residence in Passy, a quiet suburb of Paris 
 in the house of a French gentleman, through whose in 
 fluence at court he was able to communicate with the 
 
Franklin s Career xix 
 
 French ministers, without embarrassment to their gov 
 ernment. At this house he received the great men of 
 Paris, and from it he returned their calls and made the 
 famous social visits that increased his renown and popu 
 larity. He thus created in all classes of the French people 
 such enthusiasm for the American cause that when the 
 news of the victories of Trenton and Saratoga reached 
 Paris, the government could no longer resist the popular 
 demand for active assistance to the rebels. Louis XVI 
 recognized the independence of the colonies, signed a 
 treaty of alliance, and officially received the American 
 envoys. 
 
 This was only a part of the service that Franklin ren 
 dered the cause of the colonies at this time. As Ameri 
 can agent in Paris and later as our first minister to the 
 court of France, he succeeded in borrowing the large 
 sums of money that formed the most important source of 
 income to the Revolutionary government. It is a re 
 markable fact that this money was obtained from a bank 
 rupt government against the strong protests of its able 
 minister of finance. 
 
 These diplomatic successes were due largely to Frank 
 lin s personality and character. Like his contemporary, 
 Dr. Johnson, Franklin was a keen observer. He knew 
 men and affairs thoroughly. He had, too, a fine sense of 
 the fitness of things, absolute good taste, and an invincible 
 self-control, which neither obstinacy, nor stupidity, nor 
 duplicity, nor wearisome delay, could ever break down. 
 He never irritated the French government by pressing 
 his cause unduly. He never antagonized as did John 
 Adams. Vergennes, the French minister, spoke of his 
 conduct as wise and circumspect, as well as zealous and 
 patriotic, and added that Franklin s success \vas largely 
 due to the perfect confidence of the French people in his 
 
xx Introduction 
 
 veracity. To these qualities of the successful diplomat 
 must be added his optimism and cheerfulness, which were 
 so contagious as to keep all about him in good spirits. 
 
 In spite of his many official duties in Paris, Franklin 
 still found time to indulge his love of social pleasure. In 
 order to amuse the delighted circle of which he had be 
 come the center, he wrote his famous Bagatelles, or essays 
 in a light vein. The most notable are The Story of the 
 Whistle, The Ephemera, A Petition of the Left Hand (a 
 plea for teaching children to use both hands with equal 
 facility), The Morals of Chess, and the famous Dia 
 logue between Franklin and the Gout. 
 
 Franklin was now seventy-five years old ; and he sent 
 an appealing letter to Congress asking permission to give 
 up the duties of his office, which, by reason of ill-health 
 and old age, had become a greater burden than he felt 
 he ought to bear. But his pleading was in vain, and he 
 remained in Paris another four years to play a principal 
 part in negotiating the treaty of peace with England. 
 Finally, in 1785, Congress permitted Franklin to come 
 home, sending out Jefferson as Minister to France. 
 When Count de Vergennes first met the new minister he 
 said, " You replace Dr. Franklin, I hear." Jefferson re 
 plied, " I succeed, no one can replace him." 
 
 Even at seventy-nine Franklin was not, however, to 
 find the rest for which he longed. He had hardly done 
 receiving the congratulations and thanks of his country 
 men on his return home, when he was elected Chairman 
 of the Council of Philadelphia and later President of 
 Pennsylvania. He wrote an old friend that he was again 
 harnessed to the service of his countrymen. " They en 
 grossed the prime of my life. They have eaten my Mesh, 
 and seem resolved now to pick my bones." He was 
 elected a member of the convention to frame the Consti- 
 
Franklin s Career xxi 
 
 tutlon, and to his influence and Washington s was largely 
 due the final adoption of the Constitution. " It is not 
 too much to say that to Franklin, perhaps more than to any 
 other one man, the present Constitution of the United 
 States owes most of those features which have given it 
 durability and have made it the ideal by which all other 
 systems of government are tested by Americans." 1 
 
 During all this time Franklin s pen continued active. 
 He wrote on the abolition of slavery, of which he was 
 one of the first advocates ; satires on the " liberty of the 
 press," which had degenerated into slander; and on the 
 British demands for the payment of American debts. 
 His last writing, a satirical answer to a pro-slavery speech 
 in Congress, was in his best style, and is thought to be as 
 good as the pleasantries of Swift. 
 
 Soon afterwards, on April 17, 1790, he died quietly at 
 his home, and was buried beside his wife in the graveyard 
 of Christ Church, Philadelphia. The mourning for his 
 death was general. The Members of Congress wore 
 black badges for thirty days. The French National As 
 sembly also put on mourning and many eulogies were de 
 livered in his memory. His service may be summed up 
 by Turgot s famous adaptation of the Latin motto uni 
 versally applied to Franklin at the time. 
 
 " He snatched the lightning from the heavens and the scep 
 ter from the tyrant s hand." 
 
 Franklin s place in literature is hard to determine be 
 cause he was not primarily a literary man. His aim in 
 his writings as in his life work was to be helpful to his 
 fellowmen. For him writing was never an end in itself, 
 but always a means to an end. Yet his success as a 
 scientist, a statesman, and a diplomat, as well as socially, 
 
 1 Bigelow, The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. Ill, p. 383. 
 
xxii Introduction 
 
 was in no little part due to his ability as a writer. " His 
 letters charmed all, and made his correspondence eagerly 
 sought. His political arguments were the joy of his 
 party and the dread of his opponents. His scientific dis 
 coveries were explained in language at once so simple and 
 so clear chat plow-boy and exquisite could follow his 
 thought or his experiment to its conclusion." 1 
 
 As far as American literature is concerned, Franklin 
 had no contemporaries. Before the Autobiography only 
 one literary work of importance had been produced in 
 this country Cotton Mather s Magnalia, a church his 
 tory of New England in a ponderous, stiff style. Frank 
 lin was the first American author to gain a w r ide and per 
 manent reputation in Europe. The Autobiography, Poor 
 Richard, Father Abraham s Speech or The Way to 
 Wealth, as well as some of the Bagatelles, are as widely 
 known abroad as any American writings. Franklin must 
 also be classed as the first American humorist. 
 
 English literature of the eighteenth century was char 
 acterized by the development of prose. Periodical lit 
 erature reached its perfection early in the century in The 
 Tatler and The Spectator of Addison and Steele. Pam 
 phleteers flourished throughout the period. The home 
 lier prose of Bunyan and Defoe gradually gave place to 
 the more elegant and artificial language of Samuel John 
 son, who set the standard for prose writing from 1745 
 onward. This century saw the beginnings of the modern 
 novel, in Fielding s Tom Jones, Richardson s Clarissa 
 Harlowe, Sterne s Tristram Shandy, and Goldsmith s 
 Vicar of Wakefield. Gibbon wrote The Decline and Fall 
 of the Roman Empire, Hume his History of England, and 
 Adam Smith the Wealth of Nations. 
 
 In the simplicity and vigor of his style Franklin more 
 
 1 The Many-Sided Franklin. Paul L. Ford. 
 
Franklin s Career xxiii 
 
 nearly resembles the earlier group of writers. In his 
 first essays he was not an inferior imitator of Addison. 
 In his numerous parables, moral allegories, and apologues 
 he showed Bunyan s influence. But Franklin was essen 
 tially a journalist. In his swift terse style, he is most like 
 Defoe, who was the first great English journalist and mas-^ 
 ter of the newspaper narrative. The style of both writers 
 is marked by homely, vigorous expression, satire, bur 
 lesque, repartee. Here the comparison must end. Defoe 
 and his contemporaries were authors. Their vocation was 
 writing and their success rests on the imaginative or crea 
 tive power they displayed. To authorship Franklin laid 
 no claim. He wrote no work of the imagination. He 
 developed only incidentally a style in many respects as re 
 markable as that of his English contemporaries. He 
 wrote the best autobiography in existence, one of the 
 most widely known collections of maxims, and an unsur 
 passed series of political and social satires, because he was 
 a man of unusual scope of power and usefulness, who 
 knew how to tell his fellowmen the secrets of that power 
 and that usefulness. 
 
 II 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 The Autobiography is FranklinlsJongesLwpri^arid yet 
 it is only a fragment The first part, written as a letter 
 to his son T William FranMia^was not intended io,r..mib- 
 lipatinn and the_composition is more informal and the 
 narrative more personal than in the_second part, from 
 1730 on, which was written with a view "to publication. 
 The entire manuscript shows little evidene_.flf ^igyisioiu. 
 
 In fact the expression is so homely and natural that his 
 
 r " -~ - j 
 
xxiv Introduction 
 
 grandson, William Temple Franklin, in editing the work 
 changed some of the phrases because he thpu^ht them in- 
 elegant and vulgar. 
 
 Franklin began the story of his life while on a visit 
 to his friend, Bishop Shipley, at Twyford, in Hampshire. 
 southern England, in ..1771. He took the manuscript, 
 completed to 1731, with him when he returned to Phila 
 delphia in 1775. It was left there with his other papers 
 when he went to France in the following year, and dis 
 appeared during the confusion incident to the Revolution. 
 Twenty-three pages of closely written manuscript fell 
 into the hands of Abel James, an old friend, who sent a 
 copy to Franklin at Passy, near Paris, urging him to com 
 plete the story. Franklin took up the work at Passy in 
 1784 and carried the narrative forward a few months. 
 He changed the plan to meet his new purpose of writing 
 to benefit the young readej\ His work was soon inter 
 rupted and was not resumed until 1788, when he was at 
 home in Philadelphia. He was now old, infirm, and 
 suffering anj was still en^ap;pd jp 
 
 these discouraging conditions the work progressed 
 It finally stopped when the narrative reached the year 
 J 757- Copies of the manuscript were sent to friends of 
 Franklin in England and France, among others to Mon 
 sieur Le Veillard at Paris. 
 
 The first edition of the Autobiography was published 
 in French at Paris in 1791. It was clumsily and care 
 lessly translated, and was imperfect and unfinished. 
 Where the translator got the manuscript is not known. 
 Le Veillard disclaimed any knowledge of the publication. 
 From this faulty French edition many others were printed, 
 some in Germany, two in England, and another in France, 
 so great was the demand for the work. 
 
 In the meantime the original manuscript of the Auto- 
 
Autobiography xxv 
 
 biography had started on a varied and adventurous career. 
 It was left by Franklin with his other works to his grand 
 son, William Temple Franklin, whom Franklin desig 
 nated as his literary executor. When Temple Franklin 
 came to publish his grandfather s works in 1817, he sent 
 the original manuscript of the Autobiography to the 
 daughter of Le Veillard in exchange for her father s copy, 
 probably thinking the clearer transcript would make better 
 printer s copy. The original ^manuscript thus found its 
 way to the Le Veillard family and connections, where it 
 remained until sold in 1867 to Mr. John Bigelow, United 
 States Minister to France. It is now owned by Mr. E. 
 B. Church of New York. 
 
 When Mr. Bigelow came to examine his purchase,^ he 
 was astonished to find that what people had been reading 
 for years as the authentic Life of Benjamin Franklin by 
 Himself, was only a garbled and incomplete version of 
 the real Autobiography. Temple Franklin had taken un 
 warranted liberties with the original. Mr. Bigelow says 
 he found more than twelve hundred changes in the text. 
 In 1868, therefore, Mr. Bigelow published the stand 
 ard edition of Franklin s Autobiography. It corrected 
 errors in the previous editions and was the first^ English 
 edition to contain the short fourth part, comprising the 
 last few pages of the manuscript, written during the last 
 year of Franklin s life. Mr. Bigelow republished the 
 Autobiography, with additional interesting matter, in 
 three volumes in 1875, in 1905, and in 1910. The text 
 in this volume is substantially that of Mr. Bigelow s 
 
 editions. . 
 
 The Autobiography has been reprinted in ^the United 
 States many scores of times and translated into all the 
 languages of Europe. It has never lost its popularity and 
 is still in constant demand at circulating libraries. The 
 
xxvi Introduction 
 
 reason for this popularity is not far to seek. For in 
 this work Franklin told in a remarkable manner the 
 story of a remarkable life. He displayed hard common 
 sense and a practical knowledge of the art of living. He 
 selected and arranged his material, perhaps unconsciously, 
 with the unerring instinct of the journalist for the best 
 effects. His success is not a little due to his plain, clear, 
 vigorous English. He used short sentences and_worjs, 
 homely expressbn_s L ant illustrations, and Dointedjallu- 
 sjonj-u Ffanklin had one of the most interesting, varied 
 and unusual lives of any American. He 
 
 greatest conversationalists- of -his 4Jme; His book is the 
 record of that unusual life told in Franklin s own unex 
 celled conversational style. It is said that the best parts 
 of Boswell s famous biography of Samuel Johnson are 
 those parts where Boswell permits Johnson to tell his own 
 story. In the Autobiography a no less remarkable man 
 and talker than Samuel Johnson is telling his own story 
 throughout. 
 
DESCRIPTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 THE last and most complete edition of Franklin s works 
 is that by the late Professor Albert H. Smyth, published 
 in ten volumes by the Macmillan Company, New York, 
 under the title, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin. 
 The other standard edition is the Works of Benjamin 
 Franklin by John Bigelow (New York, 1887). The 7 
 standard edition of the Autobiography is John Bigelow s 
 fifth edition of The Life of Benja?nin Franklin Written 
 by Himself, three volumes, published by the J. B. Lip- 
 pincott Company of Philadelphia, in 1905. Mr. Bige 
 low s first edition of the Autobiography in one volume 
 was published by the same company in 1868. The life 
 of Franklin as a writer is well treated by J. B. McMas- 
 ter in a volume of The American Men of Letters Series; 
 his life as a statesman and diplomat, by J. T. Morse, 
 American Statesmen Series, one volume; Houghton, Mif- 
 flin Company publish both books. A more exhaustive 
 account of the life and times of Franklin may be found 
 in James Parton s Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin 
 (2 vols., New York, 1864). Paul Leicester Ford s The 
 Many-Sided Franklin is a most chatty and readable book, 
 replete with anecdotes and excellently and fully illus 
 trated. An excellent criticism by Woodrow Wilson in 
 troduces an edition of the Autobiography in The Cen 
 tury Classics (Century Co., New York, 1901). Inter 
 esting magazine articles are those of E. E. Hale, Chris 
 tian Examiner, Ixxi, 447 ; W. P. Trent, McClure s Mag- 
 
 xxvii 
 
xxviii Descriptive Bibliography 
 
 azine, viii, 273 ; John Hay, The Century Magazine, Ixxi, 
 
 447- 
 
 See also the histories of American literature by C. F. 
 Richardson, Moses Coit Tyler, Brander Matthews, John 
 Nichol, and Barrett Wendell, as well as the various en 
 cyclopedias. An excellent bibliography of Franklin is 
 that of Paul Leicester Ford, entitled A List of Books 
 Written by, or Relating to Benjamin Franklin (New 
 York, 1889). 
 
 The following list of Franklin s works contains the 
 more interesting publications, together with the dates of 
 first issue. Where the publication has not been described 
 in the Introduction, a sentence of explanation is added to 
 the title. 
 
 1722. Dogood Papers. 
 
 1729. The Busybody. 
 
 A series of essays published in Bradford s Philadel 
 phia Weekly Mercury, six of which only are ascribed 
 to Franklin. They are essays on morality, philosophy 
 and politics, similar to the Dogood Papers. 
 
 1729. A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of & 
 Paper Currency. 
 
 1732. Prefaces to Poor Richard s Almanac. 
 to Among these are Hints for those that would be Rich, 
 
 I 757- I 737> ant l Plan for saving one hundred thousand 
 pounds to New Jersey, 1756. 
 
 1743. A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge Among 
 
 the British Plantations in America. 
 "This paper appears to contain the first suggestion, 
 in any public form, for an American Philosophical 
 Society." Sparks. 
 
 1744. An Account of the New Invented Pennsylvanian Tire- 
 
 Places. 
 
 1749. Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Penn 
 sylvania. 
 
 Contains the plan for the school which later became 
 the University of Pennsylvania. 
 
 1752. Electrical Kite. 
 
Descriptive Bibliography xxix 
 
 A description of the famous kite experiment, first 
 written in a letter to Peter Collinson, dated Oct. 19, 
 1752, which was published later in the same year in 
 The Gentleman s Magazine. 
 
 1754. Plan of Union. 
 
 A plan for the union of the colonies presented to the 
 colonial convention at Albany. 
 
 1755. A Dialogue Between X, Y and Z. 
 
 An appeal to enlist in the provincial army for the 
 defense of Pennsylvania. 
 
 1758. Father Abraham s Speech. 
 
 Published as a preface to Poor Richard s Almanac 
 and gathering into one writing the maxims of Poor 
 Richard, which had already appeared in previous 
 numbers of the Almanac. The Speech was after 
 wards published in pamphlet form as the Way to 
 Wealth. 
 
 1760. Of the Means of disposing the Enemy to Peace. 
 
 A satirical plea for the prosecution of the war against 
 France. 
 
 1760. The Interest of Great Britain Considered, with regard 
 to her Colonies, and the Acquisitions of Canada and 
 Guadaloupe. 
 
 1764. Cool Thoughts on the Present Situation of our Public 
 Affairs. 
 
 A pamphlet favoring a Royal Government for Penn 
 sylvania in exchange for that of the Proprietors. 
 
 1766. The Examination of Doctor Benjamin Franklin, etc., in 
 The British House of Commons, Relative to The Re 
 peal of The American Stamp Act. 
 
 1773. Rules by which A Great Empire May Be Reduced To 
 a Small One. 
 
 1773. An Edict of The King of Prussia. 
 
 1777. Comparison of Great Britain and The United States in 
 Regard to the Basis of Credit In The Two Countries. 
 One of several similar pamphlets written to effect 
 loans for the American cause. 
 
 1782. On the Theory of the Earth. 
 
 The best of Franklin s papers on geology. 
 
 1782. Letter purporting to emanate from a petty German 
 
xxx Descriptive Bibliography 
 
 Prince and to be addressed to his officer in Command 
 in America. 
 
 1785. On the Causes and Cure of Smoky Chimneys. 
 
 1786. Retort Courteous. 
 Sending Felons to America. 
 
 Answers to the British clamor for the payment of 
 American debts. 
 
 1789. Address to the Public from the Pennsylvania Society for 
 Promoting Abolition of Slavery. 
 
 1789. An Account of the Supremest Court of Judicature in 
 
 Pennsylvania, viz. The Court of the Press. 
 
 1790. Martin s Account of his Consulship. 
 
 A parody of a pro-slavery speech in Congress. 
 
 1791. Autobiography. 
 
 The first edition. 
 1818. Bagatelles. 
 
 The Bagatelles were first published in 1818 in Wil 
 liam Temple Franklin s edition of his grandfather s 
 works. The following are the most famous of these 
 essays and the dates when they were written: 
 1774? A Parable Against Persecution. 
 
 Franklin called this the LI Chapter of 
 
 Genesis. 
 1774? A Parable on Brotherly Love. 
 
 1778. The Ephemera, an Emblem of Human Life. 
 
 A new rendition of an earlier essay on Hu 
 man Vanity. 
 
 1779. The Story of the Whistle. 
 1779? The Levee. 
 
 1779? Proposed New Version of the Bible. 
 
 Part of the first chapter of Job modernized 
 (1779. Published) The Morals of Chess. 
 1780? The Handsome and Deformed Leg. 
 
 1780. Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout. 
 
 (Published in 1802.) 
 1802. A Petition of the Left Hand. 
 1806. The Art of Procuring Pleasant Dreams. 
 
FRANKLIN S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 ANCESTRY AND EARLY YOUTH IN BOSTON 
 
 TWYFORD, at the Bishop of St. Asaph s, 1771. 
 
 DEAR SON : I have ever had pleasure in obtaining any 
 little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may remember the 
 inquiries I made among the remains of my relations 
 when you were with me in England, and the journey 1 5 
 undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be equally 
 agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, 
 many of which you are yet unacquainted with, and ex 
 pecting the enjoyment of a week s uninterrupted leisure 
 in my present country retirement, I sit down to write 1C 
 them for you. To which I have besides some other induce 
 ments. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity 
 in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and 
 some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone 
 so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, 15 
 the conducing means I made use of, which with the bless 
 ing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to 
 know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own 
 situations, and therefore fit to be imitated. 
 
 That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me 20 
 sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I 
 should have no objection to a repetition of the same life 
 
2 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors 
 have in a second edition to correct some faults of the 
 first. So I might, besides correcting the faults, change 
 some sinister accidents and events of it for others more 
 Sfavorable. But though this were denied, I should still 
 accept the offer. Since such a repetition is not to be 
 expected, the next thing most like living one s life over 
 again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make 
 that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down 
 
 loin writing. 
 
 Hereby, too, I shall indulge the inclination so natural 
 in old men, to be talking of themselves and their own 
 past actions; and I shall indulge it without being tire 
 some to others, who, through respect to age, might con- 
 
 isceive themselves obliged to give me a hearing, since this 
 may be read or not as anyone pleases. And, lastly (I 
 may as well confess it, since my denial of it will be 
 believed by nobody), perhaps I shall a good deal gratify 
 my own vanity. Indeed, I scarce ever heard or saw the 
 
 2ointroductory words, " Without vanity I may say" etc., 
 but some vain thing immediatel} 7 " followed. Most people 
 dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it 
 themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet 
 with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of 
 
 2 5 good to the possessor, and to others that are within his 
 sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, it would 
 not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for 
 his vanity among the other comforts of life. 
 
 And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all 
 
 Sohumility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned hap 
 piness of my past life to His kind providence, which led 
 me to the means I used and gave them success. My 
 belief of this induces me to hope, though I must not pre- 
 tume, that the same goodness will still be exercised 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 3 
 
 toward me, in continuing that happiness, or enabling me 
 to bear a fatal reverse, which I may experience as others 
 have done; the complexion of my future fortune being 
 known to Him only in whose power it is to bless to us 
 even our afflictions. 
 
 The notes one of my uncles (who had the same kind 
 of curiosity in collecting family anecdotes) once put into 
 my hands, furnished me with several particulars relating 
 to our ancestors. From these notes I learned that the 
 family had lived in the same village, Ecton, in North- 10 
 amptonshire, for three hundred years, and how much 
 longer he knew not (perhaps from the time when the 
 name of Franklin, that before was the name of an order 
 of people, was assumed by them as a surname when others 
 took surnames all over the kingdom), on a freehold of 15 
 about thirty acres, aided by the smith s business, which 
 had continued in the family till his time, the eldest son 
 being always bred to that business; a custom which he 
 and my father followed as to their eldest sons. When I 
 searched the registers at Ecton, I found an account of 20 
 their births, marriages and burials from the year 1555 
 only, there being no registers kept in that parish at any 
 time preceding. By that register I perceived that I was 
 the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations 
 back. My grandfather Thomas, who was born in 1598,26 
 lived at Ecton till he grew too old to follow business 
 longer, when he went to live with his son John, a dyer at 
 Banbury, in Oxfordshire, with whom my father served an 
 apprenticeship. There my grandfather died and lies 
 buried. We saw his gravestone in 1758. His eldest son 30 
 Thomas lived in the house at Ecton, and left it with the 
 land to his only child, a daughter, who, with her husband, 
 one Fisher, of Wellingborough, sold it to Mr. Isted, now 
 lord of the manor there. My grandfather had four sons 
 
4 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 that grew up, viz., Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josiah. 
 I will give you what account I can of them, at this dis 
 tance from my papers, and if these are not lost in my 
 absence, you will among them find many more partic- 
 5ulars. 
 
 Thomas was bred a smith under his father; but, being 
 ingenious, and encouraged in learning (as all my brothers 
 were) by an Esquire Palmer, then the principal gentle 
 man in that parish, he qualified himself for the business 
 
 lOof scrivener; became a considerable man in the county; 
 was a chief mover of all public-spirited undertakings for 
 the county or town of Northampton, and his own village, 
 of which many instances were related of him; and much 
 taken notice of and patronized by the then Lord Halifax. 
 
 15He died in 1702, January 6, old style, just four years to 
 a day before I was born. The account we received of 
 his life and character from some old people at Ecton, I 
 remember, struck you as something extraordinary, from 
 its similarity to what you knew of mine. " Had he died 
 
 20on the same day," you said, " one might have supposed 
 a transmigration." 
 
 John was bred a dyer, I believe of woolens. Benjamin 
 was bred a silk dyer, serving an apprenticeship at Lon 
 don. He was an ingenious man. I remember him well, 
 
 25 for when I was a boy he came over to my father in Bos 
 ton, and lived in the house with us some years. He lived 
 to a great age. His grandson, Samuel Franklin, now 
 lives in Boston. He left behind him two quarto volumes, 
 MS., of his own poetry, consisting of little occasional 
 
 SOpieces addressed to his friends and relations, of which 
 the following, sent to me, is a specimen. He had formed 
 a short-hand of his own, which he taught me, but, never 
 practising it, I have now forgot it. I was named after 
 this uncle, there being a particular affection between him 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 5 
 
 and my father. He was very pious, a great attender of 
 sermons of the best preachers, which he took down in his 
 short-hand, and had with him many volumes of them. 
 He was also much of a politician ; too much, perhaps, for 
 his station. There fell lately into my hands, in London, 5 
 a collection he had made of all the principal pamphlets 
 relating to public affairs, from 1641 to 1717; many of 
 the volumes are wanting as appears by the numbering, 
 but there still remain eight volumes in folio, and twenty- 
 four in quarto and in octavo. A dealer in old books metio 
 with them, and knowing me by my sometimes buying of 
 him, he brought them to me. It seems my uncle must 
 have left them here when he went to America, which 
 was above fifty years since. There are many of his notes 
 in the margins. 15 
 
 This obscure family of ours was early in the Refor 
 mation, and continued Protestants through the reign of 
 Queen Mary, when they were sometimes in danger of 
 trouble on account of their zeal against popery. They 
 had got an English Bible, and to conceal and secure it, 20 
 it was fastened open with tapes under and within the cover 
 of a joint-stool. When my great-great-grandfather read 
 it to his family, he turned up the joint-stool upon his 
 knees, turning over the leaves then under the tapes. 
 One of the children stood at the door to give notice 2 5 
 if he saw the apparitor coming, who was an officer of the 
 spiritual court. In that case the stool was turned down 
 again upon its feet, when the Bible remained concealed 
 under it as before. This anecdote I had from my uncle 
 Benjamin. The family continued all of the Church of 30 
 England till about the end of Charles the Second s reign, 
 when some of the ministers that had been outed for non 
 conformity, holding conventicles in Northamptonshire, 
 Benjamin and Josiah adhered to them, and so continued 
 
6 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 all their lives: the rest of the family remained with the 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 Josiah, my father, married young, and carried his wife 
 with three children into New England, about 1682. The 
 Bconventicles having been forbidden by law, and frequently 
 disturbed, induced some considerable men of his acquaint 
 ance to remove to that country, and he was prevailed with 
 to accompany them thither, where they expected to enjoy 
 their mode of religion with freedom. By the same wife 
 
 lOhe had four children more born there, and by a second 
 wife ten more, in all seventeen; of which I remember 
 thirteen sitting at one time at his table, who all grew up 
 to be men and women, and married; I was the youngest 
 son, and the youngest child but two, and was born in 
 
 IsBoston, New England. My mother, the second wife, was 
 Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter Folger, one of the first 
 settlers of New England, of whom honorable mention is 
 made by Cotton Mather, in his church history of that 
 country, entitled Magnolia Christi Americana, as "a 
 
 20 godly, htorned Englishman" if I remember the words 
 rightly. I have heard that he wrote sundry small occa 
 sional pieces, but only one of them was printed, which I 
 saw now many years since. It was written in 1675, in 
 the home-spun verse of that time and people, and ad- 
 
 25dressed to those then concerned in the government there. 
 It was in favor of liberty of conscience, and in behalf 
 of the Baptists, Quakers, and other sectaries that had been 
 under persecution, ascribing the Indian wars, and other 
 distresses thai had befallen the country, to that perse- 
 
 Socution, as so many judgments of God to punish so heinous 
 an offence, and exhorting a repeal of those unchari 
 table laws. The whole appeared to me as written with 
 a good deal of decent plainness and manly freedom. The 
 six concluding lines I remember, though I have for- 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 7 
 
 gotten the two first of the stanza; but the purport of 
 them was, that his censures proceeded from good will, and, 
 therefore, he would be known to be the author. 
 
 " Because to be a libeller (says he) 
 
 I hate it with my heart; 5 
 
 From Sherburne town, where now I dwell 
 
 My name I do put here; 
 Without offence your real friend, 
 
 It is Peter Folgier." 
 
 My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different 10 
 trades. I was put to the grammar-school at eight years 
 of age, my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of 
 his sons, to the service of the Church. My early readi 
 ness in learning to read (which must have been very 
 early, as I do not remember when I could not read), 15 
 and the opinion of all his friends, that I should certainly 
 make a good scholar, encouraged him in this purpose of 
 his. My uncle Benjamin, too, approved of it, and pro 
 posed to give me all his short-hand volumes of sermons, 
 I suppose as a stock to set up with, if I would learn his20 
 character. I continued, however, at the grammar-school 
 not quite one year, though in that time I had risen gradu 
 ally from the middle of the class of that year to be the 
 head of it, and farther was removed into the next class 
 above it, in order to go with that into the third at the 2 5 
 end of the year. But my father, in the meantime, from 
 a view of the expense of a college education, which having 
 so large a family he could not well afford, and the mean 
 living many so educated were afterwards able to obtain 
 reasons that he gave to his friends in my hearing 30 
 altered his first intention, took me from the grammar- 
 school, and sent me to a school for writing and arithme 
 tic, kept by a then famous man, Mr. George Brownell, 
 
8 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 very successful in his profession generally, and that by 
 mild, encouraging methods. Under him I acquired fair 
 writing pretty soon, but I failed in the arithmetic, and 
 made no progress in it. At ten years old I was taken 
 5 home to assist my father in his business, which was that 
 of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler; a business he was 
 not bred to, but had assumed on his arrival in New Eng 
 land, and on finding his dyeing trade would not maintain 
 his family, being in little request. Accordingly, I was 
 
 lOemployed in cutting wick for the candles, filling the dip 
 ping mould and the moulds for cast candles, attending 
 the shop, going of errands, etc. 
 
 I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination for 
 the sea, but my father declared against it ; however, living 
 
 15 near the water, I was much in and about it, learned 
 early to swim well, and to manage boats; and when in a 
 boat or canoe with other boys, I was commonly allowed 
 to govern, especially in any case of difficulty; and upon 
 other occasions I was generally a leader among the boys, 
 
 20and sometimes led them into scrapes, of which I will 
 mention one instance, as it shows an early projecting 
 public spirit, though not then justly conducted. 
 
 There was a salt-marsh that bounded part of the mill- 
 pond, on the edge of which, at high water, we used to 
 
 25stand to fish for minnows. By much trampling, we had 
 made it a mere quagmire. My proposal was to build a 
 wharf there fit for us to stand upon, and I showed my 
 comrades a large heap of stones, which were intended for 
 a new house near the marsh, and which would very well 
 
 30suit our purpose. Accordingly, in the evening, when the 
 workmen were gone, I assembled a number of my play 
 fellows, and working with them diligently like so many 
 emmets, sometimes two or three to a stone, we brought 
 them all away and built our little wharf. The next morn- 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 9 
 
 ing the workmen were surprised at missing the stones, 
 which were found in our wharf. Inquiry was made after 
 the removers; we were discovered and complained of; 
 several of us were corrected by our fathers; and, though 
 of the work, mine convinced me5 
 
 l:hat nothing was useful which was not honest. 
 
 I think you may like to know something of his person 
 and character. He had an excellent constitution of body, 
 was of middle stature, but well set, and very strong; he 
 was ingenious, could draw prettily, was skilled a little in 10 
 music, and had a clear, pleasing voice, so that when he 
 played psalm tunes on his violin and sung withal, as he 
 sometimes did in an evening after the business of the day 
 was over, it was extremely agreeable to hear. He had a 
 mechanical genius too, and, on occasion, was very handyis 
 in the use of other tradesmen s tools; but his great ex 
 cellence lay in a sound understanding and solid judgment 
 in prudential matters, both in private and public affairs. 
 In the latter, indeed, he was never employed, the numer 
 ous family he had to educate and the straitness of his 20 
 circumstances keeping him close to his trade; but I re 
 member well his being frequently visited by leading peo 
 ple, who consulted him for his opinion in affairs of the 
 town or of the church he belonged to, and showed a good 
 deal of respect for his judgment and advice: he was also25 
 much consulted by private persons about their affairs 
 when any difficulty occurred, and frequently chosen an 
 arbitrator between contending parties. At his table he 
 liked to have, as often as he could, some sensible friend 
 or neighbor to converse with, and always took care to 30 
 start some ingenious or useful topic for discourse, which 
 might tend to improve the minds of his children. By 
 this means he turned our attention to what was good, 
 just, and prudent in the conduct of life; and little or no 
 
io Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 notice was ever taken of what related to the victuals on 
 the table, whether it was well or ill dressed, in or out of 
 season, of good or bad flavor, preferable or inferior to 
 this or that other thing of the kind, so that I was brought 
 5up in such a perfect inattention to those matters as to be 
 quite indifferent what kind of food was set before me, and 
 so unobservant of it, that to this day if I am asked I can 
 scarce tell a few hours after dinner what I dined upon. 
 This has been a convenience to me in traveling, where 
 lOmy companions have been sometimes very unhappy for 
 want of a suitable gratification of their more delicate, be 
 cause better instructed, tastes and appetites. 
 
 My mother had likewise an excellent constitution: 
 she suckled all her ten children. I never knew either 
 15my father or mother to have any sickness but that of 
 which they died, he at 89, and she at 85 years of age. 
 They lie buried together at Boston, where I some years 
 since placed a marble over their grave, with this inscrip 
 tion: 
 20 JOSIAH FRANKLIN, 
 
 and 
 
 ABIAH his wife, 
 lie here interred. 
 
 They lived lovingly together in wedlock 
 25 fifty-five years. 
 
 Without an estate, or any gainful employment, 
 By constant labor and industry, 
 
 with God s blessing, 
 They maintained a large family 
 30 comfortably, 
 
 and brought up thirteen children 
 and seven grandchildren 
 
 reputably. 
 
 From this instance, reader, 
 35 Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling, 
 
 And distrust not Providence. 
 He was a pious and prudent man; 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 1 1 
 
 She, a discreet and virtuous woman. 
 
 Their youngest son, 
 In filial regard to their memory, 
 
 Places this stone. 
 
 J. F. born 1655, died 1744, ^Etat 89. 5 
 
 A. F. born 1667, died 1752, 85. 
 
 By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be 
 grown old. I used to write more methodically. But one 
 does not dress for private company as for a public ball. 
 Tis perhaps only negligence. 
 
 To return: I continued thus employed in my father s 
 business for two years, that is, till I was twelve years old ; 
 and my brother John, who was bred to that business, 
 having left my father, married, and set up for himself at 
 Rhode Island, there was all appearance that I was des-15 
 tined to supply his place, and become a tallow-chandler, 
 but my dislike to the trade continuing, my father was 
 under apprehensions that if he did not find one for me 
 more agreeable, I should break away and get to sea, as 
 his son Josiah had done, to his great vexation. He there- 20 
 fore sometimes took me to walk with him, and see joiners, 
 bricklayers, turners, braziers, etc., at their work, that he 
 might observe my inclination, and endeavor to fix it on 
 some trade or other on land. It has ever since been a 
 pleasure to me to see good workmen handle their tools; 25 
 and it has been useful to me, having learned so much by it 
 as to be able to do little jobs myself in my house when 
 a workman could not readily be got, and to construct 
 little machines for my experiments, while the intention of 
 making the experiment was fresh and warm in my mind. 30 
 My father at last fixed upon the cutler s trade, and my 
 uncle Benjamin s son Samuel, who was bred to that busi 
 ness in London, being about that time established in Bos 
 ton, I was sent to be with him some time on liking. But 
 
12 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 his expectations of a fee with me displeasing my father, I 
 was taken home again. 
 
 II 
 
 BEGINNING LIFE AS A PRINTER 
 
 5 FROM a child I was fond of reading, and all the little 
 money that came into my hands was ever laid out in 
 books. Pleased with the Pilgrim s Progress, my first 
 collection was of John Bunyan s works in separate little 
 volumes. I afterward sold them to enable me to buy 
 
 10R. Burton s Historical Collections; they were small 
 chapmen s books, and cheap, 40 or 50 in all. My father s 
 little library consisted chiefly of books in polemic divinity, 
 most of which I read, and have since often regretted that, 
 at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more 
 
 ISproper books had not fallen in my way, since it was now 
 resolved I should not be a clergyman. Plutarch s Lives 
 there was in which I read abundantly, and I still think 
 that time spent to great advantage. There was also a 
 book of DeFoe s, called an Essay on Projects and another 
 
 20of Dr. Mather s called Essays to do Good, which perhaps 
 gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some 
 of the principal future events of my life. 
 
 This bookish inclination at length determined my 
 father to make me a printer, though he had already one 
 
 25son (James) of that profession. In 1717 my brother 
 James returned from England with a press and letters to 
 set up his business in Boston. I liked it much better 
 than that of my father, but still had a hankering for the 
 sea. To prevent the apprehended effect of such an 
 
 30inclination, my father was impatient to have me bound 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 13 
 
 to my brother. I stood out some time, but at last was 
 persuaded, and signed the indentures when I was yet but 
 twelve years old. I was to serve as an apprentice till I 
 was twenty-one years of age, only I was to be allowed 
 journeyman s wages during the last year. In a little time 5 
 I made great proficiency in the business, and became a use 
 ful hand to my brother. I now had access to better books. 
 An acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers en 
 abled me sometimes to borrow a small one, which I 
 was careful to return soon and clean. Often I sat up in 10 
 my room reading the greatest part of the night, when the 
 book was borrowed in the evening and to be returned 
 early in the morning, lest it should be missed or wanted. 
 And after some time an ingenious tradesman, Mr. 
 Matthew Adams, who had a pretty collection of books, 15 
 and who frequented our printing-house, took notice of 
 me, invited me to his library, and very kindly lent me 
 such books as I chose to read. I now took a fancy to 
 poetry, and made some little pieces; my brother, think 
 ing it might turn to account, encouraged me, and put me 20 
 on composing occasional ballads. One was called The 
 Lighthouse Tragedy, and contained an account of the 
 drowning of Captain Worthilake, with his two daughters: 
 the other was a sailor s song, on the taking of Teach (or 
 Blackbeard) the pirate. They were wretched stuff, in 25 
 the Grub-street-ballad style; and when they were printed 
 he sent me about the town to sell them. The first sold 
 wonderfully, the event being recent, having made a great 
 noise. This flattered my vanity; but my father discour 
 aged me by ridiculing my performances, and telling me 30 
 verse-makers were generally beggars. So I escaped being 
 a poet, most probably a very bad one; but as prose 
 writing has been of great use to me in the course of my 
 life, and was a principal means of my advancement, I 
 
14 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 shall tell you how, in such a situation, I acquired what 
 little ability I have in that way. 
 
 There was another bookish lad in the town, John Col 
 lins by name, with whom I was intimately acquainted. 
 5 We sometimes disputed, and very fond we were of argu 
 ment, and very desirous of confuting one another, which 
 disputatious turn, by the way, is apt to become a very 
 bad habit, making people often extremely disagreeable 
 in company by the contradiction that is necessary to 
 
 lObring it into practice; and thence, besides souring and 
 spoiling the conversation, is productive of disgusts and, 
 perhaps enmities where you may have occasion for friend 
 ship. I had caught it by reading my father s books of 
 dispute about religion. Persons of good sense, I have 
 
 15 since observed, seldom fall into it, except lawyers, uni 
 versity men, and men of all sorts that have been bred 
 at Edinborough. 
 
 A question was once, somehow or other, started be 
 tween Collins and me, of the propriety of educating the 
 
 2ofemale sex in learning, and their abilities for study. He 
 was of opinion that it was improper, and that they were 
 naturally unequal to it. I took the contrary side, per 
 haps a little for dispute s sake. He was naturally more 
 eloquent, had a ready plenty of words ; and sometimes, 
 
 25as I thought, bore me down more by his fluency than by 
 the strength of his reasons. As we parted without settling 
 the point, and were not to see one another again for some 
 time, I sat down to put my arguments in writing, which I 
 copied fair and sent to him. He answered, and I replied. 
 
 SoThree or four letters of a side had passed, when my 
 father happened to find my papers and read them. With 
 out entering into the discussion, he took occasion to talk to 
 me about the manner of my writing; observed that, 
 though I had the advantage of my antagonist in correct 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 15 
 
 spelling and pointing (which I owed to the printing- 
 house), I fell far short in elegance of expression, in 
 method and in perspicuity, of which he convinced me by 
 several instances. I saw the justice of his remarks, and 
 thence grew more attentive to the manner in writing, ands 
 determined to endeavor at improvement. 
 
 About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spec 
 tator. It was the third. I had never before seen any of 
 them. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much 
 delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and 10 
 wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view I took 
 some of the papers, and, making short hints of the senti 
 ment 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 15 
 length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in 
 any suitable words that should come to hand. Then 
 I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered 
 some of my faults, and corrected them. But I found I 
 wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting 20 
 and using them, which I thought I should have acquired 
 before that time if I had gone on making verses ; since the 
 continual occasion for words of the same import, but of 
 different length, to suit the measure, or of different sound 
 for the rhyme, would have laid me under a constant neces-25 
 sity of searching for variety, and also have tended to fix 
 that variety in my mind, and make me master of it. 
 Therefore I took some of the tales and turned them into 
 verse ; and, after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten 
 the prose, turned them back again. I also sometimes jum-so 
 bled my collections of hints into confusion, and after some 
 weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best order, 
 before I began to form the full sentences and complete 
 the paper. This was to teach me method in the arrange- 
 
1 6 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 ment of thoughts. By comparing my work afterwards 
 with the original, I discovered many faults and amended 
 them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, 
 in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky 
 Senough to improve the method of the language, and this 
 encouraged me to think I might possibly in time come to 
 be a tolerable English writer, of which I was extremely 
 ambitious. My time for these exercises and for reading 
 was at night, after work, or before it began in the morn- 
 
 lOing, or on Sundays, when I contrived to be in the print 
 ing-house alone, evading as much as I could the common 
 attendance on public worship, which my father used to 
 exact of me when I was under his care, and which indeed 
 I still thought a duty, though I could not, as it seemed to 
 
 15me, afford time to practise it. 
 
 When about 16 years of age I happened to meet with 
 a book, written by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable 
 diet. I determined to go into it. My brother, being yet 
 unmarried, did not keep house, but boarded himself and 
 
 20his apprentices in another family. My refusing to eat 
 flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently 
 chid for my singularity. I made myself acquainted with 
 Tryon s manner of preparing some of his dishes, such as 
 boiling potatoes or rice, making hasty pudding, and a 
 
 25 few others, and then proposed to my brother, that if 
 he would give me, weekly, half the money he paid for 
 my board, I would board myself. He instantly agreed 
 to it, and I presently found that I could save half what 
 he paid me. This was an additional fund for buying 
 
 SObooks. But I had another advantage in it. My brother 
 and the rest going from the printing-house to their meals, 
 I remained there alone, and, dispatching presently my 
 light repast, which often was no more than a biscuit or a 
 slice of bread, a handful of raisins or a tart from the 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 17 
 
 pastry-cook s, and a glass of water, had the rest of the 
 time till their return for study, in which I made the 
 greater progress, from that greater clearness of head and 
 quicker apprehension which usually attend temperance in 
 eating and drinking. 5 
 
 And now it was that, being on some occasion made 
 ashamed of my ignorance in figures, which I had twice 
 failed in learning when at school, I took Cocker s book 
 of Arithmetic, and went through the whole by myself 
 with great ease. I also read Seller s and Shermy s bookslO 
 of Navigation, and became acquainted with the little 
 geometry they contain; but never proceeded far in that 
 science. And I read about this time Locke On Human 
 Understanding, and the Art of Thinking, by Messrs, du 
 Port Royal. 15 
 
 While I was intent on improving my language, I met 
 with an English grammar (I think it was Greenwood s), 
 at the end of which there were two little sketches of the 
 arts of rhetoric and logic, the latter finishing with a speci 
 men of a dispute in the Socratic method ; and soon after20 
 I procured Xenophon s Memorable Things of Socrates, 
 wherein there are many instances of the same method. 
 I was charmed with it, adopted it, dropped my abrupt con 
 tradiction and positive argumentation, and put on the 
 humble inquirer and doubter. And being then, from 2 5 
 reading Shaftesbury and Collins, become a real doubter 
 in many points of our religious doctrine, I found this 
 method safest for myself and very embarrassing to those 
 against whom I used it; therefore I took a delight in it, 
 practised it continually, and grew very artful and experts^ 
 in drawing people, even of superior knowledge, into con 
 cessions, the consequences of which they did not foresee, 
 entangling them in difficulties out of which they could 
 not extricate themselves, and so obtaining victories that 
 
1 8 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 neither myself nor my cause always deserved. I con 
 tinued this method some few years, but gradually left it, 
 retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms 
 of modest diffidence; never using, when I advanced any- 
 5thing that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, 
 undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of positive- 
 ness to an opinion; but rather say, I conceive or appre 
 hend a thing to be so and so; it appears to me, or / 
 should think it so or so, for such and such reasons; or / im~ 
 
 IQagine it to be so; or it is so, if I am not mistaken. This 
 habit, I believe, has been of great advantage to me 
 when I have had occasion to inculcate my opinions, and 
 persuade men into measures that I have been from time to 
 time engaged in promoting ; and, as the chief ends of con- 
 
 ISversation are to inform or to be informed, to please or to 
 persuade, I wish well-meaning, sensible men would not 
 lessen their power of doing good by a positive, assuming 
 manner, that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create op 
 position, and to defeat everyone of those purposes for 
 
 20which speech was given to us, to wit, giving or receiving 
 information or pleasure. For, if you would inform, a 
 positive and dogmatical manner in advancing your senti 
 ments may provoke contradiction and prevent a candid 
 attention. If you wish information and improvement 
 
 25from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time 
 express yourself as firmly fixed in your present opinions, 
 modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will 
 probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your 
 error. And by such a manner, you can seldom hope to 
 
 SOrecommend yourself in pleasing your hearers, or to per 
 suade those whose concurrence you desire. Pope says, 
 judiciously: 
 
 " Men should be taught as if you taught them not, 
 And things unknown propos d as things forgot? 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 19 
 
 farther recommending to us 
 
 "To speak, tho sure, with seeming diffidence." 
 
 And he might have coupled with this line that which he 
 has coupled with another, I think, less properly, 
 
 " For want of modesty is want of sense." 5 
 
 If you ask, Why less properly? I must repeat the lines, 
 
 " Immodest words admit of no defense, 
 For want of modesty is want of sense." 
 
 Now, is not want of sense (where a man is so unfortunate 
 as to want it) some apology for his want of modesty? ic 
 and would not the lines stand more justly thus? 
 
 " Immodest words admit but this defense, 
 That want of modesty is want of sense." 
 
 This, however, I should submit to better judgments. 
 
 My brother had, in 1720 or 1721, begun to print a news-15 
 paper. It was the second that appeared in America, and 
 was called the New England Courant. The only one 
 before it was the Boston News-Letter. I remember his 
 being dissuaded by some of his friends from the under 
 taking, as not likely to succeed, one newspaper being, in 20 
 their judgment, enough for America. At this time (1771) 
 there are not less than fwe-and-twenty. He went on, 
 however, with the undertaking, and after having worked 
 in composing the types and printing off the sheets, I was 
 employed to carry the papers through the streets to the 2 5 
 customers. 
 
 He had some ingenious men among his friend*, who 
 
2O Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 amused themselves by writing little pieces for this paper, 
 which gained it credit and made it more in demand, and 
 these gentlemen often visited us. Hearing their conver 
 sations, and their accounts of the approbation their papers 
 5were received with, I was excited to try my hand among 
 them; but, being still a boy, and suspecting that my 
 brother would object to printing anything of mine in his 
 paper if he knew it to be mine, I contrived to disguise 
 my hand, and, writing an anonymous paper, I put it in at 
 
 lOnight under the door of the printing-house. It was found 
 in the morning, and communicated to his writing friends 
 when they called in as usual. They read it, commented 
 on it in my hearing, and I had the exquisite pleasure of 
 finding it met with their approbation, and that, in their 
 
 15 different guesses at the author, none were named but men 
 of some character among us for learning and ingenuity. 
 I suppose now that I was rather lucky in my judges, and 
 that perhaps they were not really so very good ones as I 
 then esteemed them. 
 
 20 Encouraged, however, by this, I wrote and conveyed 
 in the same way to the press several more papers which 
 were equally approved; and I kept my secret till my| 
 small fund of sense for such performances was pretty well 
 exhausted, and then I discovered it, when I began to be 
 
 25considered a little more by my brother s acquaintance, 
 and in a manner that did not quite please him, as hei 
 thought, probably with reason, that it tended to make me 1 
 too vain. And, perhaps, this might be one occasion of 
 the differences that we began to have about this time. 
 
 SoThough a brother, he considered himself as my master, 
 and me as his apprentice, and, accordingly, expected the! 
 same services from me as he would from another, while* 
 I thought he demeaned me too much in some he required 
 of me, who from a brother expected more indulgence. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 21 
 
 Our disputes were often brought before our father, and I 
 fancy I was either generally in the right, or else a better 
 pleader, because the judgment was generally in my 
 favor. But my brother was passionate, and had often 
 beaten me, which I took extremely amiss; and, thinkings 
 my apprenticeship very tedious, I was continually wishing 
 for some opportunity of shortening it, which at length 
 offered in a manner unexpected. 
 
 One of the pieces in our newspaper on some political 
 point, which I have now forgotten, gave ofTense to the 10 
 Assembly. He was taken up, censured, and imprisoned 
 for a month, by the speaker s warrant, I suppose, because 
 he would not discover his author. I too was taken up and 
 examined before the council; but, though I did not give 
 them any satisfaction, they contented themselves W 7 ith ad- 15 
 monishing me, and dismissed me, considering me, per 
 haps, as an apprentice, who was bound to keep his master s 
 secrets. 
 
 During my brother s confinement, which I resented a 
 good deal, notwithstanding our private differences, I had 20 
 the management of the paper; and I made bold to give 
 our rulers some rubs in it, which my brother took very 
 kindly, while others began to consider me in an unfavor 
 able light, as a young genius that had a turn for libeling 
 and satire. My brother s discharge was accompanied 25 
 with an order of the House (a very odd one), that 
 " James Franklin should no longer print the paper called 
 the New England Courant" 
 
 There was a consultation held in our printing-house 
 among his friends, what he should do in this case. Some 30 
 proposed to evade the order by changing the name of 
 the paper; but my brother, seeing inconveniences in 
 that, it was finally concluded on as a better way, to let 
 it be printed for the future under the name of BENJAMIN 
 
22 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 FRANKLIN; and to avoid the censure of the Assembly, 
 that might fall on him as still printing it by his appren 
 tice, the contrivance was that my old indenture should 
 be returned to me, with a full discharge on the back of it, 
 5 to be shown on occasion, but to secure to him the benefit 
 of my service, I was to sign new indentures for the re 
 mainder of the term, which were to be kept private. A 
 very flimsy scheme it was; however, it was immediately 
 executed, and the paper went on accordingly, under my 
 
 lOname for several months. 
 
 At length, a fresh difference arising between my brother 
 and me, I took upon me to assert my freedom, presuming 
 that he would not venture to produce the new indentures. 
 It was not fair in me to take this advantage, and this I 
 
 15therefore reckon one of the first errata of my life; but 
 the unfairness of it weighed little with me, when under 
 the impressions of resentment for the blows his passion 
 too often urged him to bestow upon me, though he was 
 otherwise not an ill-natured man: perhaps I was too 
 
 20saucy and provoking. 
 
 When he found I would leave him, he took care to 
 prevent my getting employment in any other printing- 
 house of the town, by going round and speaking to every 
 master, who accordingly refused to give me work. I then 
 
 2 5 thought of going to New York, as the nearest place where 
 there was a printer; and I was rather inclined to leave 
 Boston when I reflected that I had already made myself 
 a little obnoxious to the governing party, and, from the 
 arbitrary proceedings of the Assembly in my brother s 
 
 SOcase, it was likely I might, if I stayed, soon bring myseli 
 into scrapes; and farther, that my indiscreet disputations 
 about religion began to make me pointed at with horror 
 by good people as an infidel or atheist. I determined on 
 the point, but my father now siding with my brother, I 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 23 
 
 was sensible that, if I attempted to go openly, means 
 would be used to prevent me. My friend Collins, there 
 fore, undertook to manage a little for me. He agreed 
 with the captain of a New York sloop for my passage, 
 under the notion of my being a young acquaintance of5 
 his. So I sold some of my books to raise a little money, 
 was taken on board privately, and as we had a fair wind, 
 in three days I found myself in New York, near 300 
 miles from home, a boy of but 17, without the least 
 recommendation to, or knowledge of, any person in thelO 
 place, and with very little money in my pocket. 
 
 Ill 
 ARRIVAL IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 MY inclinations for the sea were by this time worn out, 
 or I might now have gratified them. But, having a trade, 
 and supposing myself a pretty good workman, I offered 
 my service to the printer in the place, old Mr. William 15 
 Bradford, who had been the first printer in Pennsylvania, 
 but removed from thence upon the quarrel of George 
 Keith. He could give me no employment, having little 
 to do, and help enough already ; " but," says he, " My son 
 at Philadelphia has lately lost his principal hand, Aquilla2U 
 Rose, by death ; if you go thither, I believe he may em 
 ploy you." Philadelphia was a hundred miles further; I 
 set out, however, in a boat for Amboy, leaving my chest 
 and things to follow me round by sea. 
 
 In crossing the bay, we met with a squall that tore our25 
 rotten sails to pieces, prevented our getting into the Kill, 
 and drove us upon Long Island. In our way, a drunken 
 Dutchman, who was a passenger too, fell overboard ; when 
 
24 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 he was sinking, I reached through the water to his shock 
 pate, and drew him up, so that we got him in again. His 
 ducking sobered him a little, and he went to sleep, taking 
 first out of his pocket a book, which he desired I would 
 Bdry for him. It proved to be my old favorite author, Bun- 
 yan s Pilgrim s Progress, in Dutch, finely printed on good 
 paper, with copper cuts, a dress better than I had ever 
 seen it wear in its own language. I have since found 
 that it has been translated into most of the languages 
 
 lOof Europe, and suppose it has been more generally read 
 than any other book, except perhaps the Bible. Honest 
 John was the first that I know of who mixed narration and 
 dialogue ; a method of writing very engaging to the reader, 
 who in the most interesting parts finds himself, as it were, 
 
 isbrought into the company and present at the discourse. 
 De Foe in his Crusoe, his Moll Flanders, Religious Court 
 ship, Family Instructor, and other pieces, has imitated it 
 with success; and Richardson has done the same in his 
 Pamela, etc. 
 
 20 When we drew near the island, we found it was at a 
 place where there could be no landing, there being a 
 great surf on the stony beach. So we dropped anchor, 
 and swung round towards the shore. Some people came 
 down to the water edge and hallooed to us, as we did to 
 
 25them; but the wind was so high, and the surf so loud, 
 that we could not hear so as to understand each other. 
 There were canoes on the shore, and we made signs, and 
 hallooed that they should fetch us; but they either did 
 not understand us, or thought it impracticable, so they 
 
 30 went away, and night coming on, we had no remedy but 
 to wait till the wind should abate ; and, in the meantime, 
 the boatman and I concluded to sleep, if we could; and 
 so crowded into the scuttle, with the Dutchman, who was 
 still wet, and the spray beating over the head of our boat, 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 25 
 
 leaked through to us, so that we were soon almost as wet as 
 he. In this manner we lay all night, with very little rest ; 
 but, the wind abating the next day, we made a shift to 
 reach Amboy before night, having been thirty hours on 
 the water, without victuals, or any drink but a bottle of 5 
 filthy rum, and the water we sailed on being salt. 
 
 In the evening I found myself very feverish, and went 
 in to bed; but, having read somewhere that cold water 
 drunk plentifully was good for a fever, I followed the pre 
 scription, sweat plentifully most of the night, my fever left 10 
 me, and in the morning, crossing the ferry, I proceeded 
 on my journey on foot, having fifty miles to Burlington, 
 where I was told I should find boats that would carry me 
 the rest of the way to Philadelphia. 
 
 It rained very hard all the day; I was thoroughlylS 
 soaked, and by noon a good deal tired; so I stopped at a 
 poor inn, where I stayed all night, beginning now to wish 
 that I had never left home. I cut so miserable a figure, 
 too, that I found, by the questions asked me, I was sus 
 pected to be some runaway servant, and in danger of 20 
 being taken up on that suspicion. However, I proceeded 
 the next day, and got in the evening to an inn, within 
 eight or ten miles of Burlington, kept by one Dr. Brown. 
 He entered into conversation with me while I took some 
 refreshment, and, finding I had read a little, became 2 5 
 very sociable and friendly. Our acquaintance continued 
 as long as he lived. He had been, I imagine, an itinerant 
 doctor, for there was no town in England, or country in 
 Europe, of which he could not give a very particular ac 
 count. He had some letters, and was ingenious, but 30 
 much of an unbeliever, and wickedly undertook, some 
 years after, to travesty the Bible in doggerel verse, as 
 Cotton had done Virgil. By this means he set many of 
 the facts in a very ridiculous light, and might have hurt 
 
26 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 weak minds if his work had been published; but it never 
 was. 
 
 At his house I lay that night, and the next morning 
 reached Burlington, but had the mortification to find 
 5 that the regular boats were gone a little before my coming, 
 and no other expected to go before Tuesday, this being 
 Saturday; wherefore I returned to an old woman in the 
 town, of whom I had bought gingerbread to eat on the 
 water, and asked her advice. She invited me to lodge at 
 
 lOher house till a passage by water should offer; and being 
 tired with my foot traveling, I accepted the invitation. 
 She understanding I was a printer, would have had me 
 stay at that town and follow my business, being ignorant 
 of the stock necessary to begin with. She was very hos- 
 
 15pitable, gave me a dinner of ox-cheek with great good 
 will, accepting only of a pot of ale in return; and I 
 thought myself fixed till Tuesday should come. However, 
 walking in the evening by the side of the river, a boat 
 came by, which I found was going towards Philadelphia, 
 
 20with several people in her. They took me in, and, as 
 there was no wind, we rowed all the way ; and about mid 
 night, not having yet seen the city, some of the company 
 were confident we must have passed it, and would row no 
 farther; the others knew not where we were; so we put 
 
 25toward the shore, got into a creek, landed near an old 
 fence, with the rails of which we made a fire, the night 
 being cold, in October, and there we remained till day 
 light. Then one of the company knew the place to be 
 Cooper s Creek, a little above Philadelphia, which we saw 
 
 30as soon as we got out of the creek, and arrived there 
 about eight or nine o clock on the Sunday morning, and 
 landed at the Market Street wharf. 
 
 I have been the more particular in this description of 
 my journey, and shall be so of my first entry into that 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 27 
 
 city, that you may in your mind compare such unlikely 
 beginnings with the figure I have since made there. I 
 was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come 
 round by sea. I was dirty from my journey ; my pockets 
 were stuffed out with shirts and stockings, and I knew no 5 
 soul nor where to look for lodging. I was fatigued with 
 traveling, rowing, and want of rest; I was very hungry; 
 and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar, 
 and about a shilling in copper. The latter I gave the 
 people of the boat for my passage, who at first refused it,10 
 on account of my rowing; but I insisted on their taking 
 it a man being sometimes more generous when he has 
 but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps 
 through fear of being thought to have but little. 
 
 Then I walked up the street, gazing about till near the 15 
 market-house I met a boy with bread. I had made many 
 a meal on bread, and, inquiring where he got it, I went 
 immediately to the baker s he directed me to, in Second 
 Street, and asked for biscuit, intending such as we had in 
 Boston; but they, it seems, were not made in Philadel-20 
 phia. Then I asked for a three-penny loaf, and was told 
 they had none such. So not considering or knowing the 
 difference of money, and the greater cheapness nor the 
 names of his bread, I bade him give me three-penny 
 worth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three great25 
 puffy rolls. I was surprised at the quantity, but took it, 
 and, having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll 
 under each arm, and eating the other. Thus I went up 
 Market Street as far as Fourth Street, passing by the door 
 of Mr. Read, my future wife s father; when she, standingso 
 at the door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly 
 did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance. Then I 
 turned and went down Chestnut Street and part of Walnut 
 Street, eating my roll all the way, and, coming round, 
 
28 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 found myself again at Market Street wharf, near the boat 
 
 I came in, to which I went for a draught of the river 
 
 water; and, being filled with one of my rolls, gave the 
 
 other two to a woman and her child that came down the 
 
 5 river in the boat with us, and were waiting to go farther. 
 
 Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by 
 
 this time had many clean-dressed people in it, who were 
 
 all walking the same way. I joined them, and thereby 
 
 was led into the great meeting-house of the Quakers near 
 
 10 the market. I sat down among them, and, after looking 
 round awhile and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy 
 through labor and want of rest the preceding night, I fell 
 fast asleep, and continued so till the meeting broke up, 
 when one was kind enough to rouse me. This was, there- 
 
 15 fore, the first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia. 
 
 Walking down again toward the river, and looking in 
 
 the faces of people, I met a young Quaker man, whose 
 
 countenance I liked, and, accosting him, requested he 
 
 would tell me where a stranger could get lodging. We 
 
 20were then near the sign of the Three Mariners. " Here," 
 says he, " is one place that entertains strangers, but it is 
 not a reputable house; if thee wilt walk with me, I ll 
 show thee a better." He brought me to the Crooked 
 Billet in Water Street. Here I got a dinner; and, while 
 
 2ol was eating it, several sly questions were asked me, as it 
 seemed to be suspected from my youth and appearance 
 that I might be some runaway. 
 
 After dinner, my sleepiness returned, and being shown 
 to a bed, I lay down without undressing, and slept till six 
 
 30in the evening, was called to supper, went to bed again 
 very early, and slept soundly till next morning. Then 1 
 made myself as tidy as I could, and went to Andrew 
 Bradford, the printer s. I found in the shop the old man, 
 his father, whom I had seen at New York, and who, 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 29 
 
 traveling on horseback, had got to Philadelphia before 
 me. He introduced me to his son, who received me 
 civilly, gave me a breakfast, but told me he did not at 
 present want a hand, being lately supplied with one; but 
 there was another printer in town, lately set up, one 5 
 Keimer, who, perhaps, might employ me; if not, I should 
 be welcome to lodge at his house, and he would give me 
 a little work to do now and then till fuller business should 
 offer. 
 
 The old gentleman said he would go with me to the 10 
 new printer; and when we found him, " Neighbor," says 
 Bradford, " I have brought to see you a young man of 
 your business; perhaps you may want such a one." He 
 asked me a few questions, put a composing stick in my 
 hand to see how I worked, and then said he would em-i5 
 ploy me soon, though he had just then nothing for me to 
 do; and, taking old Bradford, whom he had never seen 
 before, to be one of the town s people that had a good 
 will for him, entered into a conversation on his present 
 undertaking and prospects: while Bradford, not discov-20 
 ering that he was the other printer s father, on Keimer s 
 saying he expected soon to get the greatest part of the 
 business into his own hands, drew him on by artful ques 
 tions, and starting little doubts, to explain all his views, 
 what interest he relied on, and in what manner he in- 2 5 
 tended to proceed. I, who stood by and heard all, saw 
 immediately that one of them was a crafty old sophister, 
 and the other a mere novice. Bradford left me with 
 Keimer, who was greatly surprised when I told him who 
 the old man was. 30 
 
 Keimer s printing-house, I found, consisted of an old 
 shattered press, and one small, worn-out font of English, 
 which he was then using himself, composing an Elegy on 
 Aquilla Rose, before mentioned, an ingenious young man. 
 
30 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 of excellent character, much respected in the town, clerk 
 of the Assembly, and a pretty poet. Keimer made verses 
 too, but very indifferently. He could not be said to write 
 them, for his manner was to compose them in the types 
 5 directly out of his head. So there being no copy, but 
 one pair of cases, and the Elegy likely to require all the 
 letter, no one could help him. I endeavored to put his 
 press (which he had not yet used, and of which he under 
 stood nothing) into order fit to be worked with; and, 
 
 lOpromising to come and print off his Elegy as soon as he 
 should have got it ready, I returned to Bradford s, who 
 gave me a little job to do for the present, and there I 
 lodged and dieted. A few days after, Keimer sent for me 
 to print off the Elegy. And now he had got another pair 
 
 15of cases, and a pamphlet to reprint, on which he set me 
 to work. 
 
 These two printers I found poorly qualified for their 
 business. Bradford had not been bred to it, and was 
 very illiterate ; and Keimer, though something of a scholar, 
 
 20was a mere compositor, knowing nothing of presswork. 
 He had been one of the French prophets, and could act 
 their enthusiastic agitations. At this time he did not pro 
 fess any particular religion, but something of all on occa 
 sion; was very ignorant of the world, and had, as I 
 
 25afterward found, a good deal of the knave in his com 
 position. He did not like my lodging at Bradford s while 
 I worked with him. He had a house, indeed, but without 
 furniture, so he could not lodge me; but he got me a 
 lodging at Mr. Read s, before mentioned, who was the 
 
 Soowner of his house; and, my chest and clothes being 
 come by this time, I made rather a more respectable 
 appearance in the eyes of Miss Read than I had done 
 when she first happened to see me eating my roll in the 
 street. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 31 
 
 I began now to have some acquaintance among the 
 young people of the town, that were lovers of reading, 
 with whom I spent my evenings very pleasantly; and 
 gaining money by my industry and frugality, I lived very 
 agreeably, forgetting Boston as much as I could, and not 5 
 desiring that any there should know where I resided, 
 except my friend Collins, who was in my secret, and 
 kept it when I wrote to him. At length, an incident 
 happened that sent me back again much sooner than I 
 had intended. I had a brother-in-law, Robert Holmes, 10 
 master of a sloop that traded between Boston and Dela 
 ware. He being at Newcastle, forty miles below Phila 
 delphia, heard there of me, and wrote me a letter men 
 tioning the concern of my friends in Boston at my ab 
 rupt departure, assuring me of their good will to me, 15 
 and that everything would be accommodated to my mind 
 if I would return^ to which he exhorted me very earnestly. 
 I wrote an answer to his letter, thanked him for his advice, 
 but stated my reasons for quitting Boston fully and in such 
 a light as to convince him I was not so wrong as he had 20 
 apprehended. 
 
 IV 
 FIRST VISIT TO BOSTON 
 
 SIR WILLIAM KEITH, governor of the province, was 
 then at Newcastle, and Captain Holmes, happening to be 
 in company with him when my letter came to hand, spoke 
 to him of me, and showed him the letter. The governor25 
 read it, and seemed surprised when he was told my age. 
 He said I appeared a young man of promising parts, and 
 therefore should be encouraged; the printers at Philadel 
 phia were wretched ones; and, if I would set up there, 
 
32 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 he made no doubt I should succeed; for his part, he 
 would procure me the public business, and do me every 
 other service in his power. This my brother-in-law after 
 wards told me in Boston, but I knew as yet nothing of 
 
 Bit; when, one day, Keimer and I being at work together 
 near the window, we saw the governor and another gen 
 tleman (which proved to be Colonel French, of Newcas 
 tle), finely dressed, come directly across the street to our 
 house, and heard them at the door. 
 
 10 Keimer ran down immediately, thinking it a visit to 
 him; but the governor inquired for me, came up, and 
 with a condescension and politeness I had been quite 
 unused to, made me many compliments, desired to be ac 
 quainted with me, blamed me kindly for not having made 
 
 15myself known to him when I first came to the place, and 
 would have me away with him to the tavern, where he 
 was going with Colonel French to taste, as he said, some 
 excellent Madeira. I was not a little surprised, and 
 Keimer stared like a pig poisoned. I went, however, with 
 
 20the governor and Colonel French to a tavern, at the cor 
 ner of Third Street, and over the Madeira he proposed 
 my setting up my business, laid before me the probabilities 
 of success, and both he and Colonel French assured me 
 I should have their interest and influence in procuring 
 
 26the public business of both governments. On my doubt 
 ing whether my father would assist me in it, Sir William 
 said he would give me a letter to him, in which he would 
 state the advantages, and he did not doubt of prevailing 
 with him. So it was concluded I should return to Boston 
 
 30in the first vessel, with the governor s letter recommend 
 ing me to my father. In the meantime the intention 
 was to be kept a secret, and I went on working with 
 Keimer as usual, the governor sending for me now and 
 then to dine with him, a very great honor I thought it. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 33 
 
 and conversing with me in the most affable, familiar, and 
 friendly manner imaginable. 
 
 About the end of April, 1724, a little vessel offered for 
 Boston. I took leave of Keimer as going to see my 
 friends. The governor gave me an ample letter, sayings 
 many flattering things of me to my father, and strongly 
 recommending the project of my setting up at Philadel 
 phia as a thing that must make my fortune. We struck 
 on a shoal in going down the bay, and sprung a leak; we 
 had a blustering time at sea, and were obliged to pump 10 
 almost continually, at which I took my turn. We arrived 
 safe, however, at Boston in about a fortnight. I had 
 been absent seven months, and my friends had heard 
 nothing of me; for my brother Holmes was not yet re 
 turned, and had not written about me. My unexpectedlB 
 appearance surprised the family; all were, however, very 
 glad to see me, and made me welcome, except my brother. 
 I went to see him at his printing-house. I was better 
 dressed than ever while in his service, having a genteel 
 new suit from head to foot, a watch, and my pockets 20 
 lined with near five pounds sterling in silver. He re 
 ceived me not very frankly, looked me all over, and turned 
 to his work again. 
 
 The journeymen were inquisitive where I had been, 
 what sort of a country it was, and how I liked it. 1 25 
 praised it much, and the happy life I led in it, expressing 
 strongly my intention of returning to it ; and, one of them 
 asking what kind of money we had there, I produced a 
 handful of silver, and spread it before them, which was 
 a kind of raree-show they had not been used to, paperSO 
 being the money of Boston. Then I took an opportunity 
 of letting them see my watch; and, lastly (my brother 
 still grum and sullen), I gave them a piece of eight to 
 drink, and took my leave. This visit of mine offended 
 
34 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 him extremely; for, when my mother some time after 
 spoke to him of a reconciliation, and of her wishes to see 
 us on good terms together, and that we might live for the 
 future as brothers, he said I had insulted him in such a 
 5 manner before his people that he could never forget or 
 forgive it. In this, however, he was mistaken. 
 
 My father received the governor s letter with some ap 
 parent surprise, but said little of it to me for some days, 
 
 . when Capt. Holmes returning, he showed it to him, asked 
 
 lOhim if he knew Keith, and what kind of man he was; 
 adding his opinion that he must be of small discretion to 
 think of setting a boy up in business who wanted yet three 
 years of being at man s estate. Holmes said what he 
 could in favor of the project, but my father was clear in 
 
 15the impropriety of it, and at last gave a flat denial to it. 
 Then he wrote a civil letter to Sir William, thanking him 
 for the patronage he had so kindly offered me, but declin 
 ing to assist me as yet in setting up, I being, in his opin 
 ion, too young to be trusted with the management of a 
 
 20business so important, and for which the preparation must 
 be so expensive. 
 
 My friend and companion Collins, who was a clerk in 
 the post-office, pleased with the account I gave him of 
 my new country, determined to go thither also; and, 
 
 2 5 while I waited for my father s determination, he set out 
 before me by land to Rhode Island, leaving his books, 
 which were a pretty collection of mathematics and natu 
 ral philosophy, to come with mine and me to New York, 
 where he proposed to wait for me. 
 
 30 My father, though he did not approve Sir William s 
 proposition, was yet pleased that I had been able to obtain 
 so advantageous a character from a person of such note 
 where I had resided, and that I had been so industrious 
 and careful as to equip myself so handsomely in so short 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 35 
 
 a time; therefore, seeing no prospect of an accommoda 
 tion between my brother and me, he gave his consent to 
 my returning again to Philadelphia, advised me to behave 
 respectfully to the people there, endeavor to obtain the 
 general esteem, and avoid lampooning and libeling, to 5 
 which he thought I had too much inclination ; telling me, 
 that by steady industry and a prudent parsimony I might 
 save enough by the time I was one-and-twenty to set me 
 up; and that, if I came near the matter, he would help 
 me out with the rest. This was all I could obtain, except 10 
 some small gifts as tokens of his and my mother s love, 
 when I embarked again for New York, now with their 
 approbation and their blessing. 
 
 The sloop putting in at Newport, Rhode Island, I 
 visited my brother John, who had been married and 15 
 settled there some years. He received me very affection 
 ately, for he always loved me. A friend of his, one Ver- 
 non, having some money due to him in Pennsylvania, 
 about thirty-five pounds currency, desired I would receive 
 it for him, and keep it till I had his directions what20 
 to remit it in. Accordingly, he gave me an order. 
 This afterwards occasioned me a good deal of uneasi 
 ness. 
 
 At Newport we took in a number of passengers for 
 New York, among which were two young women, com- 2 5 
 panions, and a grave, sensible, matronlike Quaker woman, 
 with her attendants. I had shown an obliging readiness 
 to do her some little services, which impressed her I sup 
 pose with a degree of good will toward me; therefore, 
 when she saw a daily growing familiarity between me and 30 
 the two young women, which they appeared to encourage, 
 she took me aside, and said, "Young man, I am con 
 cerned for thee, as thou hast no friend with thee, and 
 seemest not to know much o$ the world, or of the snares 
 
36 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 youth is exposed to; depend upon it, those are very bad 
 women; I can see it in all their actions; and if thee art 
 not upon thy guard, they will draw thee into some dan 
 ger; they are strangers to thee, and I advise thee, in a 
 5 friendly concern for thy welfare, to have no acquaintance 
 with them." As I seemed at first not to think so ill of 
 them as she did, she mentioned some things she had 
 observed and heard that had escaped my notice, but now 
 convinced me she was right. I thanked her for her kind 
 
 lOadvice, and promised to follow it. When we arrived at 
 New York, they told me where they lived, and invited 
 me to come and see them; but I avoided it, and it was 
 well I did; for the next day the captain missed a silver 
 spoon and some other things, that had been taken out of 
 
 15 his cabin, and, knowing that these were a couple of 
 thieves, he got a warrant to search their lodgings, found 
 the stolen goods, and had the thieves punished. So, though 
 we had escaped a sunken rock, which we scraped upon in 
 the passage, I thought this escape of rather more impor- 
 
 20tance to me. 
 
 At New York I found my friend Collins, who had 
 arrived there some time before me. We had been intimate 
 from children, and had read the same books together; 
 but he had the advantage of more time for reading and 
 
 25studying, and a wonderful genius for mathematical learn 
 ing, in which he far outstripped me. While I lived in 
 Boston, most of my hours of leisure for conversation 
 were spent with him, and he continued a sober as well as 
 an industrious lad ; was much respected for his learning by 
 
 30several of the clergy and other gentlemen, and seemed to 
 promise making a good figure in life. But, during my 
 absence, he had acquired a habit of sotting with brandy j 
 and I found by his own account, and what I heard from 
 others, that he had been drunk every day since his ar- 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 37 
 
 rival at New York, and behaved very oddly. He had 
 gamed, too, and lost his money, so that I was obliged to 
 discharge his lodgings, and defray his expenses to and at 
 Philadelphia, which proved extremely inconvenient to me. 
 
 The then governor of New York, Burnet (son of Bishop 5 
 Burnet), hearing from the captain that a young man, 
 one of his passengers, had a great many books, desired 
 he would bring me to see him. I waited upon him ac 
 cordingly, and should have taken Collins with me but that 
 he was not sober. The governor treated me with great 10 
 civility, showed me his library, which was a very large 
 one, and we had a good deal of conversation about books 
 and authors. This was the second governor who had 
 done me the honor to take notice of me ; which, to a poor 
 boy like me, was very pleasing. 15 
 
 We proceeded to Philadelphia. I received on the 
 way Vernon s money, without which we could hardly have 
 finished our journey. Collins wished to be employed in 
 some counting-house; but, whether they discovered his 
 dramming by his breath, or by his behavior, though he 20 
 had some recommendations, he met with no success in 
 any application, and continued lodging and boarding at 
 the same house with me, and at my expense. Knowing 
 I had that money of Vernon s, he was continually borrow 
 ing of me, still promising repayment as soon as he should 2 5 
 be in business. At length he had got so much of it that 
 I was distressed to think what I should do in case of 
 being called on to remit it. 
 
 His drinking continued, about which we sometimes 
 quarreled; for, when a little intoxicated, he was very 30 
 fractious. Once, in a boat on the Delaware with some 
 other young men, he refused to row in his turn. " I will 
 be rowed home," says he. " We will not row you," says 
 I. " You must, or stay all night on the water," says he, 
 
38 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 " just as you please." The others said, " Let us row ; what 
 signifies it? " But, my mind being soured with his other 
 conduct, I continued to refuse. So he swore he would 
 make me row, or throw me overboard ; and coming along, 
 Sstepping on the thwarts, toward me, when he came up 
 and struck at me, I clapped my hand under his crotch, 
 and, rising, pitched him head-foremost into the river. I 
 knew he was a good swimmer, and so was under little 
 concern about him; but before he could get round to 
 
 lolay hold of the boat, we had with a few strokes pulled her 
 out of his reach; and ever when he drew near the boat, 
 we asked if he would row, striking a few strokes to slide 
 her away from him. He was ready to die with vexation, 
 and obstinately would not promise to row. However, 
 
 ir,seeing him at last beginning to tire, we lifted him in and 
 brought him home dripping wet in the evening. We 
 hardly exchanged a civil word afterwards, and a West 
 India captain who had a commission to procure a tutor 
 for the sons of a gentleman at Barbados, happening to 
 
 20meet with him, agreed to carry him thither. He left me 
 then, promising to remit me the first money he should 
 receive in order to discharge the debt ; but I never heard of 
 him after. 
 
 The breaking into this money of Vernon s was one of 
 
 25the first great errata of my life; and this affair showed 
 that my father was not much out in his judgment when 
 he supposed me too young to manage business of impor 
 tance. But Sir William, on reading his letter, said he 
 was too prudent. There was great difference in persons; 
 
 30and discretion did not always accompany years, nor was 
 youth always without it. " And since he will not set 
 you up," says he, " I will do it myself. Give me an 
 inventory of the things necessary to be had from England, 
 and I will send for them. You shall repay me when you 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 39 
 
 are able; I am resolved to have a good printer here, and 
 I am sure you must succeed." This was spoken with 
 such an appearance of cordiality, that I had not the least 
 doubt of his meaning what he said. I had hitherto kept 
 the proposition of my setting up, a secret in Philadelphia, 5 
 and I still kept it. Had it been known that I depended 
 on the governor, probably some friend, that knew him 
 better, would have advised me not to rely on him, as I 
 afterwards heard it as his known character to be liberal 
 of promises which he never meant to keep. Yet, unsolic-10 
 ited as he was by me, how could I think his generous 
 offers insincere? I believed him one of the best men in 
 the world. 
 
 I presented him an inventory of a little printing-house, 
 amounting by my computation to about one hundred 15 
 pounds sterling. He liked it, but asked me if my being 
 on the spot in England to choose the types, and see that 
 everything was good of the kind, might not be of some 
 advantage. " Then," says he, " when there, you may 
 make acquaintances, and establish correspondences in 20 
 the bookselling and stationery way." I agreed that this 
 might be advantageous. " Then," says he, " get yourself 
 ready to go with Annis ; " which was the annual ship, and 
 the only one at that time usually passing between London 
 and Philadelphia. But it would be some months before 25 
 Annis sailed, so I continued working with Keimer, fretting 
 about the money Collins had got from me, and in daily 
 apprehensions of being called upon by Vernon, which, 
 however, did not happen for some years after. 
 
 I believe I have omitted mentioning that, in my first 30 
 voyage from Boston, being becalmed off Block Island, 
 our people set about catching cod, and hauled up a great 
 many. Hitherto I had stuck to my resolution of not eat 
 ing animal food, and on this occasion I considered, with 
 
4O Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 my master Tryon, the taking every fish as a kind of un 
 provoked murder, since none of them had, or ever could 
 do us any injury that might justify the slaughter. All this 
 seemed very reasonable. But I had formerly been a 
 5 great lover of fish, and, when this came hot out of the 
 frying-pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanced some time 
 between principle and inclination, till I recollected that, 
 when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out 
 of their stomachs; then thought I, "If you eat one 
 
 lOanother, I don t see why we mayn t eat you." So I dined 
 upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat with other 
 people, returning only now and then occasionally to a 
 vegetable diet. So convenient a thing is it to be a reason 
 able creature t since it enables one to find or make a reason 
 
 15 for everything one has a mind to do. 
 
 V 
 EARLY FRIENDS IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 KEIMER and I lived on a pretty good familiar footing, 
 and agreed tolerably well, for he suspected nothing of my 
 setting up. He retained a great deal of his old enthu 
 siasms and loved argumentation. We therefore had 
 
 20many disputations. I used to work him so with my 
 Socratic method, and had trepanned him so often by 
 questions apparently so distant from any point we had in 
 hand, and yet by degrees led to the point, and brought 
 him into difficulties and contradictions, that at last he 
 
 25grew ridiculously cautious, and would hardly answer me 
 the most common question, without asking first, ft What 
 do you intend to infer from that? " However, it gave him 
 so high an opinion of my abilities in the confuting way, 
 that he seriously proposed my being his colleague in a 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 41 
 
 project he had of setting up a new sect. He was to 
 preach the doctrines, and I was to confound all op 
 ponents. When he came to explain with me upon the 
 doctrines, I found several conundrums which I objected 
 to, unless I might have my way a little too, and introduces 
 some of mine. 
 
 Keimer wore his beard at full length, because some 
 where in the Mosaic law it is said, " Thou shall not mar 
 the corners of thy beard." He likewise kept the Seventh 
 day, Sabbath; and these two points were essentials withio 
 him. I disliked both; but agreed to admit them upon 
 condition of his adopting the doctrine of using no animal 
 food. " I doubt," said he, " my constitution will not bear 
 that." I assured him it would, and that he would be the 
 better for it. He was usually a great glutton, and I prom-15 
 ised myself some diversion in half starving him. He 
 agreed to try the practice, if I would keep him company. 
 I did so, and we held it for three months. We had our 
 victuals dressed, and brought to us regularly by a woman 
 in the neighborhood, who had from me a list of forty 20 
 dishes, to be prepared for us at different times, in all 
 which there was neither fish, flesh, nor fowl, and the w r him 
 suited me the better at this time from the cheapness of 
 it, not costing us above eighteenpence sterling each per 
 week. I have since kept several Lents most strictly, leav-25 
 ing the common diet for that, and that for the common, 
 abruptly, without the least inconvenience, so that I think 
 there is little in the advice of making those changes by 
 easy gradations. I went on pleasantly, but poor Keimer 
 suffered grievously, tired of the project, longed for the 30 
 flesh-pots of Egypt, and ordered a roast pig. He invited 
 me and two women friends to dine with him; but, it 
 being brought too soon upon table, he could not resist 
 the temptation, and ate the whole before we came. 
 
42 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 I had made some courtship during this time to Miss 
 Read. I had a great respect and affection for her w 
 and had some reason to believe she had the same for 
 me; but, as I was about to take a long voyage, and we 
 5were both very young, only a little above eighteen, it 
 was thought most prudent by her mother to prevent our 
 going too far at present, as a marriage, if it was to take 
 place, would be more convenient after my return when 
 I should be, as I expected, set up in my business. Per- 
 
 lOhaps, too, she thought my expectations not so well founded 
 as I imagined them to be. 
 
 My chief acquaintances at this time were Charles 
 Osborne, Joseph Watson, and James Ralph, all lovers of 
 reading. The two first were clerks to an eminent scriv- 
 
 15ener or conveyancer in the town, Charles Brogden; the 
 other was clerk to a merchant. Watson was a pious, 
 sensible young man, of great integrity; the others rather 
 more lax in their principles of religion, particularly Ralph, 
 who, as well as Collins, had been unsettled by me, for 
 
 20which they both made me suffer. Osborne was sensible, 
 candid, frank ; sincere and affectionate to his friends ; but, 
 in literary matters, too fond of criticizing. Ralph was in 
 genious, genteel in his manners, and extremely eloquent; 
 I think I never knew a prettier talker. Both of them 
 
 25were great admirers of poetry, and began to try their hands 
 in little pieces. Many pleasant walks we four had to 
 gether on Sundays into the woods, near Schuylkill, where 
 we read to one another, and conferred on what we read. 
 Ralph was inclined to pursue the study of poetry, not 
 
 SOdoubting but he might become eminent in it, and make 
 his fortune by it, alleging that the best poets must, when 
 they first began to write, make as many faults as he did. 
 Osborne dissuaded him, assured him he had no genius for 
 poetry, and advised him to think of nothing beyond the 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 43 
 
 business he was bred to ; that, in the mercantile way, though 
 he had no stock, he might, by his diligence and punctual 
 ity, recommend himself to employment as a factor, and 
 in time acquire wherewith to trade on his own account. 
 I approved the amusing one s self with poetry now and 5 
 then, so far as to improve one s language, but no farther. 
 
 On this it was proposed that we should each of us, at 
 our next meeting, produce a piece of our own composing, 
 in order to improve by our mutual observations, criti 
 cisms, and corrections. As language and expression were 10 
 what we had in view, we excluded all considerations of 
 invention by agreeing that the task should be a version 
 of the eighteenth Psalm, which describes the descent of a 
 Deity. When the time of our meeting drew nigh, Ralph 
 called on me first, and let me know his piece was ready. 15 
 I told him I had been busy, and, having, little inclination, 
 had done nothing. He then showed me his piece for my 
 opinion, and I much approved it, as it appeared to me 
 to have great merit. " Now," says he, " Osborne never 
 will allow the least merit in anything of mine, but makes 20 
 1000 criticisms out of mere envy. He is not so jealous 
 of you ; I wish, therefore, you would take this piece, and 
 produce it as yours; I will pretend not to have had time, 
 and so produce nothing. We shall then see what he will 
 say to it." It was agreed, and I immediately transcribed 25 
 it, that it might appear in my own hand. 
 
 We met; Watson s performance was read; there were 
 some beauties in it, but many defects. Osborne s was 
 read; it was much better; Ralph did it justice; re 
 marked some faults, but applauded the beauties. He 30 
 himself had nothing to produce. I was backward ; seemed 
 desirous of being excused; had not had sufficient time 
 to correct, etc.; but no excuse could be admitted; pro 
 duce I must. It was read and repeated; Watson and 
 
44 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 Osborne gave up the contest, and joined in applauding it. 
 Ralph only made some criticisms, and proposed some 
 amendments; but I defended my text. Osborne was 
 against Ralph, and told him he was no better a critic 
 5 than poet, so he dropped the argument. As they two went 
 home together, Osborne expressed himself still more 
 strongly in favor of w r hat he thought my production ; 
 having restrained himself before, as he said, lest I should 
 think it flattery. " But who would have imagined," said 
 
 lOhe, "that Franklin had been capable of such a perform 
 ance; such painting, such force, such fire! He has even 
 improved the original. In his common conversation he 
 seems to have no choice of words; he hesitates and 
 blunders; and yet, good God! how he writes!" When 
 
 15 we next met, Ralph discovered the trick we had played 
 him, and Osborne was a little laughed at. 
 
 This transaction fixed Ralph in his resolution of be 
 coming a poet. I did all I could to dissuade him from 
 it, but he continued scribbling verses till Pope cured him. 
 
 20He became, however, a pretty good prose writer. More 
 of him hereafter. But, as I may not have occasion again 
 to mention the other two, I shall just remark here, that 
 Watson died in my arms a few years after, much lamented, 
 being the best of our set. Osborne went to the West 
 
 25lndies, where he became an eminent lawyer and made 
 money, but died young. He and I had made a serious 
 agreement, that the one who happened first to die should, 
 if possible, make a friendly visit to the other, and acquaint 
 him how he found things in that separate state. But he 
 
 SOnever fulfilled his promise. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 45 
 
 VI 
 FIRST VISIT TO LONDON 
 
 THE governor, seeming to like my company, had me 
 frequently to his house, and his setting me up was always 
 mentioned as a fixed thing. I was to take with me Ietters5 
 recommendatory to a number of his friends, besides the 
 letter of credit to furnish me with the necessary money 
 for purchasing the press and types, paper, etc. For these 
 letters I was appointed to call at different times, when 
 they were to be ready; but a future time was still named. 10 
 Thus he went on till the ship, whose departure too 
 had been several times postponed, was on the point of 
 sailing. Then, when I called to take my leave and 
 receive the letters, his secretary, Dr. Bard, came out to 
 me and said the governor was extremely busy in writing, 15 
 but would be down at Newcastle before the ship, and 
 there the letters would be delivered to me. 
 
 Ralph, though married, and having one child, had de 
 termined to accompany me in this voyage. It was 
 thought he intended to establish a correspondence, and 20 
 obtain goods to sell on commission; but I found after 
 wards, that, through some discontent with his wife s rela 
 tions, he purposed to leave her on their hands, and never 
 return again. Having taken leave of my friends, and 
 interchanged some promises with Miss Read, I left Phila-25 
 delphia in the ship, which anchored at Newcastle. The 
 governor was there; but when I went to his lodging, the 
 secretary came to me from him with the civilest message 
 in the world, that he could not then see me, being en 
 gaged in business of the utmost importance, but should 2? 
 send the letters to me on board, wished me heartily a 
 
46 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 good voyage and a speedy return, etc. I returned on 
 board a little puzzled, but still not doubting. 
 
 Mr. Andrew Hamilton, a famous lawyer of Philadel 
 phia, had taken passage in the same ship for himself and 
 5son, and with Mr. Denham, a Quaker merchant, and 
 Messrs. Onion and Russel, masters of an iron work in 
 Maryland, had engaged the great cabin; so that Ralph and 
 I were forced to take up with a berth in the steerage, and 
 none on board knowing us, were considered as ordinary 
 
 lOpersons. But Mr. Hamilton and his son (it was James, 
 since governor) returned from Newcastle to Philadelphia, 
 the father being recalled by a great fee to plead for a 
 seized ship; and, just before we sailed, Colonel French 
 coming on board, and showing me great respect, I was 
 
 15more taken notice of, and, with my friend Ralph, invited 
 by the other gentlemen to come into the cabin, there 
 being now room. Accordingly, we moved thither. 
 
 Understanding that Colonel French had brought on 
 board the governor s despatches, I asked the captain for 
 
 20those letters that were to be under my care. He said 
 all were put into the bag together and he could not then 
 come at them; but, before we landed in England, I 
 should have an opportunity of picking them out; so I 
 was satisfied for the present, and we proceeded on our 
 
 2 5 voyage. We had a sociable company in the cabin, and 
 lived uncommonly well, having the addition of all Mr. 
 Hamilton s stores, who had laid in plentifully. In this 
 passage Mr. Denham contracted a friendship for me that 
 continued during his life. The voyage was otherwise not 
 
 30a pleasant one, as we had a great deal of bad weather. 
 
 When we came into the Channel, the captain kept his 
 word with me, and gave me an opportunity of examining 
 the bag for the governor s letters. I found none upon 
 which my name was put as under my cire. I picked out 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 47 
 
 six or seven, that, by the handwriting, I thought might be 
 the promised letters, especially as one of them was di 
 rected to Basket, the king s printer, and another to some 
 stationer. We arrived in London the 24th of December, 
 1724. I waited upon the stationer, who came first in my 5 
 way, delivering the letter as from Governor Keith. " I 
 don t know such a person," says he; but, opening the 
 letter, " O ! this is from Riddlesden. I have already found 
 him to be a complete rascal, and I will have nothing to 
 do with him, nor receive any letters from him." So, put- 10 
 ting the letter into my hand, he turned on his heel and 
 left me to serve some customer. I was surprised to find 
 these were not the governor s letters ; and, after recollect 
 ing and comparing circumstances, I began to doubt his sin 
 cerity. I found my friend Denham, and opened the 15 
 whole affair to him. He let me into Keith s character; 
 told me there was not the least probability that he had 
 written any letters for me; that no one, who knew him, 
 had the smallest dependence on him ; and he laughed at 
 the notion of the governor s giving me a letter of credit, 20 
 having, as he said, no credit to give. On my expressing 
 some concern about what I should do, he advised me to 
 endeavor getting some employment in the way of my 
 business. " Among the printers here," said he, " you 
 will improve yourself, and when you return to America, 25 
 you will set up to greater advantage." 
 
 We both of us happened to know, as well as the sta 
 tioner, that Riddlesden, the attorney, was a very knave. 
 He had half ruined Miss Read s father by persuading him 
 to be bound for him. By this letter it appeared there 30 
 was a secret scheme on foot to the prejudice of Hamilton 
 (supposed to be then coming over with us) ; and that Keith 
 was concerned in it with Riddlesden. Denham, who 
 was a friend of Hamilton s, thought he ought to be ac- 
 
48 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 quainted with it; so, when he arrived in England, which 
 was soon after, partly from resentment and ill-will to 
 Keith and Riddlesden, and partly from good-will to him, 
 I waited on him, and gave him the letter. He thanked 
 5me cordially, the information being of importance to him; 
 and from that time he became my friend, greatly to my 
 advantage afterwards on many occasions. 
 
 But what shall we think of a governor s playing such 
 pitiful tricks, and imposing so grossly on a poor ignorant 
 
 lOboy! It was a habit he had acquired. He wished to 
 please everybody; and, having little to give, he gave 
 expectations. He was otherwise an ingenious, sensible 
 man, a pretty good writer, and a good governor for the 
 people, though not for his constituents, the proprietaries, 
 
 15whose instructions he sometimes disregarded. Several of 
 our best laws were of his planning and passed during his 
 administration. 
 
 Ralph and I were inseparable companions. We took 
 lodgings together in Little Britain at three shillings and 
 
 20sixpence a week as much as we could then afford. 
 He found some relations, but they were poor, and unable 
 to assist him. He now let me know his intentions of re 
 maining in London, and that he never meant to return to 
 Philadelphia. He had brought no money with him, the 
 
 25whole he could muster having been expended in paying 
 his passage. I had fifteen pistoles; so he borrowed 
 occasionally of me to subsist, while he was looking out 
 for business. He first endeavored to get into the play 
 house, believing himself qualified for an actor; but 
 
 SOWilkes, to whom he applied, advised him candidly not to 
 think of that employment, as it was impossible he should 
 succeed in it. Then he proposed to Roberts, a publisher 
 in Paternoster Row, to write for him a weekly paper like 
 the Spectator, on certain conditions, which Roberts did 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 49 
 
 not approve. Then he endeavored to get employment 
 as a hackney writer, to copy for the stationers and lawyers 
 about the Temple, but could find no vacancy. 
 
 I immediately got into work at Palmer s, then a famous 
 printing-house in Bartholomew Close, and here I continueds 
 near a year. I was pretty diligent, but spent with Ralph 
 a good deal of my earnings in going to plays and other 
 places of amusement. We had together consumed all my 
 pistoles, and now just rubbed on from hand to mouth. 
 He seemed quite to forget his wife and child, and I, bylO 
 degrees, my engagements with Miss Read, to whom I 
 never wrote more than one letter, and that was to let 
 her know I was not likely soon to return. This was 
 another of the great errata of my life, which I should 
 wish to correct if I were to live it over again. In fact, by 15 
 our expenses, I was constantly kept unable to pay my 
 passage. 
 
 At Palmer s I was employed in composing for the 
 second edition of Wollaston s Religion of Nature. Some 
 of his reasonings not appearing to me well founded, 1 20 
 wrote a little metaphysical piece in which I made remarks 
 on them. It was entitled A Dissertation on Liberty and 
 Necessity, Pleasure and Pain. I inscribed it to my friend 
 Ralph; I printed a small number. It occasioned my 
 being more considered by Mr. Palmer as a young man of 25 
 some ingenuity, though he seriously expostulated with me 
 upon the principles of my pamphlet, which to him ap 
 peared abominable. My printing this pamphlet was an 
 other erratum. 
 
 While I lodged in Little Britain, I made an acquaint-30 
 ance with one Wilcox, a bookseller, whose shop was at 
 the next door. He had an immense collection of second 
 hand books. Circulating libraries were not then in use; 
 but we agreed that, on certain reasonable terms, which I 
 
50 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 have now forgotten, I might take, read, and return any 
 of his books. This I esteemed a great advantage, and I 
 made as much use of it as I could. 
 
 My pamphlet by some means falling into the hands of 
 5one Lyons, a surgeon, author of a book entitled The 
 Infallibility of Human Judgment, it occasioned an ac 
 quaintance between us. He took great notice of me, 
 called on me often to converse on those subjects, carried 
 me to the Horns, a pale alehouse in Lane, Cheap- 
 
 lOside, and introduced me to Dr. Mandeville, author of the 
 Fable of the Bees, who had a club there, of which he 
 was the soul, being a most facetious, entertaining com 
 panion. Lyons, too, introduced me to Dr. Pemberton, 
 at Batson s Coffee-house, who promised to give me an 
 
 15opportunity, sometime or other, of seeing Sir Isaac New 
 ton, of which I was extremely desirous; but this never 
 happened. 
 
 I had brought over a few curiosities, among which the 
 principal was a purse made of the asbestos, which purifies 
 
 20by fire. Sir Hans Sloane heard of it, came to see me, and 
 invited me to his house in Bloomsbury Square, where he 
 showed me all his curiosities, and persuaded me to let 
 him add that to the number, for which he paid me hand 
 somely. 
 
 25 In our house there lodged a young woman, a milliner, 
 who, I think, had a shop in the Cloisters. She had 
 been genteelly bred, was sensible and lively, and of most 
 pleasing conversation. Ralph read plays to her in the 
 evenings, they grew intimate, she took another lodging, 
 
 30and he followed her. They lived together some time; 
 but, he being still out of business, and her income not 
 sufficient to maintain them with her child, he took a 
 resolution of going from London, to try for a country 
 school, which he thought himself well qualified to under- 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 51 
 
 take, as he wrote an excellent hand, and was a master of 
 arithmetic and accounts. This, however, he deemed a 
 business below him, and confident of future better for 
 tune, when he should be unwilling to have it known that 
 he once was so meanly employed, he changed his name, 5 
 and did me the honor to assume mine; for I soon after 
 had a letter from him, acquainting me that he was settled 
 in a small village (in Berkshire, I think it was, where he 
 taught reading and writing to ten or a dozen boys, at six 
 pence each per week), recommending Mrs. T tolO 
 
 my care, and desiring me to write to him, directing for 
 Mr. Franklin, schoolmaster, at such a place. 
 
 He continued to write frequently, sending me large 
 specimens of an epic poem which he was then composing, 
 and desiring my remarks and corrections. These I gave 15 
 him from time to time, but endeavored rather to discour 
 age his proceeding. One of Young s Satires was then 
 just published. I copied and sent him a great part of it, 
 which set in a strong light the folly of pursuing the Muses 
 with any hope of advancement by them. All was in vain; 20 
 sheets of the poem continued to come by every post. I 
 now began to think of getting a little money beforehand, 
 and, expecting better work, I left Palmer s to work at 
 Watts s, near Lincoln s Inn Fields, a still greater printing- 
 house. Here I continued all the rest of my stay in Lon-25 
 don. 
 
 At my first admission into this printing-house I took 
 to working at press, imagining I felt a want of the 
 bodily exercise I had been used to in America, where 
 presswork is mixed with composing. I drank only water; 30 
 the other workmen, near fifty in number, were great 
 guzzlers of beer. On occasion, I carried up and down 
 stairs a large form of types in each hand, when others 
 carried but one in both hands. They wondered to sec, 
 
52 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 from this and several instances, that the Water- American, 
 as they called me, was stronger than themselves, who 
 drank strong beer! We had an alehouse boy who at 
 tended always in the house to supply the workmen. My 
 Scompanion at the press drank every day a pint before 
 breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, 
 a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a 
 pint in the afternoon about six o clock, and another when 
 he had done his day s work. I thought it a detestable cus- 
 
 lOtom; but it was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong 
 beer, that he might be strong to labor. I endeavored to 
 convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer 
 could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the 
 barley dissolved in the water of which it was made; 
 
 15that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread; 
 and therefore, if he would eat that with a pint of 
 water, it would give him more strength than a quart 
 of beer. He drank on, however, and had four or five 
 shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night 
 
 20for that muddling liquor; an expense I was free from. 
 
 And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under. 
 
 Watts, after some weeks, desiring to have me in the 
 
 composing-room, I left the pressmen ; a new bien venu 
 
 or sum for drink, being five shillings, was demanded 
 
 25of me by the compositors. I thought it an imposition, 
 as I had paid below; the master thought so too, and 
 forbade my paying it. I stood out two or three weeks, 
 was accordingly considered as an excommunicate, and 
 had so many little pieces of private mischief done me, 
 
 30by mixing my sorts, transposing my pages, breaking my 
 matter, etc., etc., if I were ever so little out of the 
 room, and all ascribed to the chapel ghost, which they 
 said ever haunted those not regularly admitted, that, not 
 withstanding the master s protection, I found myself 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 53 
 
 obliged to comply and pay the money, convinced of the 
 folly of being on ill terms with those one is to live with 
 continually. 
 
 I was now on a fair footing with them, and soon 
 acquired considerable influence. I proposed some reason-5 
 able alterations in their chapel laws, and carried them 
 against all opposition. From my example, a great part 
 of them left their muddling breakfast of beer, and bread, 
 and cheese, finding they could with me be supplied from 
 a neighboring house with a large porringer of hot water-10 
 gruel, sprinkled with pepper, crumbed with bread, and 
 a bit of butter in it, for the price of a pint of beer, 
 viz., three half-pence. This was a more comfortable as 
 well as cheaper breakfast, and kept their heads clearer. 
 Those who continued sotting with beer all day, were 15 
 often, by not paying, out of credit at the alehouse, and 
 used to make interest with me to get beer; their light f 
 as they phrased it, being out. I watched the pay-table 
 on Saturday night, and collected what I stood engaged 
 for them, having to pay sometimes near thirty shillings a20 
 week on their accounts. This, and my being esteemed 
 a pretty good riggite, that is, a jocular verbal satirist, 
 supported my consequence in the society. My constant 
 attendance (I never making a St. Monday) recommended 
 me to the master; and my uncommon quickness at com- 2 5 
 posing occasioned my being put upon all work of dispatch, 
 which was generally better paid. So I went on now 
 very agreeably. 
 
 My lodging in Little Britain being too remote, I 
 found another in Duke Street, opposite to the Romish 30 
 Chapel. It was two pair of stairs backwards, at an 
 Italian warehouse. A widow lady kept the house; she 
 had a daughter, and a maid servant, and a journeyman 
 who attended the warehouse, but lodged abroad. After 
 
54 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 sending to inquire my character at the house where I 
 last lodged, she agreed to take me in at the same rate, 33. 
 6d. per week; cheaper, as she said, from the protection 
 she expected in having a man lodge in the house. She 
 5was a widow, an elderly woman ; had been bred a Prot 
 estant, being a clergyman s daughter, but was converted 
 to the Catholic religion by her husband, whose memory 
 she much revered; had lived much among people of dis 
 tinction, and knew a thousand anecdotes of them as far 
 
 lOback as the times of Charles the Second. She was lame 
 in her knees with the gout, and, therefore, seldom stirred 
 out of her room, so sometimes wanted company ; and hers 
 was so highly amusing to me, that I was sure to spend 
 an evening with her whenever she desired it. Our supper 
 
 15was only half an anchovy each, on a very little strip of 
 bread and butter, and half a pint of ale between us; but 
 the entertainment was in her conversation. My always 
 keeping good hours, and giving little trouble in the family, 
 made her unwilling to part with me ; so that, when I talked 
 
 20of a lodging I had heard of, nearer my business, for 
 two shillings a week, which, intent as I now was on sav 
 ing money, made some difference, she bid me not think 
 of it, for she would abate me two shillings a week for 
 the future ; so I remained with her at one shilling and six- 
 
 25pence as long as I stayed in London. 
 
 In a garret of her house there lived a maiden lady of 
 seventy, in the most retired manner, of whom my land 
 lady gave me this account: that she was a Roman 
 Catholic, had been sent abroad when young, and lodged 
 
 30in a nunnery with an intent of becoming a nun; but, the 
 country not agreeing with her, she returned to England, 
 where, there being no nunnery, she had vowed to lead the 
 life of a nun, as near as might be done in those circum 
 stances. Accordingly, she had given all her estate to 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 55 
 
 charitable uses, reserving only twelve pounds a year to 
 live on, and out of this sum she still gave a great deal in 
 charity, living herself on water-gruel only, and using no 
 fire but to boil it. She had lived many years in that 
 garret, being permitted to remain there gratis by succes-5 
 sive Catholic tenants of the house below, as they deemed 
 it a blessing to have her there. A priest visited her to 
 confess her every day. " I have asked her," says my land 
 lady, " how she, as she lived, could possibly find so much 
 employment for a confessor?" " Oh," said she, "it islO 
 impossible to avoid vain thoughts/ I was permitted 
 once to visit her. She was cheerful and polite, and con 
 versed pleasantly. The room was clean, but had no other 
 furniture than a mattress, a table with a crucifix and book, 
 a stool, which she gave me to sit on, and a picture over!5 
 the chimney of Saint Veronica displaying her handkerchief, 
 with the miraculous figure of Christ s bleeding face on it, 
 which she explained to me with great seriousness. She 
 looked pale, but was never sick; and I give it as another 
 instance on how small an income, life and health may20 
 be supported. 
 
 At Watts s printing-house I contracted an acquaintance 
 with an ingenious young man, one Wygate, who, having 
 wealthy relations, had been better educated than most 
 printers; was a tolerable Latinist, spoke French, and 25 
 loved reading. I taught him and a friend of his to swim 
 at twice going into the river, and they soon became good 
 swimmers. They introduced me to some gentlemen 
 from the country, who went to Chelsea by water to see 
 the College and Don Saltero s curiosities. In our return, 30 
 at the request of the company, whose curiosity Wygate 
 had excited, I stripped and leaped into the river, and 
 swam from near Chelsea to Blackfriar s performing on the 
 way many feats of activity, both upon and under water, 
 
56 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 that surprised and pleased those to whom they were 
 novelties. 
 
 I had from a child been ever delighted with this ex 
 ercise, had studied and practised all Thevenot s motions 
 5and positions, added some of my own, aiming at the 
 graceful and easy as well as the useful. All these I took 
 this occasion of exhibiting to the company, and was 
 much flattered by their admiration ; and Wygate, who 
 was desirous of becoming a master, grew more and more 
 
 lOattached to me on that account, as well as from the simi 
 larity of our studies. He at length proposed to me trav 
 eling all over Europe together, supporting ourselves 
 everywhere by working at our business. I was once in 
 clined to it; but, mentioning it to my good friend Mr. 
 
 ISDenham, with whom I often spent an hour when I had 
 leisure, he dissuaded me from it, advising me to think 
 only of returning to Pennsylvania, which he was now 
 about to do. 
 
 I must record one trait of this good man s character. 
 
 20He had formerly been in business at Bristol, but failed in 
 debt to a number of people, compounded and went to 
 America. There, by a close application to business as a 
 merchant, he acquired a plentiful fortune in a few years. 
 Returning to England in the ship with me, he invited his 
 
 25old creditors to an entertainment, at which he thanked 
 them for the easy composition they had favored him 
 with, and, when they expected nothing but the treat, 
 every man at the first remove found under his plate an 
 order on a banker for the full amount of the unpaid re- 
 
 SOmainder with interest. 
 
 He now told me he was about to return to Philadel 
 phia, and should carry over a great quantity of goods in 
 order to open a store there. He proposed to take me over 
 as his clerk, to keep his books, in which he would instruct 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 57 
 
 me, copy his letters, and attend the store. He added, 
 that, as soon as I should be acquainted with mercantile 
 business, he would promote me by sending me with a 
 cargo of flour and bread, etc., to the West Indies, and 
 procure me commissions from others which would be 5 
 profitable; and, if I managed well, would establish me 
 handsomely. The thing pleased me; for I was grown 
 tired of London, remembered with pleasure the happy 
 months I had spent in Pennsylvania, and wished again to 
 see it; therefore I immediately agreed on the terms of 10 
 fifty pounds a year, Pennsylvania money; less, indeed, 
 than my present gettings as a compositor, but affording a 
 better prospect. 
 
 I now took leave of printing, as I thought, forever, 
 and was daily employed in my new business, going about 15 
 with Mr. Denham among the tradesmen to purchase 
 various articles, and seeing them packed up, doing er 
 rands, calling upon workmen to dispatch, etc. ; and, when 
 all was on board, I had a few days leisure. On one 
 of these days, I was, to my surprise, sent for by a great20 
 man I knew only by name, a Sir William Wyndham, 
 and I waited upon him. He had heard by some means 
 or other of my swimming from Chelsea to Blackfriars, and 
 of my teaching Wygate and another young man to swim 
 in a few hours. He had two sons, about to set out on their 2 5 
 travels; he wished to have them first taught swimming, 
 and proposed to gratify me handsomely if I would teach 
 them. They were not yet come to town, and my stay 
 was uncertain, so I could not undertake it; but, from 
 this incident, I thought it likely that, if I were to re-so 
 main in England and open a swimming-school, I might 
 get a good deal of money; and it struck me so strongly, 
 that, had the overture been sooner made me, probably I 
 should not so soon have returned to America. After 
 
58 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 many years, you and I had something of more impor 
 tance to do with one of these sons of Sir William Wynd- 
 ham, become Earl of Egremont, which I shall mention 
 in its place. 
 
 5 Thus I spent about eighteen months in London; most 
 part of the time I worked hard at my business, and spent 
 but little upon myself except in seeing plays and in 
 books. My friend Ralph had kept me poor; he owed 
 me about twenty-seven pounds, which I was now never 
 
 lOlikely to receive; a great sum out of my small earnings! 
 I loved him, notwithstanding, for he had many amiable 
 qualities. I had by no means improved my fortune; but 
 I had picked up some very ingenious acquaintance, whose 
 conversation was of great advantage to me; and I had 
 
 15 read considerably. 
 
 VII 
 BEGINNING BUSINESS IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 WE sailed from Gravesend on the 23rd of July, 1726. 
 For the incidents of the voyage, I refer you to my Jour- 
 
 20nal, where you will find them all minutely related. Per 
 haps the most important part of that journal is the plan 
 to be found in it, which I formed at sea, for regulating 
 my future conduct in life. It is the more remarkable, 
 as being formed when I was so young, and yet being 
 
 25pretty faithfully adhered to quite through to old age. 
 
 We landed in Philadelphia on the nth of October, 
 where I found sundry alterations. Keith was no longer 
 governor, being superseded by Major Gordon. I met 
 him walking the streets as a common citizen. He seemed 
 
 SOa little ashamed at seeing me, but passed without saying 
 anything. I should have been as much ashamed at see- 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 59 
 
 ing Miss Read, had not her friends, despairing with reason 
 of my return after the receipt of my letter, persuaded 
 her to marry another, one Rogers, a potter, which was 
 done in my absence. With him, however, she was never 
 happy, and soon parted from him. He was a worthlessS 
 fellow, though an excellent workman, which was the temp 
 tation to her friends. He got into debt, ran away in 
 1727 or 1728, went to the West Indies, and died there. 
 Keimer had got a better house, a shop well supplied with 
 stationery, plenty of new types, a number of hands, thoughlO 
 none good, and seemed to have a great deal of business. 
 
 Mr. Denham took a store in Water Street, where we 
 opened our goods; I attended the business diligently, 
 studied accounts, and grew, in a little time, expert at 
 selling. We lodged and boarded together; he counseledlS 
 me as a father, having a sincere regard for me. I re 
 spected and loved him, and we might have gone on to 
 gether very happy; but, in the beginning of February, 
 1726-7, when I had just passed my twenty-first year, we 
 both were taken ill. My distemper was a pleurisy, which 20 
 very nearly carried me off. I suffered a good deal, gave 
 up the point in my own mind, and was rather disappointed 
 when I found myself recovering, regretting, in some 
 degree, that I must now, some time or other, have all 
 that disagreeable work to do over again. I forget what25 
 his distemper was; it held him a long time, and at length 
 carried him off. He left me a small legacy in a nun 
 cupative will, as a token of his kindness for me, and he 
 left me once more to the wide world ; for the store was 
 taken into the care of his executors, and my employmentSO 
 under him ended. 
 
 My brother-in-law, Holmes, being now at Philadelphia, 
 advised my return to my business; and Keimer tempted 
 me, with an offer of large wages by the year, to come 
 
60 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 and take the management of his printing-house, that he 
 might better attend his stationer s shop. I had heard 
 bad character of him in London from his wife and her 
 friends, and was not fond of having any more to do with 
 Shim. I tried for farther employment as a merchant s 
 clerk; but, not readily meeting with any, I closed again 
 with Keimer. I found in his house these hands: Hugh 
 Meredith, a Welsh Pennsylvanian, thirty years of age, 
 bred to country work; honest, sensible, had a great deal 
 
 lOof solid observation, was something of a reader, but given 
 to drink. Stephen Potts, a young countryman of full age, 
 bred to the same, of uncommon natural parts, and great 
 wit and humor, but a little idle. These he had agreed 
 with at extreme low wages per week to be raised a shil- 
 
 15ling every three months, as they would deserve by im 
 proving in their business; and the expectation of these 
 high wages, to come on hereafter, was what he had 
 drawn them in with. Meredith was to work at press, 
 Potts at book-binding, which he, by agreement, was to 
 
 20teach them, though he knew neither one nor t other. 
 
 John , a wild Irishman, brought up to no business, 
 
 whose service, for four years, Keimer had purchased from 
 the captain of a ship; he, too, was to be made a press 
 man. George Webb, an Oxford scholar, whose time for 
 
 25four years he had likewise bought, intending him for a 
 compositor, of whom more presently; and David Harry, 
 a country boy, whom he had taken apprentice. 
 
 I soon perceived that the intention of engaging me at 
 wages so much higher than he had been used to give, 
 
 30was, to have these raw, cheap hands formed through me; 
 and, as soon as I had instructed them, then they being all 
 articled to him, he should be able to do without me. 
 I went on, however, very cheerfully, put his printing- 
 house in order, which had been in great confusion, and 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 61 
 
 brought his hands by degrees to mind their business and 
 to do it better. 
 
 It was an odd thing to find an Oxford scholar in the 
 situation of a bought servant. He was not more than 
 eighteen years of age, and gave me this account of him-5 
 self; that he was born in Gloucester, educated at a gram 
 mar-school there, had been distinguished among the 
 scholars for some apparent superiority in performing his 
 part, when they exhibited plays; belonged to the Witty 
 Club there, and had written some pieces in prose and 10 
 verse, which were printed in the Gloucester newspapers; 
 thence he was sent to Oxford; where he continued about 
 a year, but not well satisfied, wishing of all things to 
 see London, and become a player. At length, receiving 
 his quarterly allowance of fifteen guineas, instead of dis-15 
 charging his debts he walked out of town, hid his gown 
 in a furze bush, and footed it to London, where, having 
 no friend to advise him, he fell into bad company, soon 
 spent his guineas, found no means of being introduced 
 among the players, grew necessitous, pawned his clothes, 20 
 and wanted bread. Walking the street very hungry, 
 and not knowing what to do with himself, a crimp s 
 bill was put into his hand, offering immediate entertain 
 ment and encouragement to such as would bind them 
 selves to serve in America. He went directly, signed the-25 
 indentures, was put into the ship, and came over, never 
 writing a line to acquaint his friends what was become 
 of him. He was lively, witty, good-natured, and a pleas 
 ant companion, but idle, thoughtless, and imprudent to 
 the last degree. 30 
 
 John, the Irishman, soon ran away; with the rest I 
 began to live very agreeably, for they all respected me 
 the more, as they found Keimer incapable of instructing 
 them, and that from me they learned something daily. 
 
62 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 We never worked on Saturday, that being Keimer s Sab 
 bath, so I had two days for reading. My acquaintance 
 with ingenious people in the town increased. Keimer 
 himself treated me with great civility and apparent regard, 
 Band nothing now made me uneasy but my debt to Vernon, 
 which I was yet unable to pay, being hitherto but a poor 
 economist. He, however, kindly made no demand of it. 
 Our printing-house often wanted sorts, and there was 
 no letter-founder in America; I had seen types cast at 
 
 lOjames s in London, but without much attention to the 
 manner; however, I now contrived a mould, made use of 
 the letters we had as puncheons, struck the matrices in 
 lead, and thus supplied in a pretty tolerable way all defi 
 ciencies. I also engraved several things on occasion ; I 
 
 15made the ink; I was warehouseman, and everything, and, 
 in short, quite a factotum. 
 
 But, however serviceable I might be, I found that my 
 services became every day of less importance, as the 
 other hands improved in the business; and, when Keimer 
 
 20paid my second quarter s wages, he let me know that he 
 felt them too heavy, and thought I should make an abate 
 ment. He grew by degrees less civil, put on more of the 
 master, frequently found fault, was captious, and seemed 
 ready for an outbreaking. I went on, nevertheless, with 
 
 25a good deal of patience, thinking that his encumbered 
 circumstances were partly the cause. At length a trifle 
 snapped our connections ; for, a great noise happening near 
 the court-house, I put my head out of the window to see 
 what was the matter. Keimer, being in the street, looked 
 
 30up and saw me, called out to me in a loud voice and 
 angry tone to mind my business, adding some reproach 
 ful words, that nettled me the more for their publicity, all 
 the neighbors who were looking out on the same occasion 
 being witnesses how I was treated. He came up imme- 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 63 
 
 diately into the printing-house, continued the quarrel, 
 high words passed on both sides, he gave me the quarter s 
 warning we had stipulated, expressing a wish that he had 
 not been obliged to so long a warning. I told him his 
 wish was unnecessary, for I would leave him that in-5 
 stant; and so, taking my hat, walked out of doors, desir 
 ing Meredith, whom I saw below, to take care of some 
 things I left, and bring them to my lodgings. 
 
 Meredith came accordingly in the evening, when we 
 talked my affair over. He had conceived a great regard 10 
 for me, and was very unwilling that I should leave the 
 house while he remained in it. He dissuaded me from 
 returning to my native country, which I began to think 
 of; he reminded me that Keimer was in debt for all he 
 possessed; that his creditors began to be uneasy; thatlS 
 he kept his shop miserably, sold often without profit for 
 ready money, and often trusted without keeping accounts ; 
 that he must therefore fail, which would make a vacancy 
 I might profit of. I objected my want of money. He 
 then let me know that his father had a high opinion of20 
 me, and, from some discourse that had passed between 
 them, he was sure would advance money to set us up, if 
 I would enter into partnership with him. " My time," 
 says he, " will be out with Keimer in the spring ; by that 
 time we may have our press and types in from London. 2 5 
 I am sensible I am no workman ; if you like it, your skill 
 in the business shall be set against the stock I furnish, 
 and we will share the profits equally." 
 
 The proposal was agreeable, and I consented; his 
 father was in town and approved of it; the more as he30 
 saw I had great influence with his son, had prevailed on 
 him to abstain long from dram-drinking, and he hoped 
 might break him of that wretched habit entirely, when 
 we came to be so closely connected. I gave an inventory 
 
64 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 to the father, who carried it to a merchant; the things 
 were sent for, the secret was to be kept till they should 
 arrive, and in the meantime I was to get work, if I could, 
 at the other printing-house. But I found no vacancy 
 5there, and so remained idle a few days, when Keimer, on 
 a prospect of being employed to print some paper money 
 in New Jersey, which would require cuts and various 
 types that I only could supply, and apprehending Brad 
 ford might engage me and get the job from him, sent me a 
 
 lOvery civil message, that old friends should not part for 
 a few words, the effect of sudden passion, and wishing 
 me to return. Meredith persuaded me to comply, as it 
 would give more opportunity for his improvement under 
 my daily instructions ; so I returned, and we went on more 
 
 ISsmoothly than for some time before. The New Jersey 
 job was obtained, I contrived a copperplate press for it, 
 the first that had been seen in the country; I cut several 
 ornaments and checks for the bills. We went together 
 to Burlington, where I executed the whole to satisfaction ; 
 
 20and he received so large a sum for the work as to be 
 enabled thereby to keep his head much longer above 
 water. 
 
 At Burlington I made an acquaintance with many 
 principal people of the province. Several of them had 
 
 25been appointed by the Assembly a committee to attend 
 the press, and take care that no more bills were printed 
 than the law directed. They were therefore, by turns, 
 constantly with us, and generally he who attended, 
 brought with him a friend or two for company. My 
 
 SOmind having been much more improved by reading than 
 Keimer s, I suppose it was for that reason my conversation 
 seemed to be more valued. They had me to their houses, 
 introduced me to their friends, and showed me much 
 civility; while he, though the master, was a little neglected. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 65 
 
 In truth, he was an odd fish; ignorant of common life, 
 fond of rudely opposing received opinions, slovenly to 
 extreme dirtiness, enthusiastic in some points of religion, 
 and a little knavish withal. 
 
 We continued there near three months; and by thats 
 time I could reckon among my acquired friends, Judge 
 Allen, Samuel Bustill, the secretary of the Province, Isaac 
 Pearson, Joseph Cooper, and several of the Smiths, mem 
 bers of Assembly, and Isaac Decow, the surveyor-gen 
 eral. The latter was a shrewd, sagacious old man, who 10 
 told me that he began for himself, when young, by wheel 
 ing clay for the brickmakers, learned to write after he 
 was of age, carried the chain for surveyors, who taught 
 him surveying, and he had now by his industry, acquired 
 a good estate; and says he, " I foresee that you will soonis 
 work this man out of his business, and make a fortune in 
 it at Philadelphia." He had not then the least intima 
 tion of my intention to set up there or anywhere. These 
 friends were afterwards of great use to me, as I occasion 
 ally was to some of them. They all continued their re- 20 
 gard for me as long as they lived. 
 
 Before I enter upon my public appearance in business, 
 it may be well to let you know the then state of my mind 
 with regard to my principles and morals, that you may 
 see how far those influenced the future events of my life. 2 5 
 My parents had early given me religious impressions, and 
 brought me through my childhood piously in the Dissent 
 ing way. But I was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting 
 by turns of several points, as I found them disputed in 
 the different books I read, I began to doubt of Revelationso 
 itself. Some books against Deism fell into my hands; 
 they were said to be the substance of sermons preached 
 at Boyle s Lectures. It happened that they wrought an 
 effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by 
 
66 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 them ; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted 
 to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the 
 refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist. 
 My arguments perverted some others, particularly Collins 
 5and Ralph; but, each of them having afterwards wronged 
 me greatly without the least compunction, and recollect 
 ing Keith s conduct towards me (who was another free 
 thinker), and my own towards Vernon and Miss Read, 
 which at times gave me great trouble, I began to suspect 
 lOthat this doctrine, though it might be true, was not very 
 useful. My London pamphlet, which had for its motto 
 these lines of Dryden : "* f <^*-c 
 
 " Whatever is, is right. Though purblind man 
 Sees but a part o the chain, the nearest link: 
 15 His eyes not carrying to the equal beam, 
 
 That poises all above;" 
 
 and from the attributes of God, his infinite wisdom, good 
 ness and power, concluded that nothing could possibly be 
 wrong in the world, and that vice and virtue were empty 
 
 20distinctions, no such things existing, appeared now not 
 so clever a performance as I once thought it; and I 
 doubted whether some error had not insinuated itself 
 unperceived into my argument, so as to infect all that 
 followed, as is common in metaphysical reasonings. 
 
 25 I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in 
 dealings between man and man were of the utmost im 
 portance to the felicity of life; and I formed written 
 resolutions, which still remain in my journal book, to 
 practise them ever while I lived. Revelation had indeed 
 
 30no weight with me, as such; but I entertained an opinion 
 that, though certain actions might not be bad because 
 they were forbidden by it, or good because it commanded 
 them, yet probably those actions might be forbidden be 
 cause they were bad for us, or commanded because they 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 67 
 
 were beneficial to us, in their own natures, all the circum 
 stances of things considered. And this persuasion, with 
 the kind hand of Providence, or some guardian angel, or 
 accidental favorable circumstances and situations, or all 
 together, preserved me, through this dangerous time of5 
 youth, and the hazardous situations I was sometimes in 
 among strangers, remote from the eye and advice of my 
 father, without any willful gross immorality or injustice, 
 that might have been expected from my want of religion. 
 I say willful, because the instances I have mentioned had 10 
 something of necessity in them, from my youth, inexperi 
 ence, and the knavery of others. I had therefore a 
 tolerable character to begin the world with; I valued it 
 properly, and determined to preserve it. 
 
 We had not been long returned to Philadelphia beforelS 
 the new types arrived from London. We settled with 
 Keimer, and left him by his consent before he heard of it. 
 We found a house to hire near the market, and took it. 
 To lessen the rent, which was then but twenty-four 
 pounds a year, though I have since known it to let for 20 
 seventy, we took in Thomas Godfrey, a glazier, and his 
 family, who were to pay a considerable part of it to us, 
 and we to board with them. We had scarce opened our 
 letters and put our press in order, before George House, 
 an acquaintance of mine, brought a countryman to us, 25 
 whom he had met in the street inquiring for a printer. 
 All our cash was now expended in the variety of particu 
 lars we had been obliged to procure, and this country 
 man s five shillings, being our first-fruits, and coming so 
 seasonably, gave me more pleasure than any crown I have 30 
 since earned; and the gratitude I felt toward House has 
 made me often more ready than perhaps I should other 
 wise have been to assist young beginners. 
 
 There are croakers in every country, always boding its 
 
68 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 ruin. Such a one then lived in Philadelphia; a person 
 of note, an elderly man, with a wise look and a very 
 grave manner of speaking; his name was Samuel Mickle. 
 This gentleman, a stranger to me, stopped one day at my 
 5 door, and asked me if I was -the young man who had 
 lately opened a new printing-house. Being answered in 
 the affirmative, he said he was sorry for me, because it 
 was an expensive undertaking, and the expense would be 
 lost; for Philadelphia was a sinking place, the people 
 
 lOalready half bankrupts, or near being so; all appearances 
 to the contrary, such as new buildings and the rise of 
 rents, being to his certain knowledge fallacious; for they 
 were, in fact, among the things that would soon ruin us. 
 And he gave me such a detail of misfortunes now existing, 
 
 15or that were soon to exist, that he left me half melancholy. 
 Had I known him before I engaged in this business, 
 probably I never should have done it. This man con 
 tinued to live in this decaying place, and to declaim in 
 the same strain, refusing for many years to buy a house 
 
 20there, because all was going to destruction ; and at last I 
 had the pleasure of seeing him give five times as much for 
 one as he might have bought it for when he first began 
 his croaking. 
 
 I should have mentioned before, that, in the autumn of 
 
 25the preceding year, I had formed most of my ingenious 
 acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement, which 
 we called the JUNTO; we met on Friday evenings. The 
 rules that I drew up required that every member, in his 
 turn, should produce one or more queries on any point 
 
 30of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy, to be discussed 
 by the company; and once in three months produce and 
 read an essay of his own writing, on any subject he 
 pleased. Our debates were to be under the direction of 
 a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 69 
 
 inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire 
 of victory; and, to prevent warmth, all expressions of 
 positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were 
 after some time made contraband, and prohibited under 
 small pecuniary penalties. 5 
 
 The first members were Joseph Brientnal, a copyer of 
 deeds for the scriveners, a good-natured, friendly middle- 
 aged man, a great lover of poetry, reading all he could 
 meet with, and writing some that was tolerable; very 
 ingenious in many little Nicknackeries, and of sensible 10 
 conversation. 
 
 Thomas Godfrey, a self-taught mathematician, great in 
 his way, and afterward inventor of what is now called 
 Hadley s Quadrant. But he knew little out of his way, 
 and was not a pleasing companion; as like most great 15 
 mathematicians I have met with, he expected universal 
 precision in everything said, or was forever denying or 
 distinguishing upon trifles, to the disturbance of all con 
 versation. He soon left us. 
 
 Nicholas Scull, a surveyor, afterwards surveyor-gen- 20 
 eral, who loved books, and sometimes made a few verses. 
 
 William Parsons, bred a shoemaker, but, loving read 
 ing, had acquired a considerable share of mathematics, 
 which he first studied with a view to astrology, that he 
 afterward laughed at it. He also became surveyor-25 
 general. 
 
 William Maugridge, a joiner, a most exquisite mechanic, 
 and a solid, sensible man. 
 
 Hugh Meredith, Stephen Potts, and George Webb I 
 have characterized before. 30 
 
 Robert Grace, a young gentleman of some fortune, 
 generous, lively, and witty; a lover of punning and of 
 his friends. 
 
 And William Coleman, then a merchant s clerk, about 
 
70 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 my age, who had the coolest, clearest head, the best 
 heart, and the exactest morals of almost any man I ever 
 met with. He became afterwards a merchant of great 
 note, and one of our provincial judges. Our friendship 
 Bcontinued without interruption to his death, upwards of 
 forty years; and the club continued almost as long, and 
 was the best school of philosophy, morality, and politics 
 that then existed in the province; for our queries, which 
 were read the week preceding their discussion, put us 
 
 lOupon reading with attention upon the several subjects, 
 that we might speak more to the purpose; and here, too, 
 we acquired better habits of conversation, everything 
 being studied in our rules which might prevent our dis 
 gusting each other. From hence the long continuance of 
 
 15the club, which I shall have frequent occasion to speak 
 further of hereafter. 
 
 But my giving this account of it here is to show some 
 thing of the interest I had, everyone of these exerting 
 themselves in recommending business to us. Breintnal 
 
 20particularly procured us from the Quakers the printing 
 forty sheets of their history, the rest being to be done by 
 Keimer; and upon this we worked exceedingly hard, for 
 the price was low. It was a folio, pro patria size, in pica, 
 with long primer notes. I composed of it a sheet a day. 
 
 25and Meredith worked it off at press; it was often eleven at 
 night, and sometimes later, before I had finished my dis 
 tribution for the next day s work, for the little jobs sent in 
 by our other friends now and then put us back. But so 
 determined I was to continue doing a sheet a day of the 
 
 SOfolio, that one night, when, having imposed my forms, 
 I thought my day s work over, one of them by accident 
 was broken, and two pages reduced to pi, I immediately 
 distributed and composed it over again before I went to 
 bed; and this industry, visible to our neighbors, began 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 71 
 
 to give us character and credit; particularly, I was told, 
 that mention being made of the new printing-office at the 
 merchants Every-night club, the general opinion was 
 that it must fail, there being already two printers in the 
 place, Keimer and Bradford; but Dr. Baird (whom you5 
 and I saw many years after at his native place, St. An 
 drew s in Scotland) gave a contrary opinion: "For the 
 industry of that Franklin," says he, " is superior to any 
 thing I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at work 
 when I go home from club, and he is at work again be- 10 
 fore his neighbors are out of bed." This struck the rest, 
 and we soon after had offers from one of them to supply 
 us with stationery ; but as yet we did not choose to engage 
 in shop business. 
 
 I mention this industry the more particularly and the 15 
 more freely, though it seems to be talking in my own praise, 
 that those of my posterity, who shall read it, may know 
 the use of that virtue, when they see its effects in my 
 favor throughout this relation. 
 
 George Webb, who had found a female friend that Ient20 
 him wherewith to purchase his time of Keimer, now 
 came to offer himself as a journeyman to us. We could 
 not then employ him; but I foolishly let him know as a 
 secret that I soon intended to begin a newspaper, and might 
 then have work for him. My hopes of success, as I told 25 
 him, were founded on this, that the then only newspaper, 
 printed by Bradford, was a paltry thing, wretchedly 
 managed, no way entertaining, and yet was profitable to 
 him ; I therefore thought a good paper would scarcely 
 fail of good encouragement. I requested Webb not to 30 
 mention it; but he told it to Keimer, who immediately, 
 to be beforehand with me, published proposals for print 
 ing one himself, on which Webb was to be employed. I 
 resented this; and, to counteract them, as I could not 
 
72 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 yet begin our paper, I wrote several pieces of entertain 
 ment for Bradford s paper, under the title of the BUSY 
 BODY, which Breintnal continued some months. By 
 this means the attention of the public was fixed on that 
 5paper, and Keimer s proposals, which we burlesqued and 
 ridiculed, were disregarded. He began his paper, how 
 ever, and, after carrying it on three-quarters of a year, 
 with at most only ninety subscribers, he offered it to me 
 for a trifle; and I, having been ready some time to go 
 
 lOon with it, took it in hand directly; and it proved in a 
 few years extremely profitable to me. 
 
 I perceive that I am apt to speak in the singular num 
 ber, though our partnership still continued ; the reason may 
 be that, in fact, the whole management of the business 
 
 islay upon me. Meredith was no compositor, a poor press 
 man, and seldom sober. My friends lamented my con 
 nection with him, but I was to make the best of it. 
 
 Our first papers made a quite different appearance from 
 any before in the province; a better type, and better 
 
 20printed; but some spirited remarks of my writing, on the 
 dispute then going on between Governor Burnet and the 
 Massachusetts Assembly, struck the principal people, oc 
 casioned the paper and the manager of it to be much talked 
 of, and in a few weeks brought them all to be our sub- 
 
 25scribers. 
 
 Their example was followed by many, and our number 
 went on growing continually. This was one of the first 
 good effects of my having learned a little to scribble; an 
 other was, that the leading men, seeing a newspaper now 
 
 30i*n the hands of one who could also handle a pen, thought it 
 convenient to oblige and encourage me. Bradford still 
 printed the votes, and laws, and other public business. 
 He had printed an address of the House to the governor, 
 in a coarse, blundering manner; we reprinted it elegantly 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 73 
 
 an4 correctly, and sent one to every member. They 
 were sensible of the difference: it strengthened the hands 
 of our friends in the House, and they voted us their print 
 ers for the year ensuing. 
 
 Among my friends in the House I must not forget 5 
 Mr. Hamilton, before mentioned, who was then returned 
 from England, and had a seat in it. He interested 
 himself for me strongly in that instance, as he did in 
 many others afterward, continuing his patronage till his 
 death. 10 
 
 Mr. Vernon, about this time, put me in mind of the 
 debt I owed him, but did not press me. I wrote him an 
 ingenuous letter of acknowledgment, craved his forbear 
 ance a little longer, which he allowed me, and as soon as 
 I was able, I paid the principal with interest, and manylS 
 thanks; so that erratum was in some degree corrected. 
 
 But now another difficulty came upon me which I had 
 never the least reason to expect. Mr. Meredith s father, 
 who was to have paid for our printing-house, according 
 to the expectations given me, was able to advance only 20 
 one hundred pounds currency, which had been paid ; 
 and a hundred more was due to the merchant, who grew 
 impatient, and sued us all. We gave bail, but saw that, 
 if the money could not be raised in time, the suit must 
 soon come to a judgment and execution, and our hope- 25 
 ful prospects must, with us, be ruined, as the press and 
 letters must be sold for payment, perhaps at half price. 
 
 In this distress two true friends, whose kindness I 
 have never forgotten nor ever shall forget while I can 
 remember anything, came to me separately, unknown to 30 
 each other, and, without any application from me, offer 
 ing each of them to advance me all the money that should 
 be necessary to enable me to take the whole business upon 
 myself, if that should be practicable; but they did not 
 
74 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 like my continuing the partnership with Meredith, who, 
 as they said, was often seen drunk in the streets, and 
 playing at low games in alehouses, much to our discredit. 
 These two friends were William Coleman and Robert 
 5 Grace. I told them I could not propose a separation 
 while any prospect remained of the Merediths fulfilling 
 their part of our agreement, because I thought myself 
 under great obligations to them for what they had done, 
 and would do if they could; but, if they finally failed in 
 
 lOtheir performance, and our partnership must be dissolved, 
 I should then think myself at liberty to accept the assist 
 ance of my friends. 
 
 Thus the matter rested for some time, when I said to 
 my partner, " Perhaps your father is dissatisfied at the 
 
 15part you have undertaken in this affair of ours, and is un 
 willing to advance for you and me what he would for you 
 alone. If that is the case, tell me, and I will resign the 
 whole to you, and go about my business." " No," said 
 he, " my father has really been disappointed, and is really 
 
 20unable; and I am unwilling to distress him farther. I see 
 this is a business I am not fit for. I was bred a farmer, 
 and it was a folly in me to come to town, and put myself, 
 at thirty years of age, an apprentice to learn a new trade. 
 Many of our Welsh people are going to settle in North 
 
 25Carolina, where land is cheap. I am inclined to go with 
 them, and follow my old employment. You may find 
 friends to assist you. If you will take the debts of the 
 company upon you; return to my father the hundred 
 pounds he has advanced ; pay my little personal debts, 
 
 30and give me thirty pounds and a new saddle, I will re 
 linquish the partnership, and leave the whole in your 
 hands." I agreed to this proposal; it was drawn up in 
 writing, signed, and sealed immediately. I gave him 
 what he demanded, and he went soon after to Carolina, 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 75 
 
 from whence he sent me next year two long letters, con 
 taining the best account that had been given of that coun 
 try, the climate, the soil, husbandry, etc., for in those 
 matters he was very judicious. I printed them in the 
 papers, and they gave great satisfaction to the public. 5 
 
 As soon as he was gone, I recurred to my two friends; 
 and because I would not give an unkind preference to 
 either, I took half of what each had offered and I wanted 
 of one, and half of the other; paid off the company s debts, 
 and went on with the business in my own name, advertis-10 
 ing that the partnership was dissolved. I think this was 
 in or about the year 1729. 
 
 VIII 
 
 BUSINESS SUCCESS AND FIRST PUBLIC 
 SERVICE 
 
 ABOUT this time there was a cry among the people for 
 more paper money, only fifteen thousand pounds being 
 extant in the province, and that soon to be sunk. Thei5 
 wealthy inhabitants opposed any addition, being against 
 all paper currency, from an apprehension that it would 
 depreciate, as it had done in New England, to the prej 
 udice of all creditors. We had discussed this point in 
 our Junto, where I was on the side of an addition, being20 
 persuaded that the first small sum struck in 1723 had 
 done much good by increasing the trade, employment, 
 and number of inhabitants in the province, since I now 
 saw all the old houses inhabited, and many new ones 
 building: whereas I remembered well, that when I first25 
 walked about the streets of Philadelphia, eating my roll, 
 I saw most of the houses in Walnut Street, between 
 Second and Front Streets, with bills on their doors, " To 
 
76 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 be let ; " and many likewise in Chestnut Street and othej 
 streets, which made me then think the inhabitants of the 
 city were deserting it one after another. 
 
 Our debates possessed me so fully of the subject, that 
 6l wrote and printed an anonymous pamphlet on it, 
 entitled The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Cur- 
 rency. It was well received by the common people in 
 general; but the rich men disliked it, for it increased and 
 strengthened the clamor for more money, and they hap- 
 
 lOpening to have no writers among them that were able 
 to answer it, their opposition slackened, and the point 
 was carried by a majority in the House. My friends 
 there, who conceived I had been of some service, thought 
 fit to reward me by employing me in printing the money; 
 
 15a very profitable job and a great help to me. This was 
 another advantage gained by my being able to write. 
 
 The utility of this currency became by time and expe 
 rience so evident as never afterwards to be much dis 
 puted ; so that it grew soon to fifty-five thousand pounds, 
 
 20and in 1739 to eighty thousand pounds, since which it 
 arose during war to upwards of three hundred and fifty 
 thousand pounds, trade, building, and inhabitants all the 
 while increasing, though I now think there are limits 
 beyond which the quantity may be hurtful. 
 
 25 I soon after obtained, through my friend Hamilton, the 
 printing of the Newcastle paper money, another profit 
 able job as I then thought it; small things appearing 
 great to those in small circumstances; and these, to me, 
 were really great advantages, as they were great encour- 
 
 SOagements. He procured for me, also, the printing of 
 the laws and votes of that government, which continued 
 in my hands as long as I followed the business. 
 
 I now opened a little stationer s shop. I had in it 
 blanks of all sorts, the correctest that ever appeared 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 77 
 
 among us, being assisted in that by my friend Breintnal. 
 I had also paper, parchment, chapmen s books, etc. One 
 Whitemash, a compositor I had known in London, an 
 excellent workman, now came to me, and worked with 
 me constantly and diligently; and I took an apprentice^ 
 the son of Aquila Rose. 
 
 I began now gradually to pay off the debt I was under 
 for the printing-house. In order to secure my credit and 
 character as a tradesman, I took care not only to be in 
 reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearancesio 
 to the contrary. I dressed plainly ; I was seen at no places 
 of idle diversion. I never went out a fishing or shooting ; 
 a book, indeed, sometimes debauched me from my work, 
 but that was seldom, snug, and gave no scandal; and, to 
 show that I was not above my business, I sometimes 15 
 brought home the paper I purchased at the stores through 
 the streets on a wheelbarrow. Thus being esteemed an 
 industrious, thriving young man, and paying duly for what 
 I bought, the merchants who imported stationery solicited 
 my custom; others proposed supplying me with books, 20 
 and I went on swimmingly. In the meantime, Keimer s 
 credit and business declining daily, he was at last forced 
 to sell his printing-house to satisfy his creditors. He 
 went to Barbadoes, and there lived some years in very 
 poor circumstances. 25 
 
 His apprentice, David Harry, whom I had instructed 
 while I worked with him, set up in his place at Philadel 
 phia, having bought his materials. I was at first appre 
 hensive of a powerful rival in Harry, as his friends were 
 very able, and had a good deal of interest. I thereforeso 
 proposed a partnership to him, which he, fortunately for 
 me, rejected with scorn. He was very proud, dressed like 
 a gentleman, lived expensively, took much diversion and 
 pleasure abroad, ran in debt, and neglected his business; 
 
78 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 upon which, all business left him; and, finding nothing 
 to do, he followed Keimer to Barbadoes, taking the print 
 ing-house with him. There this apprentice employed 
 his former master as a journeyman ; they quarrelled often ; 
 5 Harry went continually behindhand, and at length was 
 forced to sell his types and return to his country work in 
 Pennsylvania. The person that bought them employed 
 Keimer to use them, but in a few years he died. 
 
 There remained now no competitor with me at Phila- 
 
 lOdelphia but the old one, Bradford ; who was rich and 
 easy, did a little printing now and then by straggling 
 hands, but was not very anxious about the business. 
 However, as he kept the post-office, it was imagined he 
 had better opportunities of obtaining news; his paper 
 
 15was thought a better distributer of advertisements than 
 mine, and therefore had many more, which was a profit 
 able thing to him, and a disadvantage to me; for, though 
 I did indeed receive and send papers by the post, yet the 
 public opinion was otherwise, for what I did send 
 
 20was by bribing the riders, who took them privately, 
 Bradford being unkind enough to forbid it, which occa 
 sioned some resentment on my part; and I thought so 
 meanly of him for it, that, when I afterw r ard came into his 
 situation, I took care never to imitate it. 
 
 25 I had hitherto continued to board with Godfrey, who 
 lived in part of my house with his wife and children, and 
 had one side of the shop for his glazier s business, though 
 he worked little, being always absorbed in his mathematics. 
 Mrs. Godfrey projected a match for me with a relation s 
 
 SOdaughter, took opportunities of bringing us often together, 
 till a serious courtship on my part ensued, the girl being 
 in herself very deserving. The old folks encouraged me 
 by continual invitations to supper, and by leaving us to 
 gether, till at length it was time to explain. Mrs. God- 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 79 
 
 frey managed our little treaty. I let her know that I ex 
 pected as much money with their daughter as would pay 
 off my remaining debt for the printing-house, which I 
 believe was not then above a hundred pounds. She 
 brought me word they had no such sum to spare; I said 5 
 they might mortgage their house in the loan-office. The 
 answer to this, after some days, was, that they did not 
 approve the match; that, on inquiry of Bradford, they 
 had been informed the printing business was not a profit 
 able one; the types would soon be worn out, and morelO 
 wanted ; that S. Keimer and D. Harry had failed one 
 after the other, and I should probably soon follow them; 
 and, therefore, I was forbidden the house, and the daugh 
 ter shut up. 
 
 Whether this was a real change of sentiment or onlylS 
 artifice, on a supposition of our being too far engaged in 
 affection to retract, and therefore that we should steal a 
 marriage, which would leave them at liberty to give or 
 withhold what they pleased, I know not; but I suspected 
 the latter, resented it, and went no more. Mrs. Godfrey 20 
 brought me afterward some more favorable accounts of 
 their disposition, and would have drawn me on again; 
 but I declared absolutely my resolution to have nothing 
 more to do with that family. This was resented by the 
 Godfreys; we differed, and they removed, leaving me the25 
 whole house, and I resolved to take no more inmates. 
 
 But this affair having turned my thoughts to marriage, 
 I looked round me and made overtures of acquaintance in 
 other places ; but soon found that, the business of a printer 
 being generally thought a poor one, I was not to expect 30 
 money with a wife, unless with such a one as I should 
 not otherwise think agreeable. A friendly correspond 
 ence as neighbors and old acquaintances had continued 
 between me and Mrs. Read s family, who all had a re^ 
 
80 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 gard for me from the time of my first lodging in their 
 house. I was often invited there and consulted in their 
 affairs, wherein I sometimes was of service. I pitied 
 poor Miss Read s unfortunate situation, who was gen- 
 5erally dejected, seldom cheerful, and avoided company. 
 I considered my giddiness and inconstancy when in Lon 
 don as in a great degree the cause of her unhappiness, 
 though the mother was good enough to think the fault 
 more her own than mine, as she had prevented our 
 
 lOmarrying before I went thither, and persuaded the other 
 match in my absence. Our mutual affection was revived, 
 but there were now great objections to our union. The 
 match was indeed looked upon as invalid, a preceding 
 wife being said to be living in England ; but this could not 
 
 ISeasily be proved, because of the distance; and, though 
 there was a report of his death, it was not certain. Then, 
 though it should be true, he had left many debts, which 
 his successor might be called upon to pay. We ventured, 
 however, over all these difficulties, and I took her to wife 
 
 20September 1st, 1730. None of the inconveniences hap 
 pened that we had apprehended ; she proved a good 
 and faithful helpmate, assisted me much by attending the 
 shop ; we throve together, and have ever mutually en 
 deavored to make each other happy. Thus I corrected 
 
 2 5 that great erratum as well as I could. 
 
 About this time, our club meeting, not at a tavern, but 
 in a little room of Mr. Grace s, set apart for that purpose, 
 a proposition was made by me, that, since our books 
 were often referred to in our disquisitions upon the 
 
 SOqueries, it might be convenient to us to have them alto 
 gether where we met, that upon occasion they might be 
 consulted; and by thus clubbing our books to a common 
 library, we should, while we liked to keep them together, 
 have each of us the advantage of using the books of all 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 8 1 
 
 the other members, which would be nearly as beneficial 
 as if each owned the whole. It was liked and agreed to, 
 and we filled one end of the room with such books as we 
 could best spare. The number was not so great as we 
 expected; and though they had been of great use, yet5 
 ome inconveniences occurring for want of due care of 
 them, the collection, after about a year, was separated, 
 and each took his books home again. 
 
 And now I set on foot my first project of a public 
 nature, that for a subscription library. I drew up the 10 
 proposals, got them put into form by our great scrivener, 
 Brockden, and, by the help of my friends in the Junto, 
 procured fifty subscribers of forty shillings each to begin 
 with, and ten shillings a year for fifty years, the term our 
 company was to continue. We afterwards obtained al5 
 charter, the company being increased to one hundred; 
 this was the mother of all the North American subscrip 
 tion libraries, now so numerous. It is become a great 
 thing itself, and continually increasing. These libraries 
 have improved the general conversation of the Americans, 20 
 made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent 
 as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps 
 have contributed in some degree to the stand so gen 
 erally made throughout the colonies in defense of their 
 privileges. 25 
 
 Mem . Thus far was written with the intention ex 
 pressed in the beginning and therefore contains several 
 little family anecdotes of no importance to others. What 
 follows was written many years after. The affairs of 
 the Revolution occasioned the interruption. 30 
 
 [Continuation of the Account of my Life, begun at Passy, 
 near Paris, 1784.] 
 
 It is some time since I received the above letters [two 
 
82 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 letters omitted in this edition], but I have been too 
 
 busy till now to think of complying with the request 
 
 they contain. It might, too, be much better done if I 
 
 were at home among my papers, which would aid my 
 
 Bmemory, and help to ascertain dates; but my return being 
 
 uncertain, and having just now a little leisure, I will 
 
 endeavor to recollect and write what I can; if I live to 
 
 get home, it may there be corrected and improved. 
 
 Not having any copy here of what is already written, I 
 
 loknow not whether an account is given of the means I 
 used to establish the Philadelphia public library, which, 
 from a small beginning, is now become so considerable, 
 though I remember to have come down to near the time 
 of that transaction (1730). I will therefore begin here 
 
 15with an account of it, which may be struck out if found 
 to have been already given. 
 
 At the time I established myself in Pennsylvania, there 
 was not a good bookseller s shop in any of the colonies 
 to the southward of Boston. In New York and Philadel- 
 
 20phia the printers were indeed stationers; they sold only 
 paper, etc., almanacs, ballads, and a few common school- 
 books. Those who loved reading were obliged to send 
 for their books from England ; the members of the Junto 
 had each a few. We had left the alehouse, where we 
 
 25first met, and hired a room to hold our club in. I pro 
 posed that we should all of us bring our books to that 
 room, where they would not only be ready to consult in 
 our conferences, but become a common benefit, each of 
 us being at liberty to borrow such as he wished to read 
 
 30at home. This was accordingly done, and for some 
 time contented us. 
 
 Finding the advantage of this little collection, I pro 
 posed to render the benefit from books more common, 
 by commencing a public subscription library. I drew 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 83 
 
 a sketch of the plan and rules that would be necessary, 
 and got a skilful conveyancer, Mr. Charles Brockden, 
 to put the whole in form of articles of agreement to be 
 subscribed, by which each subscriber engaged to pay a 
 certain sum down for the first purchase of books, and an 5 
 annual contribution for increasing them. So few were 
 the readers at that time in Philadelphia, and the ma 
 jority of us so poor, that I was not able, with great 
 industry, to find more than fifty persons, mostly young 
 tradesmen, willing to pay down for this purpose forty 10 
 shillings each, and ten shillings per annum. On this 
 little fund we began. The books were imported; the 
 library was opened one day in the week for lending to 
 the subscribers, on their promissory notes to pay double 
 the value if not duly returned. The institution soon 15 
 manifested its utility, was imitated by other towns, and 
 in other provinces. The libraries were augmented by 
 donations; reading became fashionable; and our people, 
 having no public amusements to divert their attention 
 from study, became better acquainted with books, and in 20 
 a few years were observed by strangers to be better 
 instructed and more intelligent than people of the same 
 rank generally are in other countries. 
 
 When we were about to sign the above-mentioned arti 
 cles, which were to be binding on us, our heirs, etc., for25 
 fifty years, Mr. Brockden, the scrivener, said to us, 
 " You are young men, but it is scarcely probable that 
 any of you will live to see the expiration of the term 
 fixed in the instrument." A number of us, however, are 
 yet living; but the instrument was after a few yearsso 
 rendered null by a charter that incorporated and gave 
 perpetuity to the company. 
 
 The objections and reluctances I met with in soliciting 
 the subscriptions, made me soon feel the impropriety of 
 
84 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 presenting one s self as the proposer of any useful proj 
 ect, that might be supposed to raise one s reputation in 
 the smallest degree above that of one s neighbors, when 
 one has need of their assistance to accomplish that proj- 
 5ect. I therefore put myself as much as I could out of 
 sight, and stated it as a scheme of a number of friends, 
 who had requested me to go about and propose it to such 
 as they thought lovers of reading. In this way my affair 
 went on more smoothly, and I ever after practised it on 
 
 lOsuch occasions; and, from my frequent successes, can 
 heartily recommend it. The present little sacrifice of 
 your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid. If it re- 
 main a while uncertain to whom the merit belongs, 
 someone more vain than yourself will be encouraged to 
 
 Hclaim it, and then even envy will be disposed to do you 
 justice by plucking those assumed feathers, and restoring 
 them to their right owner. 
 
 This library afforded me the means of improvement by 
 constant study, for which I set apart an hour or two each 
 
 EOday, and thus repaired in some degree the loss of the 
 learned education my father once intended for me. 
 Reading was the only amusement I allowed myself. I 
 spent no time in taverns, games, or frolics of any kind; 
 and my industry in my business continued as indefatiga- 
 
 J5ble as it was necessary. I was indebted for my printing- 
 house; I had a young family coming on to be educated, 
 and I had to contend for business with two printers, who 
 were established in the place before me. My circum 
 stances, however, grew daily easier. My original habits 
 
 |0of frugality continuing, and my father having, among his 
 instructions to me when a boy, frequently repeated a prov 
 erb of Solomon, " Seest thou a man diligent in his call 
 ing, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before 
 mean men," I from thence considered industry as a means 
 of obtaining wealth and distinction, which encouraged me 2 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 85 
 
 though I did not think that I should ever literally stand 
 before kings, which, however, has since happened; for I 
 have stood before five, and even had the honor of sit 
 ting down with one, the King of Denmark, to dinner. 
 
 We have an English proverb that says, " He that wouldS 
 thrive, must ask his wife." It was lucky for me that I 
 had one as much disposed to industry and frugality as my 
 self. She assisted me cheerfully in my business, folding 
 and stitching pamphlets, tending shop, purchasing old 
 linen rags for the paper-makers, etc., etc. We kept no 10 
 idle servants, our table was plain and simple, our furni 
 ture of the cheapest. For instance, my breakfast was a 
 long time bread and milk (no tea), and I ate it out of a 
 twopenny earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon. But 
 mark how luxury will enter families, and make a progress, 15 
 in spite of principle; being called one morning to break 
 fast, I found it in a china bowl, with a spoon of silver! 
 They had been bought for me without my knowledge by 
 my wife, and had cost her the enormous sum of three-and- 
 twenty shillings, for which she had no other excuse or 20 
 apology to make, but that she thought her husband de 
 served a silver spoon and china bowl as well as any of his 
 neighbors. This was the first appearance of plate and 
 china in our house, which afterward, in a course of years, 
 as our wealth increased, augmented gradually to several 25 
 hundred pounds in value. 
 
 I had been religiously educated as a Presbyterian; and 
 though some of the dogmas of that persuasion, such as the 
 eternal decrees of God, election, reprobation, etc., appeared 
 to me unintelligible, others doubtful, and I early absented 30 
 myself from the public assemblies of the sect, Sunday being 
 my studying day, I never was without some religious prin 
 ciples. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of 
 the Deity; that he made the world, and governed it by 
 his Providence; that the most acceptable service of God 
 
86 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; 
 and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, 
 either here or hereafter. These I esteemed the essentials 
 of every religion; and, being to be found in all the reli- 
 Bgions we had in our country, I respected them all, though 
 with different degrees of respect, as I found them more 
 or less mixed with other articles, which, without any tend 
 ency to inspire, promote, or confirm morality, served 
 principally to divide us, and make us unfriendly to one 
 
 lOanother. This respect to all, with an opinion that the 
 worst had some good effects, induced me to avoid all 
 discourse that might tend to lessen the good opinion 
 another might have of his own religion ; and as our prov 
 ince increased in people, and new places of worship were 
 
 15continually wanted, and generally erected by voluntary 
 contribution, my mite for such purpose, whatever might 
 be the sect, was never refused. 
 
 Though I seldom attended any public worship, I had 
 still an opinion of its propriety, and of its utility when 
 
 2orightly conducted, and I regularly paid my annual sub 
 scription for the support of the only Presbyterian min 
 ister or meeting we had in Philadelphia. He used to 
 visit me sometimes as a friend, and admonish me to at 
 tend his administrations, and I was now and then prevailed 
 
 25on to do so, once for five Sundays successively. Had he 
 been in my opinion a good preacher, perhaps I might 
 have continued, notwithstanding the occasion I had for 
 the Sunday s leisure in my course of study; but his dis 
 courses were chiefly either polemic arguments, or explica- 
 
 BOtions of the peculiar doctrines of our sect, and were all to 
 me very dry, uninteresting, and unedifying, since not a 
 single moral principle was inculcated or enforced, their 
 aim seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians than 
 good citizens. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 87 
 
 At length he took for his text that verse of the fourth 
 chapter of Philippians, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever 
 things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good re 
 port, if there be any virtue, or any praise, think on these 
 things." And I imagined, in a sermon on such a text, 5 
 we could not miss of having some morality. But he 
 confined himself to five points only, as meant by the apostle, 
 viz.: I. Keeping holy the Sabbath day. 2. Being dili 
 gent in reading the holy Scriptures. 3. Attending duly 
 the public worship. 4. Partaking of the Sacrament. 5.10 
 Paying a due respect to God s ministers. These might 
 be all good things; but, as they were not the kind of good 
 things that I expected from that text, I despaired of ever 
 meeting with them from any other, was disgusted, and 
 attended his preaching no more. I had some years be- 15 
 fore composed a little Liturgy, or form of prayer, for my 
 own private use (viz., in 1728), entitled, Articles of Belief 
 and Acts of Religion. I returned to the use of this, and 
 went no more to the public assemblies. My conduct 
 might be blameable, but I leave it, without attempting 20 
 further to excuse it; my present purpose being to relate 
 facts, and not to make apologies for them. 
 
 IX 
 
 PLAN FOR ATTAINING MORAL PERFEC 
 TION 
 
 IT was about this time I conceived the bold and ar 
 duous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished 
 to live without committing any fault at any time; I would25 
 conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or 
 company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought 
 I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I 
 might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I 
 
88 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty 
 than I had imagined. While my care was employed in 
 guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by 
 another: habit took the advantage of inattention; in- 
 Bclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I con 
 cluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction 
 that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was 
 not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the con 
 trary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and 
 
 lOestablished, before we can have any dependence on a 
 steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose 
 I therefore contrived the following method. 
 
 In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had 
 met with in my reading, I found the catalogue more or 
 
 15less numerous, as different writers included more or 
 fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for ex 
 ample, was by some confined to eating and drinking, while 
 by others it was extended to mean the moderating every 
 other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or 
 
 20mental, even to our avarice and ambition. I proposed 
 to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more 
 names, with fewer ideas annexed to each, than a few 
 names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen 
 names of virtues all that at that time occurred to me 
 
 25as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short 
 precept, which fully expressed the extent I gave to its 
 meaning. 
 
 These names of virtues, with their precepts, were: 
 
 1. TEMPERANCE. 
 
 30 Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. 
 
 2. SILENCE. 
 
 Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; 
 avoid trifling conversation. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 89 
 
 3. ORDER. 
 
 Let all your things have their places; let each part of 
 your business have its time. 
 
 4. RESOLUTION. 
 
 Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without5 
 fail what you resolve. 
 
 5. FRUGALITY. 
 
 Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself ; 
 i. e. f waste nothing. 
 
 6. INDUSTRY. 10 
 Lose no time; be always employed in something use 
 ful; cut off all unnecessary actions. 
 
 7. SINCERITY. 
 
 Use no hurtful deceit ; think innocently and justly ; and, 
 if you speak, speak accordingly. 15 
 
 8. JUSTICE. 
 
 Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits 
 that are your duty. 
 
 9. MODERATION. 
 
 Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as20 
 you think they deserve. 
 
 10. CLEANLINESS. 
 
 Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation. 
 
 11. TRANQUILLITY. 
 
 Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or 2 5 
 unavoidable. 
 
 12. CHASTITY. 
 
 13. HUMILITY. 
 Imitate Jesus zni Socrates. 
 
9<3 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these 
 virtues, I judged it would be well not to distract my at 
 tention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on 
 one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of 
 5that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should 
 have gone through the thirteen; and, as the previous ac 
 quisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of cer 
 tain others, I arranged them with that view, as they 
 stand above. Te?nperance first, as it tends to procure 
 
 lOthat coolness and clearness of head, which is so nec 
 essary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, and 
 guard maintained against the unremitting attraction of 
 ancient habits, and the force of perpetual temptations. 
 This being acquired and established, Silence would be 
 
 15more easy; and my desire being to gain knowledge at 
 the same time that I improved in virtue, and considering 
 that in conversation it was obtained rather by the use of 
 the ears than of the tongue, and therefore wishing to 
 break a habit I was getting into of prattling, punning, and 
 
 20Joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling com 
 pany, I gave Silence the second place. This and the 
 next, Order, I expected would allow me more time for 
 attending to my project and my studies. Resolution, 
 once become habitual, would keep me firm in my en- 
 
 25deavors to obtain all the subsequent virtues; Frugality 
 and Industry freeing me from my remaining debt, and 
 producing affluence and independence, would make more 
 easy the practice of Sincerity and Justice, etc., etc. Con 
 ceiving then, that, agreeably to the advice of Pythagoras 
 
 30in his Golden Verses, daily examination would be neces 
 sary, I contrived the following method for conducting that 
 examination. 
 
 I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for 
 each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 9 1 
 
 as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, 
 marking each column with a letter for the day. I crossed 
 these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the begin 
 ning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, 
 on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by 5 
 a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination 
 to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that 
 day. 
 
 Form of the pages. 
 
 TEMPERANCE. 
 
 BAT NOT TO DULLNESS; 
 DRINK NOT TO ELEVATION. 
 
 
 S. 
 
 M. 
 
 T. 
 
 W. 
 
 T. 
 
 F. 
 
 S. 
 
 T. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S. 
 
 * 
 
 # 
 
 
 # 
 
 
 ft 
 
 
 o. 
 
 * * 
 
 # 
 
 * 
 
 
 * 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 R. 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 # 
 
 
 F. 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 I. 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 S. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 J. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 M. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 T. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C. 
 H. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I determined to give a week s strict attention to each 
 
92 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, ray 
 great guard was to avoid every the least offense against 
 Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary 
 chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. 
 5 Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, 
 marked T, clear of spots, I supposed the habit of that 
 virtue so much strengthened, and its opposite weakened, 
 that I might venture extending my attention to include 
 the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear 
 
 lOof spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go through 
 a course complete in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a 
 year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, 
 does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, 
 which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works 
 
 I5on one of the beds at a time, and, having accomplished 
 the first, proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, 
 the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages the prog 
 ress I made in virtue, by clearing successively my lines 
 of their spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, I 
 
 2oshould be happy in viewing a clean book, after a thirteen 
 weeks daily examination. 
 
 This my little book had for its motto these lines from 
 Addison s Cato: 
 
 " Here will I hold. If there s a power above us 
 2 5 (And that there is, all nature cries aloud 
 
 Through all her works), He must delight in virtue; 
 And that which he delights in must be happy." 
 
 Another from Cicero: 
 
 "O vitae Philosophia dux! O virtutum indagatrix expul- 
 3Qtrixque vitiorum ! Unus dies, bene et ex praeceptis tuis actus, 
 peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus." 
 
 Another from the Proverbs of Solomon, speaking of 
 wisdom or virtue: 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 93 
 
 "Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand 
 riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all 
 her paths are peace." iii. 16, 17. 
 
 And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom, I 
 thought it right and necessary to solicit his assistance for 5 
 obtaining it; to this end I formed the following little 
 prayer, which was prefixed to my tables of examination, 
 for daily use. 
 
 " powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! 
 Increase In me that wisdom which discovers my truest Interest.^ 
 Strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom die- 
 tales. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only 
 return in my power for thy continual favors to me." 
 
 I used also sometimes a little prayer which I took from 
 Thomson s Poems, viz.: 15 
 
 "Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme! 
 O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself! 
 Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, 
 From every low pursuit; and fill my soul 
 With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; 20 
 
 Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss!" 
 
 The precept of Order requiring that every part of my 
 business should have Its allotted time, one page in my little 
 book contained the following scheme of employment for 
 the twenty-four hours of a natural day. 25 
 
 THE MORNING. 
 Question. What good 
 shall I do this day? 
 
 Rise, wash, and ad 
 dress Powerful Goodness! 
 Contrive day s business, 
 and take the resolution of 
 the day; prosecute the 30 
 present study, and break 
 fast. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 NOON. 
 
 10 
 
 EVENING. 
 
 Question. What good 
 have I have done to-day? 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 NIGHT, 
 
 Work. 
 
 Read, or overlook my 
 accounts, and dine. 
 
 Work. 
 
 Put things in their 
 places. Supper. Music 
 or diversion, or conversa 
 tion. Examination of the 
 day. 
 
 Sleep. 
 
 I entered upon the execution of this plan for self- 
 examination, and continued it with occasional intermis- 
 
 25sions for some time. I was surprised to find myself so 
 much fuller of faults than I had imagined ; but I had 
 the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. To avoid the 
 trouble of renewing now and then my little book, which 
 by scraping out the marks on the paper of old faults to 
 
 SOmake room for new ones in a new course, became full of 
 holes, I transferred my tables and precepts to the ivory 
 leaves of a memorandum book, on which the lines were 
 drawn with red ink, that made a durable stain, and on 
 those lines I marked my faults with a black-lead pencil, 
 which marks I could easily wipe out with a wet sponge. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 95 
 
 After a while I went through one course only in a year, 
 and afterward only one in several years, till at length I 
 omitted them entirely, being employed in voyages and 
 business abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs that inter 
 fered; but I always carried my little book with me. 5 
 
 My scheme of ORDER gave me the most trouble; and 
 I found that, though it might be practicable where a man s 
 business was such as to leave him the disposition of his 
 time, that of a journeyman printer, for instance, it was 
 not possible to be exactly observed by a master, who 10 
 must mix with the world, and often receive people of 
 business at their own hours. Order, too, with regard 
 to places for things, papers, etc., I found extremely dif 
 ficult to acquire. I had not been early accustomed to it, 
 and, having an exceeding good memory, I was not so!5 
 sensible of the inconvenience attending want of method. 
 This article, therefore, cost me so much painful atten 
 tion, and my faults in it vexed me so much, and I made 
 so little progress in amendment, and had such frequent 
 relapses, that I was almost ready to give up the attempt, 20 
 and content myself with a faulty character in that respect, 
 like the man who, in buying an ax of a smith, my neigh 
 bor, desired to have the whole of its surface as bright 
 as the edge. The smith consented to grind it bright for 
 him if he would turn the wheel; he turned, while the 25 
 smith pressed the broad face of the ax hard and heavily 
 on the stone, which made the turning of it very fatiguing. 
 The man came every now and then from the wheel to 
 see how the work went on, and at length would take his 
 ax as it was, without farther grinding. " No," said the30 
 smith, " turn on, turn on ; we shall have it bright by-and- 
 by; as yet, it is only speckled." "Yes," says the man, 
 " but I think I like a speckled ax best." And I believe 
 this may have been the case with many, who, having, for 
 
96 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 want of some such means as I employed, found the diffi 
 culty of obtaining good and breaking bad habits in other 
 points of vice and virtue, have given up the struggle, and 
 concluded that " a speckled ax was best; Jf for some- 
 5thing, that pretended to be reason, was every now and 
 then suggesting to me that such extreme nicety as I 
 exacted of myself might be a kind of foppery in morals, 
 which, if it were known, would make me ridiculous ; that 
 a perfect character might be attended with the incon- 
 
 lOvenience of being envied and hated ; and that a benevo 
 lent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his 
 friends in countenance. 
 
 In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect to 
 Order; and now I am grown old, and my memory bad, 
 
 15l feel very sensibly the want of it. But, on the whole, 
 though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so 
 ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, 
 by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I 
 otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it; 
 
 20as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the en 
 graved copies, though they never reach the wished-for 
 excellence of those copies, their hand is mended by the 
 endeavor, and is tolerable while it continues fair and 
 legible. 
 
 25 It may be well my posterity should be informed that 
 to this little artifice, with the blessing of God, their 
 ancestor owed the constant felicity of his life, down to his 
 79th year, in which this is written. What reverses may 
 attend the remainder is in the hand of Providence; but, 
 
 30if they arrive, the reflection on past happiness enjoyed 
 ought to help his bearing them with more resignation. 
 To Temperance he ascribes his long-continued health, 
 and what is still left to him of a good constitution; to 
 Industry and Frugality, the early easiness of his circum- 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 97 
 
 stances and acquisition of his fortune, with all that knowl 
 edge that enabled him to be a useful citizen, and obtained 
 for him some degree of reputation among the learned; to 
 Sincerity and Justice, the confidence of his country, and 
 the honorable employs it conferred upon him; and to the5 
 joint influence of the whole mass of the virtues, even in 
 the imperfect state he was able to acquire them, all that 
 evenness of temper, and that cheerfulness in conversation, 
 which makes his company still sought for, and agreeable 
 even to his younger acquaintance. I hope, therefore, thatlO 
 some of my descendants may follow the example and reap 
 the benefit. 
 
 It will be remarked that, though my scheme was not 
 wholly without religion, there was in it no mark of any of 
 the distinguishing tenets of any particular sect. I had pur-15 
 posely avoided them; for, being fully persuaded of the 
 utility and excellency of my method, and that it might be 
 serviceable to people in all religions, and intending some 
 time or other to publish it, I would not have anything 
 in it that should prejudice anyone, of any sect, against20 
 it. I purposed writing a little comment on each virtue, 
 in which I would have shown the advantages of possessing 
 it, and the mischiefs attending its opposite vice; and I 
 should have called my book THE ART OF VIRTUE, because 
 it would have shown the means and manner of obtaining 25 
 virtue, which would have distinguished it from the mere 
 exhortation to be good, that does not instruct and in 
 dicate the means, but is like the apostle s man of verbal 
 chanty, who only without showing to the naked and 
 hungry how or where they might get clothes or victuals, 30 
 exhorted them to be fed and clothed. James ii. 15, 16. 
 
 But it so happened that my intention of writing and 
 publishing this comment was never fulfilled. I did, in 
 deed, from time to time, put down short hints of the sen- 
 
98 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 timents, reasonings, etc., to be made use of in it, some 
 of which I have still by me; but the necessary close 
 attention to private business in the earlier part of my life, 
 and public business since, have occasioned my postpon- 
 5 ing it; for, it being connected in my mind with a great 
 and extensive project, that required the whole man to 
 execute, and which an unforeseen succession of employs 
 prevented my attending to, it has hitherto remained un 
 finished. 
 
 10 In this piece it was my design to explain and enforce 
 this doctrine, that vicious actions are not hurtful because 
 they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurt 
 ful, the nature of man alone considered; that it was, 
 therefore, everyone s interest to be virtuous who wished 
 
 15to be happy even in this world; and I should, from this 
 circumstance (there being always in the world a number 
 of rich merchants, nobility, states, and princes, who have 
 need of honest instruments for the management of their 
 affairs, and such being so rare), have endeavored to 
 
 20convince young persons that no qualities were so likely 
 to make a poor man s fortune as those of probity and 
 integrity. 
 
 My list of virtues contained at first but twelve; but a 
 Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was gen- 
 
 25erally thought proud; that my pride showed itself fre 
 quently in conversation; that I was not content with 
 being in the right when discussing any point, but was 
 overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he convinced 
 me by mentioning several instances; I determined en- 
 
 SOdeavoring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly 
 among the rest, and I added Humility to my list, giving 
 an extensive meaning to the word. 
 
 I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality 
 of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 99 
 
 appearance of it. I made it a rule to forbear all direct 
 contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive 
 assertion of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to 
 the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or ex 
 pression in the language that imported a fixed opinion, 5 
 such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead 
 of them, / conceive, I apprehend, or / imagine a thing to 
 be so or so; or it so appears to me at present. When 
 another asserted something that I thought an error, I 
 denied myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly,10 
 and of showing immediately some absurdity in his propo 
 sition; and in answering I began by observing that in 
 certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, 
 but in the present case there appeared or seemed to me 
 some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of thislS 
 change in my manner; the conversations I engaged in 
 went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I 
 proposed my opinions procured them a readier reception 
 and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I 
 was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevailed 20 
 with others to give up their mistakes and join with me 
 when I happened to be in the right. 
 
 And this mode, which I at first put on with some vio 
 lence to natural inclination, became at length so easy, and 
 so habitual to me, that perhaps for these fifty years past no25 
 one has ever heard a dogmatical expression escape me. 
 And to this habit (after my character of integrity) I think 
 it principally owing that I had early so much weight 
 with my fellow-citizens when I proposed new institutions, 
 or alterations in the old, and so much influence in public 30 
 councils when I became a member; for I was but a bad 
 speaker, never eloquent, subject to much hesitation in my 
 choice of words, hardly correct in language, and yet I 
 generally carried my points. 
 
ioo Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural pas 
 sions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle 
 with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one 
 pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep 
 out and show itself ; you will see it, perhaps, often in this 
 history; for, even if I could conceive that I had com 
 pletely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my 
 humility. 
 
 [Thus far written at Passy, 1784.] 
 
 10["/ dm now about to write at home, August, 1788, but 
 cannot have the help expected from my papers, many 
 of them being lost in the war. I have, however, 
 found the following"] 
 
 HAVING mentioned a great and extensive project which 
 151 had conceived, it seems proper that some account should 
 be here given of that project and its object. Its first 
 rise in my mind appears in the following little paper, ac 
 cidentally preserved, viz.: 
 
 Observations on my reading history, in Library, May 
 2019th, I73L 
 
 " That the great affairs of the world, the wars, revolu 
 tions, etc., are carried on and effected by parties. 
 
 " That the view of these parties is their present general 
 interest, or what they take to be such. 
 25 " That the different views of these different parties 
 occasion all confusion. 
 
 " That while a party is carrying on a general design, 
 each man has his particular private interest in view. 
 
 " That as soon as a party has gained its general point, 
 SOeach member becomes intent upon his particular interest, 
 which, thwarting others, breaks that party into divisions, 
 and occasions more confusion. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 101 
 
 " That few in public affairs act from a mere view of 
 the good of their country, whatever they may pretend; 
 and, though their actings bring real good to their country, 
 yet men primarily considered that their own and their 
 country s interest was united, and did not act from a5 
 principle of benevolence. 
 
 " That fewer still, in public affairs, act with a view to 
 the good of mankind. 
 
 " There seems to me at present to be great occasion 
 for raising a United Party for Virtue, by forming the 10 
 virtuous and good men of all nations into a regular body, 
 to be governed by suitable good and wise rules, which good 
 and wise men may probably be more unanimous in their 
 obedience to, than common people are to common laws. 
 
 " I at present think that whoever attempts this aright, 15 
 and is well qualified, cannot fail of pleasing God, and of 
 meeting with success. B. F." 
 
 Revolving this project in my mind, as to be undertaken 
 hereafter, when my circumstances should afford me the 
 necessary leisure, I put down from time to time, on pieces 20 
 of paper, such thoughts as occurred to me respecting it; 
 Most of these are lost; but I find one purporting to be 
 the substance of an intended creed, containing, as I 
 thought, the essentials of every known religion, and being 
 free of everything that might shock the professors of any25 
 religion. It is expressed in these words, viz.: 
 
 " That there is one God, who made all things. 
 
 " That he governs the world by his providence. 
 
 " That he ought to be worshiped by adoration, prayer, 
 and thanksgiving. 30 
 
 " But that the most acceptable service of God is doing j 
 good to man. 
 
 " That the soul is immortal. 
 
IO2 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 " And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish 
 vice, either here or hereafter." 
 
 My ideas at that time were, that the sect should be 
 begun and spread at first among young and single men 
 Sonly; that each person to be initiated should not only 
 declare his assent to such creed, but should have ex 
 ercised himself with the thirteen weeks examination and 
 practice of the virtues, as in the before-mentioned model ; 
 that the existence of such a society should be kept a 
 
 lOsecret, till it was become considerable, to prevent solici 
 tations for the admission of improper persons, but that 
 the members should each of them search among his 
 acquaintance for ingenuous, well-disposed youths, to 
 whom, with prudent caution, the scheme should be grad- 
 
 ISually communicated ; that the members should engage to 
 afford their advice, assistance, and support to each other 
 in promoting one another s interests, business, and advance 
 ment in life; that, for distinction, we should be called 
 The Society of the Free and Easy: free, as being, by 
 
 20the general practice and habit of the virtues, free from 
 the dominion of vice; and particularly by the practice of 
 industry and frugality, free from debt, which exposes a 
 man to confinement, and a species of slavery to his 
 creditors. 
 
 25 This is as much as I can now recollect of the project, 
 except that I communicated it in part to two young men, 
 who adopted it with some enthusiasm; but my then 
 narrow circumstances, and the necessity I was under of 
 sticking close to my business, occasioned my postponing 
 
 SOthe further prosecution of it at that time; and my multi 
 farious occupations, public and private, induced me to 
 continue postponing, so that it has been omitted till I 
 have no longer strength or activity left sufficient for such 
 an enterprise; though I am still of opinion that it was a 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 103 
 
 practicable scheme, and might have been very useful, by 
 forming a great number of good citizens; and I was not 
 discouraged by the seeming magnitude of the undertaking, 
 as I have always thought that one man of tolerable abilities 
 may work great changes, and accomplish great affairsS 
 among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting 
 off all amusements or other employments that would di 
 vert his attention, makes the execution of that same plan 
 his sole study and business. 
 
 POOR RICHARD S ALMANAC AND OTHER 
 ACTIVITIES 
 
 IN 1732 I first published my Almanac, under theio 
 name of Richard Saunders; it was continued by me about 
 twenty-five years, commonly called Poor Richard s Al 
 manac. I endeavored to make it both entertaining and 
 useful, and it accordingly came to be in such demand, 
 that I reaped considerable profit from it, vending an-15 
 nually near ten thousand. And observing that it was 
 generally read, scarce any neighborhood in the province 
 being without it, I considered it as a proper vehicle for 
 conveying instruction among the common people, who 
 bought scarcely any other books ; I therefore filled all the20 
 little spaces that occurred between the remarkable days 
 in the calendar with proverbial sentences, chiefly such 
 as inculcated industry and frugality, as the means of 
 procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue; it being 
 more difficult for a man in want, to act always honestly, 2 5 
 as, to use here one of those proverbs, it is hard for an 
 empty sack to stand upright. 
 
 These proverbs, which contained the wisdom of many 
 
IO4 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 ages and nations, I assembled and formed into a connected 
 discourse prefixed to the Almanac of 1757, as the harangue 
 of a wise old man to the people attending an auction. 
 The bringing all these scattered councils thus into a 
 5 focus enabled them to make greater impression. The 
 piece, being universally approved, was copied in all the 
 newspapers of the Continent; reprinted in Britain on a 
 broadside, to be stuck up in houses ; two translations were 
 made of it in French, and great numbers bought by the 
 
 lOclergy and gentry, to distribute gratis among their poor 
 parishioners and tenants. In Pennsylvania, as it dis 
 couraged useless expense in foreign superfluities, some 
 thought it had its share of influence in producing that 
 growing plenty of money which was observable for several 
 
 15years after its publication. 
 
 I considered my newspaper, also, as another means of 
 communicating instruction, and in that view frequently 
 reprinted in it extracts from the Spectator, and other 
 moral writers; and sometimes published little pieces of 
 
 20my own, which had been first composed for reading in 
 our Junto. Of these are a Socratic dialogue, tending to 
 prove that, whatever might be his parts and abilities, a 
 vicious man could not properly be called a man of sense; 
 and a discourse on self-denial, showing that virtue was 
 
 25not secure till its practice became a habitude, and was 
 
 free from the opposition of contrary inclinations. These 
 
 may be found in the papers about the beginning of 1735. 
 
 In the conduct of my newspaper, I carefully excluded 
 
 all libeling and personal abuse, which is of late years 
 
 SObecome so disgraceful to our country. Whenever I was 
 solicited to insert anything of that kind, and the writers 
 pleaded, as they generally did, the liberty of the press, 
 and that a newspaper was like a stage-coach, in which 
 anyone who would pay had a right to a place, my 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 105 
 
 answer was, that I would print the piece separately if 
 desired, and the author might have as many copies as he 
 pleased to distribute himself, but that I would not take 
 upon me to spread his detraction ; and that, having 
 contracted with my subscribers to furnish them with whatS 
 might be either useful or entertaining, I could not fill 
 their papers with private altercation, in which they had 
 no concern, without doing them manifest injustice. Now, 
 many of our printers make no scruple of gratifying the 
 malice of individuals by false accusations of the fairestltf 
 characters among ourselves, augmenting animosity even to 
 the producing of duels; and are, moreover, so indiscreet 
 as to print scurrilous reflections on the government of 
 neighboring states, and even on the conduct of our best 
 national allies, which may be attended with the most per- 15 
 nicious consequences. These things I mention as a cau 
 tion to young printers, and that they may be encouraged 
 not to pollute their presses and disgrace their profession 
 by such infamous practices, but refuse steadily, as they 
 may see by my example that such a course of conduct 20 
 will not, on the whole, be injurious to their interests. 
 In 1733 I sent one of my journeymen to Charleston, 
 South Carolina, where a printer was wanting. I fur 
 nished him with a press and letters, on an agreement of 
 partnership, by which I was to receive one-third of the 25 
 profits of the business, paying one-third of the expense. 
 He was a man of learning, and honest but ignorant in 
 matters of account; and, though he sometimes made me 
 remittances, I could get no account from him, nor any 
 satisfactory state of our partnership while he lived. On 30 
 his decease, the business was continued by his widow, 
 who, being born and bred in Holland, where, as I have 
 been informed, the knowledge of accounts makes a part 
 of female education, she not only sent me as clear a state 
 
io6 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 as she could find of the transactions past, but continued 
 to account with the greatest regularity and exactness 
 every quarter afterwards, and managed the business with 
 such success, that she not only brought up reputably a 
 Sfamily of children, but, at the expiration of the term, 
 was able to purchase of me the printing-house, and estab 
 lish her son in it. 
 
 I mention this affair chiefly for the sake of recom 
 mending that branch of education for our young females, 
 
 lOas likely to be of more use to them and their children, in 
 case of widowhood, than either music or dancing, by 
 preserving them from losses by imposition of crafty men, 
 and enabling them to continue, perhaps, a profitable 
 mercantile house, with established correspondence, till a 
 
 15son is grown up fit to undertake and go on with it, to 
 the lasting advantage and enriching of the family. 
 
 About the year 1734 there arrived among us from 
 Ireland a young Presbyterian preacher, named Hemphill, 
 who delivered with a good voice, and apparently extem- 
 
 20pore, most excellent discourses, which drew together con 
 siderable numbers of different persuasions, who joined 
 in admiring them. Among the rest, I became one of his 
 constant hearers, his sermons pleasing me, as they had 
 little of the dogmatical kind, but inculcated strongly the 
 
 25practice of virtue, or what in the religious style are 
 called good works. Those, however, of our congregation, 
 who considered themselves as orthodox Presbyterians, 
 disapproved his doctrine, and were joined by most of the 
 old clergy, who arraigned him of heterodoxy before the 
 
 SOsynod, in order to have him silenced. I became his zeal 
 ous partisan, and contributed all I could to raise a party 
 in his favor, and we combated for him awhile with some 
 hopes of success. There was much scribbling pro and con 
 upon the occasion; and finding that, though an elegant 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 107 
 
 preacher, he was but a poor writer, I lent him my pen 
 and wrote for him two or three pamphlets, and one piece in 
 the Gazette of April, 1735. Those pamphlets, as is gen 
 erally the case with controversial writings, though eagerly 
 read at the time, were soon out of vogue, and I questions 
 whether a single copy of them now exists. 
 
 During the contest an unlucky occurrence hurt his 
 cause exceedingly. One of our adversaries having heard 
 him preach a sermon that was much admired, thought he 
 had somewhere read the sermon before, or at least alO 
 part of it. On search, he found that part quoted at 
 length, in one of the British Reviews, from a discourse 
 of Dr. Foster s. This detection gave many of our party 
 disgust, who accordingly abandoned his cause, and oc 
 casioned our more speedy discomfiture in the synod. 1 15 
 stuck by him, however, as I rather approved his giving us 
 good sermons composed by others, than bad ones of his 
 own manufacture, though the latter was the practice of our 
 common teachers. He afterward acknowledged to me 
 that none of those he preached were his own; adding, 20 
 that his memory was such as enabled him to retain and 
 repeat any sermon after one reading only. On our de 
 feat, he left us in search elsewhere of better fortune, and 
 I quitted the congregation, never joining it after, though 
 I continued many years my subscription for the support25 
 of its ministers. 
 
 I had begun in 1733 to study languages; I soon made 
 myself so much a master of the French as to be able to 
 read the books with ease. I then undertook the Italian. 
 An acquaintance, who was also learning it, used often to 30 
 tempt me to play chess with him. Finding this took up 
 too much of the time I had to spare for study, I at length 
 refused to play any more, unless on this condition, that 
 the victor in every game should have a right to impose a 
 
io8 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 task, either in parts of the grammar to be got by heart, 
 or in translations, etc., which tasks the vanquished was to 
 perform upon honor, before our next meeting. As we 
 played pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that 
 Slanguage. I afterwards with a little painstaking, ac 
 quired as much of the Spanish as to read their books also. 
 I have already mentioned that I had only one year s 
 instruction in a Latin school, and that when very young, 
 after which I neglected that language entirely. But, 
 
 lOwhen I had attained an acquaintance with the French, 
 Italian, and Spanish, I was surprised to find, on looking 
 over a Latin Testament, that I understood so much more 
 of that language than I had imagined, which encouraged 
 me to apply myself again to the study of it, and I met 
 
 15with more success, as those preceding languages had greatly 
 smoothed my way. 
 
 From these circumstances, I have thought that there 
 is some inconsistency in our common mode of teaching 
 languages. We are told that it is proper to begin first 
 
 20with the Latin, and, having acquired that, it will be more 
 easy to attain those modern languages which are derived 
 from it; and yet we do not begin with the Greek, in 
 order more easily to acquire the Latin. It is true that, 
 if you can clamber and get to the top of a staircase with- 
 
 25out using the steps, you will more easily gain them in 
 descending; but certainly, if you begin with the lowest 
 you will with more ease ascend to the top; and I would 
 therefore offer it to the consideration of those who super 
 intend the education of our youth, whether, since many 
 
 30of those who begin with the Latin quit the same after 
 spending some years without having made any great 
 proficiency, and what they have learnt becomes almost 
 useless, so that their time has been lost, it would not 
 have been better to have begun with the French, proceed- 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 109 
 
 ing to the Italian, etc.; for, though, after spending the 
 same time, they should quit the study of languages 
 and never arrive at the Latin, they would, however, 
 have acquired another tongue or two, that, being in 
 modern use, might be serviceable to them in common 5 
 life. 
 
 After ten years absence from Boston, and having be 
 come easy in my circumstances, I made a journey thither 
 to visit my relations, which I could not sooner well 
 afford. In returning, I called at Newport to see my 10 
 brother, then settled there with his printing-house. Our 
 former differences were forgotten, and our meeting was 
 very cordial and affectionate. He was fast declining in 
 his health, and requested of me that, in case of his death, 
 which he apprehended not far distant, I would take 15 
 home his son, then but ten years of age, and bring him 
 up to the printing business. This I accordingly per 
 formed, sending him a few years to school before I took 
 him into the office. His mother carried on the business 
 till he was grown up, when I assisted him with an as- 20 
 sortment of new types, those of his father being in a 
 manner worn out. Thus it was that I made my brother 
 ample amends for the service I had deprived him of by 
 leaving him so early. 
 
 In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years 25 
 old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long 
 regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it 
 to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of 
 parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that 
 they should never forgive themselves if a child died underso 
 it; my example showing that the regret may be the 
 same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be 
 chosen. 
 
 Our club, the Junto, was found so useful, and afforded 
 
no Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 such satisfaction to the members, that several were de 
 sirous of introducing their friends, which could not well 
 be done without exceeding what we had settled as a 
 convenient number, viz., twelve. We had from the be- 
 Sginning made it a rule to keep our institution a secret, 
 which was pretty well observed; the intention was to 
 avoid applications of improper persons for admittance, 
 some of whom, perhaps, we might find it difficult to re 
 fuse. I was one of those who were against any addition 
 
 lOto our number, but, instead of it, made in writing a pro 
 posal, that every member separately should endeavor to 
 form a subordinate club, with the same rules respecting 
 queries, etc., and without informing them of the connection 
 with the Junto. The advantages proposed were, the 
 
 15 improvement of so many more young citizens by the 
 use of our institutions; our better acquaintance with the 
 general sentiments of the inhabitants on any occasion, 
 as the Junto member might propose what queries we 
 should desire, and was to report to the Junto what 
 
 20passed in his separate club; the promotion of our par 
 ticular interests in business by more extensive recommen 
 dation, and the increase of our influence in public affairs, 
 and our power of doing good by spreading through the 
 several clubs the sentiments of the Junto. 
 
 25 The project was approved, and every member under 
 took to form his club, but they did not all succeed. Five 
 or six only were completed, which were called by differ 
 ent names, as the Vine, the Union, the Band, etc. They 
 were useful to themselves, and afforded us a good deal of 
 
 SOamusement, information, and instruction, besides answer 
 ing, in some considerable degree, our views of influencing 
 the public opinion on particular occasions, of which I 
 shall give some instances in course of time as they hap 
 pened. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography in 
 
 My first promotion was my being chosen, in 1736, 
 clerk of the General Assembly. The choice was made 
 that year without opposition ; but the year following, 
 when I was again proposed (the choice, like that of the 
 members, being annual), a new member made a long 5 
 speech against me, in order to favor some other candi 
 date. I was, however, chosen, which was the more 
 agreeable to me, as, besides the pay for the immediate 
 service as clerk, the place gave me a better opportunity 
 of keeping up an interest among the members, which 10 
 secured to me the business of printing the votes, laws, paper 
 money, and other occasional jobs for the public, that, on 
 the whole, were very profitable. 
 
 I therefore did not like the opposition of this new 
 member, who was a gentleman of fortune and education, 15 
 with talents that were likely to give him, in time, great 
 influence in the House, which, indeed, afterwards hap 
 pened. I did not, however, aim at gaining his favor by 
 paying any servile respect to him, but, after some time, 
 took this other method. Having heard that he had in 20 
 his library a certain very scarce and curious book, I wrote 
 a note to him, expressing my desire of perusing that book, 
 and requesting he would do me the favor of lending it to 
 me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I re 
 turned it in about a week with another note, expressing 2 5 
 strongly my sense of the favor. When we next met in the 
 House, he spoke to me (which he had never done be 
 fore), and with great civility; and he ever after manifested 
 a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we be 
 came great friends, and our friendship continued to hisSO 
 death. This is another instance of the truth of an old 
 maxim I had learned, which says, " He that has once done 
 you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than 
 he whom you yourself have obliged" And it shows how 
 
1 1 2 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 much more profitable it is prudently to remove, than to 
 resent, return, and continue inimical proceedings. 
 
 In 1737, Colonel Spotswood, late governor of Virginia, 
 and then postmaster-general, being dissatisfied with the 
 5conduct of his deputy at Philadelphia, respecting some 
 negligence in rendering, and inexactitude of his accounts, 
 took from him the commission and offered it to me. I 
 accepted it readily, and found it of great advantage; for, 
 though the salary was small, it facilitated the correspond- 
 
 lOence that improved my newspaper, increased the number 
 demanded, as well as the advertisements to be inserted, so 
 that it came to afford me a considerable income. My 
 old competitor s newspaper declined proportionably, and 
 I was satisfied without retaliating his refusal, while post- 
 
 15master, to permit my papers being carried by the riders. 
 Thus he suffered greatly from his neglect in due account 
 ing; and I mention it as a lesson to those young men 
 who may be employed in managing affairs for others, that 
 they should always render accounts, and make remittances, 
 
 20with great clearness and punctuality. The character of 
 observing such a conduct is the most powerful of all rec 
 ommendations to new employments and increase of busi 
 ness. 
 
 XI 
 FRANKLIN S INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 
 
 I BEGAN now to turn my thoughts a little to public 
 25affairs, beginning, however, with small matters. The city 
 watch was one of the first things that I conceived to want 
 regulation. It was managed by the constables of the 
 respective wards in turn ; the constable warned a number 
 of housekeepers to attend him for the night. Those who 
 chose never to attend, paid him six shillings a year to be 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 113 
 
 excused, which was supposed to be for hiring substitutes, 
 but was, in reality, much more than was necessary for 
 that purpose, and made the constableship a place of 
 profit; and the constable, for a little drink, often got 
 such ragamuffins about him as a watch, that respect-5 
 able housekeepers did not choose to mix with. Walk 
 ing the rounds, too, was often neglected, and most of the 
 nights spent in tippling. I thereupon wrote a paper to 
 be read in Junto, representing these irregularities, but 
 insisting more particularly on the inequality of this six- 10 
 shilling tax of the constables, respecting the circum 
 stances of those who paid it, since a poor widow house 
 keeper, all whose property to be guarded by the watch 
 did not perhaps exceed the value of fifty pounds, paid as 
 much as the wealthiest merchant, who had thousands of 15 
 pounds worth of goods in his stores. 
 
 On the whole, I proposed as a more effectual watch, 
 the hiring of proper men to serve constantly in that busi 
 ness; and as a more equitable way of supporting the 
 charge, the levying a tax that should be proportioned to the20 
 property. This idea, being approved by the Junto, was 
 communicated to the other clubs, but as arising in each 
 of them ; and though the plan was not immediately carried 
 into execution, yet, by preparing the minds of people for 
 the change, it paved the way for the law obtained a few 2 5 
 years after, when the members of our clubs were grown 
 into more influence. 
 
 About this time I wrote a paper (first to be read 
 in Junto, but it was afterward published) on the different 
 accidents and carelessnesses by which houses were set on 30 
 fire, with cautions against then, and means proposed of 
 avoiding them. This was much spoken of as a useful 
 piece, and gave rise to a project, which soon followed it, 
 of forming a company for the more ready extinguishing of 
 
114 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 fires, and mutual assistance in removing and securing of 
 goods when in danger. Associates in this scheme were 
 presently found, amounting to thirty. Our articles of 
 agreement obliged every member to keep always in good 
 Border, and fit for use, a certain number of leather buckets, 
 with strong bags and baskets (for packing and transport 
 ing of goods), which were to be brought to every fire;] 
 and w r e agreed to meet once a month and spend a social 
 evening together, in discoursing and communicating such 
 
 lOideas as occurred to us upon the subjects of fires, as might 
 be useful in our conduct on such occasions. 
 
 The utility of this institution soon appeared, and many 
 more desiring to be admitted than we thought convenient 
 for one company, they were advised to form another, 
 
 ISwhich was accordingly done; and this went on, one new 
 company being formed after another, till they became so 
 numerous as to include most of the inhabitants who were 
 men of property; and now, at the time of my writing 
 this, though upward of fifty years since its establishment, 
 
 20that which I first formed, called the Union Fire Com 
 pany, still subsists and flourishes, though the first members 
 are all deceased but myself and one, who is older by a year 
 than I am. The small fines that have been paid by mem 
 bers for absence at the monthly meetings have been applied 
 
 25to the purchase of fire-engines, ladders, fire-hooks, and 
 other useful implements for each company, so that I ques 
 tion whether there is a city in the world better provided 
 with the means of putting a stop to beginning conflagra 
 tions; and, in fact, since these institutions, the city has 
 
 SOnever lost by fire more than one or two houses at a time, 
 and the flames have often been extinguished before the 
 house in which they began has been half consumed. 
 
 In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the Reverend 
 Mr. Whitefield, who had made himself remarkable there 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 115 
 
 as an itinerant preacher. He was at first permitted to 
 preach in some of our churches; but the clergy, taking a 
 dislike to him, soon refused him their pulpits, and he 
 was obliged to preach in the fields. The multitudes of all 
 sects and denominations that attended his sermons were5 
 enormous, and it was matter of speculation to me, who 
 was one of the number, to observe the extraordinary in 
 fluence of his oratory on his hearers, and how much they 
 admired and respected him, notwithstanding his common 
 abuse of them, by assuring them they were naturally 10 
 half beasts and half devils. It was wonderful to see the 
 change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. 
 From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it 
 seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that 
 one could not walk through the town in an evening with-15 
 out hearing psalms sung in different families of every 
 street. 
 
 And it being found inconvenient to assemble in the 
 open air, subject to its inclemencies, the building of a house 
 to meet in was no sooner proposed, and persons ap-20 
 pointed to receive contributions, but sufficient sums were 
 soon received to procure the ground and erect the build 
 ing, which was one hundred feet long and seventy broad, 
 about the size of Westminster Hall; and the work was 
 carried on with such spirit as to be finished in a much 25 
 shorter time than could have been expected. Both house 
 and ground were vested in trustees, expressly for the use 
 of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might 
 desire to say something to the people at Philadelphia; 
 the design in building not being to accommodate any30 
 particular sect, but the inhabitants in general; so that 
 even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a mis 
 sionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find 
 a pulpit at his service. 
 
Ii6 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 Mr. Whitefield, in leaving us, went preaching all the 
 way through the colonies to Georgia. The settlement 
 of that province had lately been begun, but, instead of 
 being made with hardy, industrious husbandmen, accus- 
 5tomed to labor, the only people fit for such an enterprise, 
 it was with families of broken shop-keepers and other in 
 solvent debtors, many of indolent and idle habits, taken 
 out of the jails, who, being set down in the woods, unquali 
 fied for clearing land, and unable to endure the hardships 
 
 lOof a new settlement, perished in numbers, leaving many 
 helpless children unprovided for. The sight of their 
 miserable situation inspired the benevolent heart of Mr. 
 Whitefield with the idea of building an Orphan House 
 there, in which they might be supported and educated. 
 
 IBReturning northward, he preached up this charity, and 
 made large collections, for his eloquence had a wonderful 
 power over the hearts and purses of his hearers, of which 
 I myself was an instance. 
 
 I did not disapprove of the design, but, as Georgia 
 
 20was then destitute of materials and workmen, and it was 
 proposed to send them from Philadelphia at a great ex 
 pense, I thought it would have been better to have built 
 the house here, and brought the children to it. This I 
 advised; but he was resolute in his first project, rejected 
 
 25my counsel, and I therefore refused to contribute. I hap 
 pened soon after to attend one of his sermons, in the course 
 of which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, 
 and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. 
 I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or 
 
 SOfour silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he pro 
 ceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the cop 
 pers. Another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of 
 that, and determined me to give the silver; and he 
 finished so admirably, that I emptied my pocket wholly 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 117 
 
 into the collector s dish, gold and all. At this sermon 
 there was also one of our club, who, being of my senti 
 ments respecting the building in Georgia, and suspecting 
 a collection might be intended, had, by precaution, emp 
 tied his pockets before he came from home. Towards the 5 
 conclusion of the discourse, however, he felt a strong 
 desire to give, and applied to a neighbor who stood 
 near him, to borrow some money for the purpose. The 
 application was unfortunately [made] to perhaps the 
 only man in the company who had the firmness not tolO 
 be affected by the preacher. His answer was, "At any 
 other time, Friend Hopkinson, I would lend to thee freely; 
 but not now, for thee seems to be out of thy right senses." 
 
 Some of Mr. Whitefield s enemies affected to suppose 
 that he would apply these collections to his own private 15 
 emolument; but I, who was intimately acquainted with 
 him (being employed in printing his Sermons and Jour 
 nals, etc.), never had the least suspicion of his integrity, 
 but am to this day decidedly of opinion that he was in all 
 his conduct a perfectly honest man; and methinks my20 
 testimony in his favor ought to have the more weight, as 
 we had no religious connection. He used, indeed, some 
 times to pray for my conversion, but never had the satis 
 faction of believing that his prayers were heard. Ours 
 was a mere civil friendship, sincere on both sides, and 2 5 
 lasted to his death. 
 
 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 lodgeso 
 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 wel- 
 
n8 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 come." He replied, that if I made that kind offer for 
 Christ s sake, I should not miss of a reward. And I re 
 turned, " Dont let me be mistaken; it was not for Christ s 
 sake, but for your sake." One of our common acquaint- 
 5ance 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. 
 
 10 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 
 
 15and sentences so perfectly, that he might be heard and 
 understood at a great distance, especially as his audi 
 tories, 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, 
 
 20and 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 Mar 
 ket Street, I had the curiosity to learn how far he could 
 be heard,, by retiring backwards down the street towards 
 
 25the 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 audi 
 tors, to each of whom I allowed two square feet, I com- 
 
 SOputed that he might well be heard by more than thirty 
 thousand. This reconciled me to the newspaper accounts 
 of his having preached to twenty-five thousand people in 
 the fields, and to the ancient histories of generals harangu 
 ing whole armies, of which I had sometimes doubted. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 119 
 
 By hearing him often, I came to distinguish easily be 
 tween sermons newly composed, and those which he 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, 5 
 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 thoselO 
 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 havelS 
 been afterwards explained or qualified by supposing others 
 that might have accompanied them, or they might have 
 been denied; but lit era scripta manet* Critics attacked 
 his writings violently, and with so much appearance of 
 reason as to diminish the number of his votaries and 20 
 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 reputa 
 tion might in that case have been still growing, even 
 after his death, as there being nothing of his writing on 25 
 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 excellences as their enthusiastic admira 
 tion might wish him to have possessed. 
 
 My business was now continually augmenting, and my30 
 circumstances growing daily easier, my newspaper having 
 become very profitable, as being for a time almost the 
 only one in this and the neighboring provinces. I ex 
 perienced, too, the truth of the observation, " that after 
 
I2O Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 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 
 5of 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 pur 
 chase the types of me and go on working for themselves, 
 
 loby which means several families were raised. Partner 
 ships 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 
 
 15or expected from each partner, so that there was nothing 
 to dispute, which precaution I would therefore recom 
 mend 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 
 
 20<iisgusts 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. 
 
 XII 
 DEFENSE OF THE PROVINCE 
 
 I HAD, on the whole, abundant reason to be satisfied 
 25with my being established in Pennsylvania. There were, 
 however, two things that I regretted, there being no pro 
 vision for defense, nor for a complete education of youth ; 
 no militia, nor any college. I therefore, in 1743, drew 
 up a proposal for establishing an academy; and at that 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 121 
 
 time, thinking the Reverend Mr. Peters, who was out of 
 employ, a fit person to superintend such an institution, I 
 communicated the project to him; but he, having more 
 profitable views in the service of the proprietaries, which 
 succeeded, declined the undertaking; and, not knowing5 
 another at that time suitable for such a trust, I let the 
 scheme lie awhile dormant. I succeeded better the next 
 year, 1744, in proposing and establishing a Philosophical 
 Society. The paper I wrote for that purpose will be 
 found among my writings, when collected. 10 
 
 With respect to defense, Spain having been several 
 years at war against Great Britain, and being at length 
 joined by France, which brought us into great danger; 
 and the labored and long-continued endeavor of our 
 governor, Thomas, to prevail with our Quaker Assembly 15 
 to pass a militia law, and make other provisions for the 
 security of the province, having proved abortive, I de 
 termined to try what might be done by a voluntary as 
 sociation of the people. To promote this, I first wrote 
 and published a pamphlet, entitled PLAIN TRUTH, in 20 
 which I stated our defenseless situation in strong lights, 
 with the necessity of union and discipline for our defense, 
 and promised to propose in a few days an association, to 
 be generally signed for that purpose. The pamphlet had 
 a sudden and surprising effect. I was called upon for 2 5 
 the instrument of association, and having settled the draft 
 of it with a few friends, I appointed a meeting of the citi 
 zens in the large building before mentioned. The house 
 was pretty full; I had prepared a number of printed 
 copies, and provided pens and ink dispersed all over the 30 
 room. I harangued them a little on the subject, read the 
 paper, and explained it, and then distributed the copies, 
 which were eagerly signed, not the least objection being 
 made. 
 
122 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 When the company separated, and the papers were 
 collected, we found above twelve hundred hands; and, 
 other copies being dispersed in the country, the sub 
 scribers amounted at length to upward of ten thousand. 
 5These all furnished themselves as soon as they could with 
 arms, formed themselves into companies and regiments, 
 chose their own officers, and met every week to be in 
 structed in the manual exercise, and other parts of mili 
 tary discipline. The women, by subscriptions among 
 
 10 themselves, provided silk colors, which they presented 
 to the companies, painted with different devices and 
 mottoes, which I supplied. 
 
 The officers of the companies composing the Philadel 
 phia regiment, being met, chose me for their colonel; 
 
 15but, conceiving myself unfit, I declined that station, and 
 recommended Mr. Lawrence, a fine person, and man of 
 influence, who was accordingly appointed. I then pro 
 posed a lottery to defray the expense of building a battery 
 below the town, and furnishing it with cannon. It filled 
 
 20expeditiously, and the battery was soon erected, the mer 
 lons being framed of logs and filled with earth. We 
 bought some old cannon from Boston, but these not 
 being sufficient, we wrote to England for more, solicit 
 ing, at the same time, our proprietaries for some assist- 
 
 25ance, though without much expectation of obtaining it. 
 
 Meanwhile, Colonel Lawrence, William Allen, Abram 
 Taylor, Esqr., and myself were sent to New York by the 
 associators, commissioned to borrow some cannon of Gov 
 ernor Clinton. He at first refused us peremptorily; 
 
 30but at dinner with his council, where there was great 
 drinking of Madeira wine, as the custom of that place 
 then was, he softened by degrees, and said he would lend 
 us six. After a few more bumpers he advanced to ten; 
 and at length he very good-naturedly conceded eighteen. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 123 
 
 They were fine cannon, eighteen-pounders, with their 
 carriages, which we soon transported and mounted on 
 our battery, where the associators kept a nightly guard 
 while the war lasted, and among the rest I regularly took 
 my turn of duty there as a common soldier. 5 
 
 My activity in these operations was agreeable to the 
 governor and council ; they took me into confidence, and 
 I was consulted by them in every measure wherein their 
 concurrence was thought useful to the association. Call 
 ing in the aid of religion, I proposed to them the pro-10 
 claiming a fast, to promote reformation, and implore the 
 blessing of Heaven on our undertaking. They embraced 
 the motion; but, as it was the first fast ever thought of 
 in the province, the secretary had no precedent from 
 which to draw the proclamation. My education in Newl5 
 England, where a fast is proclaimed every year, was here 
 of some advantage; I drew it in the accustomed style, it 
 was translated into German, printed in both languages, 
 and divulged through the province. This gave the clergy 
 of the different sects an opportunity of influencing their20 
 congregations to join in the association, and it would 
 probably have been general among all but Quakers if 
 the peace had not soon intervened. 
 
 It was thought by some of my friends that, by my 
 activity in these affairs, I should offend that sect, and 25 
 thereby lose my interest in the Assembly of the province, 
 where they formed a great majority. A young gentleman 
 who had likewise some friends in the House, and wished 
 to succeed me as their clerk, acquainted me that it was 
 decided to displace me at the next election; and he, 30 
 therefore, in good will, advised me to resign, as more 
 consistent with my honor than being turned out. My 
 answer to him was, that I had read or heard of some 
 public man who made it a rule never to ask for an office, 
 
124 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 and never to refuse one when offered to him. " I ap 
 prove," says I, " of his rule, and will practise it with a 
 small addition; I shall never ask, never refuse, nor ever 
 resign an office. If they will have my office of clerk to 
 5dispose of to another, they shall take it from me. I will 
 not, by giving it up, lose my right of some time or other 
 making reprisals on my adversaries." I heard, however, 
 no more of this; I was chosen again unanimously as 
 usual at the next election. Possibly, as they disliked my 
 
 lOlate intimacy with the members of council, who had joined 
 the governors in all the disputes about military prepara 
 tions, with which the House had long been harassed, they 
 might have been pleased if I would voluntarily have left 
 them; but they did not care to displace me on account 
 
 ISmerely of my zeal for the association, and they could not 
 well give another reason. 
 
 Indeed I had some cause to believe that the defense of 
 the country was not disagreeable to any of them, provided 
 they were not required to assist in it. And I found that 
 
 20a much greater number of them than I could have im 
 agined, though against offensive war, were clearly for the 
 defensive. Many pamphlets pro and con were published 
 on the subject, and some by good Quakers, in favor of 
 defense, which I believe convinced most of their younger 
 
 25people. 
 
 A transaction in our fire company gave me some in 
 sight into their prevailing sentiments. It had been pro 
 posed that we should encourage the scheme for building 
 a battery by laying out the present stock, then about sixty 
 
 SOpounds, in tickets of the lottery. By our rules, no money 
 could be disposed of till the next meeting after the pro 
 posal. The company consisted of thirty members, of 
 which twenty-two were Quakers, and eight only of other 
 persuasions. We eight punctually attended the meeting; 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 125 
 
 but, though we thought that some of the Quakers would 
 join us, we were by no means sure of a majority. Only 
 one Quaker, Mr. James Morris, appeared to oppose the 
 measure. He expressed much sorrow that it had ever 
 been proposed, as he said Friends were all against it, and 5 
 it would create such discord as might break up the com 
 pany. We told him that we saw no reason for that; we 
 were the minority, and if Friends were against the meas 
 ure, and outvoted us, we must and should, agreeably to 
 the usage of all societies, submit. When the hour for 10 
 business arrived it was moved to put the vote ; he allowed 
 we might then do it by the rules, but, as he could assure 
 us that a number of members intended to be present for 
 the purpose of opposing it, it would be but candid to 
 allow a little time for their appearing. 15 
 
 While we were disputing this, a waiter came to tell me 
 two gentlemen below desired to speak with me. I went 
 down, and found they were two of our Quaker members. 
 They told me there were eight of them assembled at a 
 tavern just by; that they were determined to come and 20 
 vote with us if there should be occasion, which they hoped 
 would not be the case, and desired we would not call for 
 their assistance if we could do without it, as their voting 
 for such a measure might embroil them with their elders 
 and friends. Being thus secure of a majority, I went up, 25 
 and after a little seeming hesitation, agreed to a delay of 
 another hour. This Mr. Morris allowed to be extremely 
 fair. Not one of his opposing friends appeared, at which 
 he expressed great surprise; and, at the expiration of the 
 hour, we carried the resolution eight to one; and as, of 30 
 the twenty-two Quakers, eight were ready to vote with us, 
 and thirteen, by their absence, manifested that they were 
 not inclined to oppose the measure, I afterward estimated 
 the proportion of Quakers sincerely against defense as 
 
126 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 one to twenty-one only; for these were all regular mem 
 bers of that society, and in good reputation among them, 
 and had due notice of what was proposed at that meeting. 
 The honorable and learned Mr. Logan, who had always 
 Sbeen of that sect, was one who wrote an address to them, 
 declaring his approbation of defensive war, and support 
 ing his opinion by many strong arguments. He put 
 into my hands sixty pounds to be laid out in lottery 
 tickets for the battery, with directions to apply what 
 
 lOprizes might be drawn wholly to that service. He told 
 me the following anecdote of his old master, William 
 Penn, respecting defense. He came over from England, 
 when a young man, with that proprietary, and as his 
 secretary. It was war-time, and their ship was chased by 
 
 15an armed vessel, supposed to be an enemy. Their cap 
 tain prepared for defense; but told William Penn, and 
 his company of Quakers, that he did not expect their 
 assistance, and they might retire into the cabin, which 
 they did, except James Logan, who chose to stay upon 
 
 2()deck, and was quartered to a gun. The supposed enemy 
 proved a friend, so there was no fighting; but when the 
 secretary went down to communicate the intelligence, 
 William Penn rebuked him severely for staying upon 
 deck, and undertaking to assist in defending the vessel, 
 
 25contrary to the principles of Friends, especially as it had 
 not been required by the captain. This reproof, being 
 before all the company, piqued the secretary, who an 
 swered, " I being thy servant, why did thee not order me to 
 come down? But thee was willing enough that I should 
 
 SQStay and help to fight the ship when thee thought there was 
 danger. 39 
 
 My being many years in the Assembly, the majority 
 of which were constantly Quakers, gave me frequent 
 opportunities of seeing the embarrassment given them 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 127 
 
 by their principle against war, whenever application was 
 made to them, by order of the crown, to grant aids for 
 military purposes. They were unwilling to offend gov 
 ernment, on the one hand, by a direct refusal; and their 
 friends, the body of the Quakers, on the other, by a5 
 compliance contrary to their principles; hence a variety 
 of evasions to avoid complying, and modes of disguising 
 the compliance when it became unavoidable. The com 
 mon mode at last was, to grant money under the phrase of 
 its being " for the king s use" and never to inquire howlO 
 it was applied. 
 
 But, if the demand was not directly from the crown, 
 that phrase was found not so proper, and some other was 
 to be invented. As, when powder was wanting (I think 
 it was for the garrison at Louisburg), and the government 15 
 of New England solicited a grant of some from Penn 
 sylvania, which was much urged on the House by Gov 
 ernor Thomas, they could not grant money to buy pow 
 der, because that was an ingredient of war ; but they voted 
 an aid to New England of three thousand pounds, to be20 
 put into the hands of the governor, and appropriated it 
 for the purchasing of bread, flour, wheat or other grain. 
 Some of the council, desirous of giving the House still 
 further embarrassment, advised the governor not to accept 
 provision, as not being the thing he had demanded; but25 
 he replied, " I shall take the money, for I understand 
 very well their meaning; other grain is gunpowder," 
 which he accordingly bought, and they never objected 
 to it. 
 
 It was in allusion to this fact that, when in our fire 30 
 company we feared the success of our proposal in favor 
 of the lottery, and I had said to my friend Mr. Syng, one 
 of our members, " If we fail, let us move the purchase of 
 a fire-engine with the money; the Quakers can have no 
 
128 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 objection to that; and then, if you nominate me and I 
 you as a committee for that purpose, we will buy a great 
 gun, which is certainly a fire-engine * " I see," says he, 
 "you have improved by being so long in the Assembly; 
 5 your equivocal project would be just a match for their 
 wheat or other grain/ 
 
 These embarrassments that the Quakers suffered from 
 having established and published it as one of their princi 
 ples that no kind of war was lawful, and which, being 
 
 lOonce published, they could not afterwards, however they 
 might change their minds, easily get rid of, reminds me 
 of what I think a more prudent conduct in another sect 
 among us, that of the Dunkers. I was acquainted with 
 one of its founders, Michael Welfare, soon after it ap- 
 
 1 Speared. He complained to me that they were grievously 
 calumniated by the zealots of other persuasions, and 
 charged with abominable principles and practices to which 
 they were utter strangers. I told him this had always 
 been the case with new sects, and that, to put a stop to 
 
 20such abuse, I imagined it might be well to publish 
 the articles of their belief, and the rules of their dis 
 cipline. He said that it had been proposed among them, 
 but not agreed to, for this reason : " When we were first 
 drawn together as a society," says he, " it had pleased 
 
 25 God to enlighten our minds so far as to see that some 
 doctrines, which we once esteemed truths were errors; 
 and that others, which we had esteemed errors, were real 
 truths. From time to time He has been pleased to afford 
 us farther light, and our principles have been improving, 
 
 SOand our errors diminishing. Now we are not sure that we 
 are arrived at the end of this progression, and at the per 
 fection of spiritual or theological knowledge; and we fear 
 that, if we should once print our confession of faith, we 
 should feel ourselves as if bound and confined by it, and 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 129 
 
 perhaps be unwilling to receive farther improvement, and 
 our successors still more so, as conceiving what we their 
 elders and founders had done, to be something sacred, 
 never to be departed from." 
 
 This modesty in a sect is perhaps a singular instance in 5 
 the history of mankind, every other sect supposing itself 
 in possession of all truth, and that those who differ are so 
 far in the wrong; like a man traveling in foggy weather, 
 those at some distance before him on the road he sees 
 wrapped up in the fog, as well as those behind him, and 10 
 also the people in the fields on each side, but near him all 
 appears clear, though in truth he is as much in the fog as 
 any of them. To avoid this kind of embarrassment, the 
 Quakers have of late years been gradually declining the 
 public service in the Assembly and in the magistracy, 15 
 choosing rather to quit their power than their principle. 
 
 In order of time, I should have mentioned before, that 
 having, in 1742, invented an open stove for the better 
 warming of rooms, and at the same time saving fuel, as 
 the fresh air admitted was warmed in entering, I made a20 
 present of the model to Mr. Robert Grace, one of my 
 early friends, who, having an iron-furnace, found the cast 
 ing of the plates for these stoves a profitable thing, as 
 they were growing in demand. To promote that de 
 mand, I wrote and published a pamphlet, entitled An25 
 Account of the new-invented Pennsylvania Fireplaces; 
 wherein their Construction and Manner of Operation is 
 particularly explained; their Advantages above every 
 other Method of warming Rooms demonstrated; and all 
 Objections that have been raised against the Use of themSQ 
 answered and obviated, etc. This pamphlet had a good 
 effect. Governor Thomas was so pleased with the con 
 struction of this stove, as described in it, that he offered 
 to give me a patent for the sole vending of them for a 
 
130 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 term of years; but I declined it from a principle which 
 has ever weighed with me on such occasions, viz., That, 
 as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of oth 
 ers, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others 
 5by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely 
 and generously^ 
 
 An ironmonger in London, however, assuming a good 
 deal of my pamphlet, and working it up into his own, and 
 making some small changes in the machine, which rather 
 
 lOhurt its operation, got a patent for it there, and made, as 
 I was told, a little fortune by it. And this is not the only 
 instance of patents taken out for my inventions by others, 
 though not always with the same success, which I never 
 contested, as having no desire of profiting by patents my- 
 
 15self, and hating disputes. The use of these fireplaces in 
 very many houses, both of this and the neighboring colon 
 ies, has been, and is, a great saving of wood to the inhab 
 itants. 
 
 XIII 
 PUBLIC SERVICES AND DUTIES (I749-I753) 
 
 PEACE being concluded, and the association business 
 20therefore at an end, I turned my thoughts again to the 
 affair of establishing an academy. The first step I took 
 was to associate in the design a number of active friends, 
 of whom the Junto furnished a good part; the next was 
 to write and publish a pamphlet, entitled Proposals Re- 
 2lating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania. This 
 I distributed among the principal inhabitants gratis; and 
 as soon as I could suppose their minds a little prepared by 
 the perusal of it, I set on foot a subscription for opening 
 and supporting an academy; it was to be paid in quotas 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 131 
 
 yearly for five years; by so dividing it, I judged the sub 
 scription might be larger, and I believe it was so, amount 
 ing to no less, if I remember right, than five thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 In the introduction to these proposals, I stated their5 
 publication, not as an act of mine, but of some public- 
 spirited gentlemen, avoiding as much as I could, according 
 to my usual rule, the presenting myself to the public as 
 the author of any scheme for their benefit. 
 
 The subscribers, to carry the project into immediatelO 
 execution, chose out of their number twenty-four trustees, 
 and appointed Mr. Francis, then attorney-general, and 
 myself to draw up constitutions for the government of 
 the academy; which being done and signed, a house was 
 hired, masters engaged, and the schools opened, I think, 15 
 in the same year, 1749. 
 
 The scholars increasing fast, the house was soon found 
 too small, and we were looking out for a piece of ground, 
 properly situated, with intention to build, when Provi 
 dence threw into our way a large house ready built, which, 20 
 with a few alterations, migh well serve our purpose. 
 This was the building before mentioned, erected by the 
 hearers of Mr. Whitefield, and was obtained for us in the 
 following manner. 
 
 It is to be noted that the contributions to this build-25 
 ing being made by people of different sects, care was 
 taken in the nomination of trustees, in whom the build 
 ing and ground was to be vested, that a predominancy 
 should not be given to any sect, lest in time that pre 
 dominancy might be a means of appropriating the whole 30 
 to the use of such sect, contrary to the original intention. 
 It was therefore that one of each sect was appointed, viz., 
 one Church-of-England man, one Presbyterian, one Bap 
 tist, one Moravian, etc. ; those, in case of vacancy by death. 
 
132 FranklirTs Autobiography 
 
 were to fill it by election from among the contributors. 
 The Moravian happened not to please his colleagues, and 
 on his death they resolved to have no other of that sect. 
 The difficulty then was, how to avoid having two of some 
 5other sect, by means of the new choice. 
 
 Several persons were named, and for that reason not 
 agreed to. At length one mentioned me, with the obser 
 vation that I was merely an honest man, and of no sect at 
 all, which prevailed with them to choose me. The en- 
 
 lOthusiasm which existed when the house was built had long 
 since abated, and its trustees had not been able to pro 
 cure fresh contributions for paying the ground-rent, and 
 discharging some other debts the building had occasioned, 
 which embarrassed them greatly. Being now a member 
 
 15of both sets of trustees, that for the building and that for 
 the academy, I had a good opportunity of negotiating 
 with both, and brought them finally to an agreement, by 
 which the trustees for the building were to cede it 
 to those of the academy, the latter undertaking to dis- 
 
 20charge the debt, to keep forever open in the building a 
 large hall for occasional preachers, according to the orig 
 inal intention, and maintain a free-school for the instruc 
 tion of poor children. Writings were accordingly drawn, 
 and on paying the debts the trustees of the academy were 
 
 25put in possession of the premises; and by dividing the 
 great and lofty hall into stories, and different rooms above 
 and below for the several schools, and purchasing some 
 additional ground, the whole was soon made fit for our 
 purpose, and the scholars removed into the building. The 
 
 SOcare and trouble of agreeing with the workmen, purchas 
 ing materials, and superintending the work, fell upon me ; 
 and I went through it the more cheerfully, as it did not 
 then interfere with my private business, having the year 
 before taken a very able, industrious, and honest partner, 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 133 
 
 Mr. David Hall, with whose character I was well ac 
 quainted, as he had worked for me four years. He took 
 off my hands all care of the printing-office, paying me 
 punctually my share of the profits. This partnership 
 continued eighteen years, successfully for us both. 5 
 
 The trustees of the academy, after a while, were incor 
 porated by a charter from the governor; their funds were 
 increased by contributions in Britain and grants of land 
 from the proprietaries, to which the Assembly has since 
 made considerable addition; and thus was establishedlO 
 the present University of Philadelphia. I have been 
 continued one of its trustees from the beginning, now 
 near forty years, and have had the very great pleasure of 
 seeing a number of the youth who have received their 
 education in it, distinguished by their improved abilities, 15 
 serviceable in public stations, and ornaments to their 
 country. 
 
 When I disengaged myself, as above mentioned, from 
 private business, I flattered myself that, by the sufficient 
 though moderate fortune I had acquired, I had secured 20 
 leisure during the rest of my life for philosophical studies 
 and amusements. I purchased all Dr. Spence s apparatus, 
 who had come from England to lecture here, and I pro 
 ceeded in my electrical experiments with great alacrity; 
 but the public, now considering me as a man of leisure, 25 
 laid hold of me for their purposes, every part of our civil 
 government, and almost at the same time, imposing some 
 duty upon me. The governor put me into the commis 
 sion of the peace; the corporation of the city chose me 
 of the common council, and soon after an alderman; andSO 
 the citizens at large chose me a burgess to represent them 
 in Assembly. This latter station was the more agreeable 
 to me, as I was at length tired with sitting there to hear 
 debates, in which, as clerk, I could take no part, and 
 
134 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 which were often so imentertaining that I was induced to 
 amuse myself with making magic squares or circles, or 
 anything to avoid weariness; and I conceived my be 
 coming a member would enlarge my power of doing 
 5 good. I would not, however, insinuate that my ambition 
 was not flattered by all these promotions ; it certainly was ; 
 for, considering my low beginning, they were great things 
 to me; and they were still more pleasing, as being so 
 many spontaneous testimonies of the public good opinion, 
 
 lOand by me entirely unsolicited. 
 
 The office of justice of the peace I tried a little, by 
 attending a few courts, and sitting on the bench to hear 
 causes; but finding that more knowledge of the common 
 law than I possessed was necessary to act in that station 
 
 15with credit, I gradually withdrew from it, excusing myself 
 by my being obliged to attend the higher duties of a 
 legislator in the Assembly. My election to this trust was 
 repeated every year for ten years, without my ever asking 
 any elector for his vote, or signifying, either directly or 
 
 20indirectly, any desire of being chosen. On taking my 
 seat in the House, my son was appointed their clerk. 
 
 The year following, a treaty being to be held with the 
 Indians at Carlisle, the governor sent a message to the 
 House, proposing that they should nominate some of their 
 
 25members, to be joined with some members of council, as 
 commissioners for that purpose. The House named the 
 speaker (Mr. Norris) and myself; and, being commis 
 sioned, we went to Carlisle, and met the Indians accord 
 ingly. 
 
 30 As those people are extremely apt to get drunk, and, 
 when so, are very quarrelsome and disorderly, we strictly 
 forbade the selling any liquor to them; and when they 
 complained of this restriction, we told them that if they 
 would continue sober during the treaty, we would give 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 135 
 
 them plenty of rum when business was over. They 
 promised this, and they kept their promise, because they 
 could get no liquor, and the treaty was conducted very 
 orderly, and concluded to mutual satisfaction. They then 
 claimed and received the rum; this was in the afternoon :5 
 they were near one hundred men, women, and children, 
 and were lodged in temporary cabins, built in the form of 
 a square, just without the town. In the evening, hearing 
 a great noise among them, the commissioners walked out 
 to see what was the matter. We found they had made alO 
 great bonfire in the middle of the square; they were all 
 drunk, men and women, quarreling and fighting. Their 
 dark-colored bodies, half naked, seen only by the gloomy 
 light of the bonfire, running after and beating one another 
 with firebrands, accompanied by their horrid yellings,15 
 formed a scene the most resembling our ideas of hell that 
 could well be imagined; there was no appeasing the 
 tumult, and we retired to our lodging. At midnight a 
 number of them came thundering at our door, demanding 
 more rum, of which we took no notice. 20 
 
 The next day, sensible they had misbehaved in giving 
 us that disturbance, they sent three of their old counselors 
 to make their apology. The orator acknowledged the 
 fault, but laid it upon the rum; and then endeavored to 
 excuse the rum by saying, " The Great Spirit, who made2b 
 all things, made everything for some use, and whatever 
 use he designed anything for, that use it should always be 
 put to. Now, when he made rum, he said, Let this be 
 for the Indians to get drunk with/ and it must be so" 
 And, indeed, if it be the design of Providence to extirpateSO 
 these savages in order to make room for cultivators of the 
 earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be the ap 
 pointed means. It has already annihilated all the tribes 
 who formerly inhabited the sea-coast. 
 
136 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 In 1751, Dr. Thomas Bond, a particular friend of mine, 
 conceived the idea of establishing a hospital in Phila 
 delphia (a very beneficent design, which has been ascribed 
 to me, but was originally his), for the reception and cure 
 5of poor sick persons, whether inhabitants of the province 
 or strangers. He was zealous and active in endeavoring 
 to procure subscriptions for it, but the proposal being a 
 novelty in America, and at first not well understood, he 
 met but with small success. 
 
 10 At length he came to me with the compliment that he 
 found there was no such thing as carrying a public-spirited 
 project through without my being concerned in it. 
 " For," says he, " I am often asked by those to whom I 
 propose subscribing, Have you consulted Franklin upon 
 
 15this business? And what does he think of it? And 
 when I tell them that I have not (supposing it rather out 
 of your line), they do not subscribe, but say they will 
 consider of it." I inquired into the nature and probable 
 utility of his scheme, and receiving from him a very sat- 
 
 20isfactory explanation, I not only subscribed to it myself, 
 but engaged heartily in the design of procuring subscrip 
 tions from others. Previously, however, to the solicita 
 tion, I endeavored to prepare the minds of the people by 
 writing on the subject in the newspapers, which was my 
 
 25usual custom in such cases, but which he had omitted. 
 
 The subscriptions afterwards were more free and gen 
 erous; but, beginning to flag, I saw they would be in 
 sufficient without some assistance from the Assembly, 
 and therefore proposed to petition for it, which was done. 
 
 30The country members did not at first relish the project; 
 they objected that it could only be serviceable to the city, 
 and therefore the citizens alone should be at the expense 
 of it; and they doubted whether the citizens themselves 
 generally approved of it. My allegation on the contrary, 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 137 
 
 that it met with such approbation as to leave no doubt of 
 i our being able to raise two thousand pounds by voluntary 
 donations, they considered as a most extravagant suppo 
 sition, and utterly impossible. 
 
 On this I formed my plan; and, asking leave to brings 
 in a bill for incorporating the contributors according to 
 the prayer of their petition, and granting them a blank 
 sum of money, which leave was obtained chiefly on the 
 consideration that the House could throw the bill out if 
 they did not like it, I drew it so as to make the impor-10 
 tant clause a conditional one, viz., " And be it enacted, 
 by the authority aforesaid, that when the said contributors 
 shall have met and chosen their managers and treasurer, 
 and shall have raised by their contributions a capital stock 
 
 O f value (the yearly interest of which is to be 15 
 
 applied to the accommodating of the sick poor in the said 
 hospital, free of charge for diet, attendance, advice, and 
 medicines), and shall make the same appear to the satis 
 faction of the speaker of the Assembly for the time being, 
 that then it shall and may be lawful for the said speaker, 20 
 and he is hereby required, to sign an order on the pro 
 vincial treasurer for the payment of two thousand pounds, 
 in two yearly payments, to the treasurer of the said hospi 
 tal, to be applied to the founding, building, and finishing 
 of the same." 25 
 
 This condition carried the bill through; for the mem 
 bers, who had opposed the grant, and now conceived they 
 might have the credit of being charitable without the ex 
 pense, agreed to its passage; and then, in soliciting sub 
 scriptions among the people, we urged the conditional 30 
 promise of the law as an additional motive to give, since 
 every man s donation would be doubled ; thus the clause 
 worked both ways. The subscriptions accordingly soon 
 exceeded the requisite sum, and we claimed and received 
 
138 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 the public gift, which enabled us to carry the design into 
 execution. A convenient and handsome building was 
 soon erected; the institution has by constant experience 
 been found useful, and flourishes to this day; and I do 
 5not remember any of my political maneuvers, the success 
 of which gave me at the time more pleasure, or wherein, 
 after thinking of it, I more easily excused myself for 
 having made some use of cunning. 
 
 It was about this time that another projector, the Rev. 
 
 lOGilbert Tennent, came to me with a request that I would 
 assist him in procuring a subscription for erecting a new 
 meeting-house. It was to be for the use of a congrega 
 tion he had gathered among the Presbyterians, who were 
 originally disciples of Mr. Whitefield. Unwilling to | 
 
 ISmake myself disagreeable to my fellow-citizens by too fre 
 quently soliciting their contributions, I absolutely refused. 
 He then desired I would furnish him with a list of the 
 names of persons I knew by experience to be generous and 
 public-spirited. I thought it would be unbecoming in 
 
 20me, after their kind compliance with my solicitations, to 
 mark them out to be worried by other beggars, and there 
 fore refused also to give such a list. He then desired I 
 would at least give him my advice. " That I will readily 
 do," said I ; " and, in the first place, I advise you to 
 
 25apply to all those whom you know will give something; 
 next, to those whom you are uncertain whether they will 
 give anything or not, and show them the list of those 
 who have given ; and, lastly, do not neglect those who 
 you are sure will give nothing, for in some of them you 
 
 30may be mistaken." He laughed and thanked me, and said 
 he would take my advice. He did so, for he asked of 
 everybody, and he obtained a much larger sum than he 
 expected, with which he erected the capacious and very 
 elegant meeting-house that stands in Arch Street, 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 139 
 
 Our city, though laid out with a beautiful regularity, 
 the streets large, straight, and crossing each other at right 
 angles, had the disgrace of suffering those streets to re 
 main long unpaved, and in wet weather the wheels of 
 heavy carriages ploughed them into a quagmire, so that it5 
 was difficult to cross them; and in dry weather the dust 
 was offensive. I had lived near what was called the Jersey 
 Market, and saw with pain the inhabitants wading in mud 
 while purchasing their provisions. A strip of ground 
 down the middle of that market was at length paved withlC 
 brick, so that, being once in the market, they had firm 
 footing, but were often over shoes in dirt to get there. 
 By talking and writing on the subject, I was at length 
 instrumental in getting the street paved with stone between 
 the market and the bricked foot-pavement that was on 16 
 each side next the houses. This, for some time, gave an 
 easy access to the market dry-shod ; but, the rest of the 
 street not being paved, whenever a carriage came out of 
 the mud upon this pavement, it shook off and left its dirt 
 upon it, and it was soon covered with mire, which was not 20 
 removed, the city as yet having no scavengers. 
 
 After some inquiry, I found a poor, industrious man, 
 who was willing to undertake keeping the pavement clean, 
 by sweeping it twice a week, carrying off the dirt from 
 before all the neighbors doors, for the sum of sixpence 2 5 
 per month, to be paid by each house. I then wrote and 
 printed a paper setting forth the advantages to the neigh 
 borhood that might be obtained by this small expense; 
 the greater ease in keeping our houses clean, so much 
 dirt not being brought in by people s feet; the benefit toSO 
 the shops by more custom, etc., etc., as buyers could 
 more easily get at them; and by not having, in windy 
 weather, the dust blown in upon their goods, etc., etc. I 
 sent one of these papers to each house, and in a day or 
 
140 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 two went round to see who would subscribe an agreement 
 to pay these sixpences; it was unanimously signed, and 
 for a time well executed. All the inhabitants of the city 
 were delighted with the cleanliness of the pavement that 
 6surrounded the market, it being a convenience to all, 
 and this raised a general desire to have all the streets 
 paved, and made the people more willing to submit to a 
 tax for that purpose. 
 
 After some time I drew a bill for paving the city, and 
 
 lObrought it into the Assembly. It was just before I went 
 to England, in 1757, and did not pass till I was gone, 
 and then with an alteration in the mode of assessment, 
 which I thought not for the better, but with an additional 
 provision for lighting as well as paving the streets, which 
 
 IBwas a great improvement. It was by a private person, 
 the late Mr. John Clifton, his giving a sample of the utility 
 of lamps, by placing one at his door, that the people were 
 first impressed with the idea of enlighting all the city. 
 The honor of this public benefit has also been ascribed 
 
 20to me, but it belongs truly to that gentleman. I did 
 but follow his example, and have only some merit to 
 claim respecting the form of our lamps, as differing from 
 the globe lamps we were at first supplied with from Lon 
 don. Those we found inconvenient in these respects: 
 
 25they admitted no air below; the smoke, therefore, did 
 not readily go out above, but circulated in the globe, 
 lodged on its inside, and soon obstructed the light they 
 were intended to afford ; giving, besides, the daily trouble 
 of wiping them clean ; and an accidental stroke on one 
 
 30of them would demolish it, and render it totally useless. 
 I therefore suggested the composing them of four flat 
 panes, with a long funnel above to draw up the smoke, 
 and crevices admitting air below, to facilitate the ascent 
 of the smoke; by this means they were kept clean, and 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 141 
 
 did not grow dark in a few hours, as the London lamps 
 do, but continued bright till morning, and an accidental 
 stroke would generally break but a single pane, easily 
 repaired. 
 
 I have sometimes wondered that the Londoners did 5 
 not, from the effect holes in the bottom of the globe 
 lamps used at Vauxhall have in keeping them clean, learn 
 to have such holes in their street lamps. But, these 
 holes being made for another purpose, viz., to communi 
 cate flame more suddenly to the wick by a little flaxlO 
 hanging down through them, the other use, of letting in 
 air, seems not to have been thought of; and therefore, 
 after the lamps have been lit a few hours, the streets of 
 London are very poorly illuminated. 
 
 The mention of these improvements puts me in mind 15 
 of one I proposed, when in London, to Dr. Fothergill, who 
 was among the best men I have known, and a great pro 
 moter of useful projects. I had observed that the streets, 
 when dry, were never swept, and the light dust carried 
 away; but it was suffered to accumulate till wet weather 20 
 reduced it to mud, and then, after lying some days so 
 deep on the pavement that there was no crossing but in 
 paths kept clean by poor people with brooms, it was with 
 great labor raked together and thrown up into carts open 
 above, the sides of which suffered some of the slush at25 
 every jolt on the pavement to shake out and fall, 
 sometimes to the annoyance of foot-passengers. The 
 reason given for not sweeping the dusty streets was 
 that the dust would fly into the windows of shops and 
 houses. 30 
 
 An accidental occurrence had instructed me how much 
 sweeping might be done in a little time. I found at my 
 door in Craven Street, one morning, a poor woman sweep 
 ing my pavement with a birch broom; she appeared very 
 
142 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 pale and feeble, as just come out of a fit of sickness. I 
 asked who employed her to sweep there ; she said, " No 
 body, but I am very poor and in distress, and I sweeps 
 before gentlefolkses doors, and hopes they will give me 
 5something." I bid her sweep the whole street clean, and 
 I would give her a shilling; this was at nine o clock; at 
 12 she came for the shilling. From the slowness I saw 
 at first in her working, I could scarce believe that the 
 work was done so soon, and sent my servant to examine 
 
 10 it, who reported that the whole street was swept perfectly 
 clean, and all the dust placed in the gutter, which was in 
 the middle; and the next rain washed it quite away, so 
 that the pavement and even the kennel were perfectly 
 clean. 
 
 15 I then judged that, if that feeble woman could sweep 
 such a street in three hours, a strong, active man might 
 have done it in half the time. And here let me remark 
 the convenience of having but one gutter in such a narrow 
 street, running down its middle, instead of two, one on 
 
 20each side, near the footway; for where all the rain that 
 falls on a street runs from the sides and meets in the 
 middle, it forms there a current strong enough to wash 
 away all the mud it meets with; but when divided into 
 two channels, it is often too weak to cleanse either, and 
 
 25only makes the mud it finds more fluid, so that the wheels 
 of carriages and feet of horses throw and dash it upon 
 the foot-pavement, which is thereby rendered foul and 
 slippery, and sometimes splash it upon those who are 
 walking. My proposal, communicated to the good doctor, 
 
 30 was as follows: 
 
 " For the more effectual cleaning and keeping clean 
 the streets of London and Westminster, it is proposed 
 that the several watchmen be contracted with to have 
 the dust swept up in dry seasons, and the mud raked up 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 143 
 
 at other times, each in the several streets and lanes of 
 his round; that they be furnished with brooms and other 
 proper instruments for these purposes, to be kept at their 
 respective stands, ready to furnish the poor people they 
 may employ in the service. 5 
 
 " That in the dry summer months the dust be all swept 
 up into heaps at proper distances, before the shops and 
 windows of houses are usually opened, when the scav 
 engers, with close-covered carts, shall also carry it all 
 away. 10 
 
 " That the mud, when raked up, be not left in heaps to 
 be spread abroad again by the wheels of carriages and 
 trampling of horses, but that the scavengers be provided 
 with bodies of carts, not placed high upon wheels, but 
 low upon sliders, with lattice bottoms, which, being cov-15 
 ered with straw, will retain the mud thrown into them, 
 and permit the water to drain from it, whereby it will be 
 come much lighter, water making the greatest part of its 
 weight ; these bodies of carts to be placed at convenient dis 
 tances, and the mud brought to them in wheelbarrows; 20 
 they remaining where placed till the mud is drained, and 
 then horses brought to draw them away." 
 
 I have since had doubts of the practicability of the 
 latter part of this proposal, on account of the narrowness 
 of some streets, and the difficulty of placing the draining-25 
 sleds so as not to encumber too much the passage; but 
 I am still of opinion that the former, requiring the dust 
 to be swept up and carried away before the shops are 
 open, is very practicable in the summer, when the days 
 are long; for, in walking through the Strand and Fleet 30 
 Street one morning at seven o clock, I observed there was 
 not one shop open, though it had been daylight and the 
 sun up above three hours; the inhabitants of London 
 choosing voluntarily to live much by candle light, arid 
 
144 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 sleep by sunshine, and yet often complain, a little absurdly x 
 of the duty on candles, and the high price of tallow. 
 
 Some may think these trifling matters not worth mind 
 ing or relating; but when they consider that though dust 
 5blown into the eyes of a single person, or into a single 
 shop on a windy day, is but of small importance, yet the 
 great number of the instances in a populous city, and its 
 frequent repetitions give it weight and consequence, per 
 haps they will not censure very severely those who be- 
 
 lOstow some attention to affairs of this seemingly low 
 nature. Human felicity is produced not so much by 
 great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by 
 little advantages that occur every day. Thus, if you 
 teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his 
 
 15 razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness 
 of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas. The 
 money may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of 
 having foolishly consumed it; but in the other case, 
 he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, 
 
 20and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, 
 and dull razors; he shaves when most convenient to him, 
 and enjoys daily the pleasure of its being done with a 
 good instrument. With these sentiments I have hazarded 
 the few preceding pages, hoping they may afford hints 
 
 2 5 which some time or other may be useful to a city I love, 
 having lived many years in it very happily, and perhaps 
 to some of our towns in America. 
 
 Having been for some time employed by the post 
 master-general of America as his comptroller in regu- 
 
 30lating several offices, and bringing the officers to account, 
 I was, upon his death in 1753, appointed, jointly with 
 Mr. William Hunter, to succeed him, by a commission 
 from the postmaster-general in England. The American 
 office never had hitherto paid anything to that of Britain. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 145 
 
 We were to have six hundred pounds a year between us, 
 if we could make that sum out of the profits of the office. 
 To do this, a variety of improvements were necessary; 
 some of these were inevitably at first expensive, so that in 
 the first four years the office became above nine hundreds 
 pounds in debt to us. But it soon after began to repay 
 us ; and before I was displaced by a freak of the ministers, 
 of which I shall speak hereafter, we had brought it to 
 yield three times as much clear revenue to the crown as 
 the post-office of Ireland. Since that imprudent transac-10 
 tion, they have received from it not one farthing! 
 
 The business of the post-office occasioned my taking a 
 journey this year to New England, where the College of 
 Cambridge, of their own motion, presented me with the 
 degree of Master of Arts. Yale College, in Connecticut,15 
 had before made me a similar compliment. Thus, with 
 out studying in any college, I came to partake of their 
 honors. They were conferred in consideration of my 
 improvements and discoveries in the electric branch of 
 natural philosophy. 20 
 
 XIV 
 ALBANY PLAN OF UNION 
 
 IN 1754, war with France being again apprehended, a 
 congress of commissioners from the different colonies 
 was, by an order of the Lords of Trade, to be assembled at 
 Albany, there to confer with the chiefs of the Six Nations 
 concerning the means of defending both their country25 
 and ours. Governor Hamilton, having received this or 
 der, acquainted the House with it, requesting they would 
 furnish proper presents for the Indians, to be given 
 on this occasion; and naming the speaker (Mr. Norris) 
 
146 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 and myself to join Mr. Thomas Penn and Mr. Sec 
 retary Peters as commissioners to act for Pennsylvania. 
 The House approved the nomination, and provided the 
 goods for the present, and though they did not much like 
 5treating out of the provinces; and we met the other com 
 missioners at Albany about the middle of June. 
 
 In our way thither, I projected and drew a plan for 
 the union of all the colonies under one government, so 
 far as might be necessary for defense, and other impor- 
 
 lOtant general purposes. As we passed through New York, 
 I had there shown my project to Mr. James Alexander 
 and Mr. Kennedy, two gentlemen of great knowledge 
 in public affairs, and, being fortified by their approbation, 
 I ventured to lay it before the Congress. It then ap- 
 
 15peared that several of the commissioners had formed plans 
 of the same kind. A previous question was first taken, 
 whether a union should be established, which passed in the 
 affirmative unanimously. A committee was then ap 
 pointed, one member from each colony, to consider the 
 
 20several plans and report. Mine happened to be pre 
 ferred, and, with a few amendments, was accordingly 
 reported. 
 
 By this plan the general government was to be adminis 
 tered by a president-general, appointed and supported by 
 
 2 5 the crown, and a grand council was to be chosen by the 
 representatives of the people of the several colonies, met 
 in their respective assemblies. The debates upon it in 
 Congress went on daily, hand in hand with the Indian 
 business. Many objections and difficulties were started, 
 
 30but at length they were all overcome, and the plan was 
 unanimously agreed to, and copies ordered to be trans 
 mitted to the Board of Trade and to the assemblies of 
 the several provinces. Its fate was singular; the assem 
 blies did not adopt it, as they all thought there was too 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 147 
 
 much prerogative in it, and in England it was judged to 
 have too much of the democratic. The Board of Trade 
 therefore did not approve of it, nor recommend it for the 
 approbation of his majesty; but another scheme was 
 formed, supposed to answer the same purpose better, 5 
 whereby the governors of the provinces, with some mem 
 bers of their respective councils, were to meet and order 
 the raising of troops, building of forts, etc., and to draw 
 on the treasury of Great Britain for the expense, which 
 was afterwards to be refunded by an act of Parliament 10 
 laying a tax on America. My plan, with my reasons in 
 support of it, is to be found among my political papers 
 that are printed. 
 
 Being the winter following in Boston, I had much 
 conversation with Governor Shirley upon both the plans. 15 
 Part of what passed between us on the occasion may also 
 be seen among those papers. The different and con 
 trary reasons of dislike to my plan makes me suspect that 
 it was really the true medium; and I am still of opinion 
 it would have been happy for both sides the water if 20 
 it had been adopted. The colonies, so united, would 
 have been sufficiently strong to have defended themselves; 
 there would then have been no need of troops from Eng 
 land ; of course, the subsequent pretense for taxing Amer 
 ica, and the bloody contest it occasioned, would have 25 
 been avoided. But such mistakes are not new; history 
 is full of the errors of states and princes. 
 
 "Look round the habitable world, how few 
 Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue ! " 
 
 Those who govern, having much business on theirso 
 hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of con 
 sidering and carrying into execution new projects. The 
 
148 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from 
 previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion. 
 
 The Governor of Pennsylvania, in sending it down to 
 the Assembly, expressed his approbation of the plan, " as 
 Bappearing to him to be drawn up with great clearness 
 and strength of judgment, and therefore recommended 
 it as well worthy of their closest and most serious atten 
 tion." The House, however, by the management of a 
 certain member, took it up when I happened to be ab- 
 lOsent, which I thought not very fair, and reprobated it 
 without paying any attention to it at all, to my no small 
 mortification. 
 
 XV 
 
 QUARRELS WITH THE PROPRIETARY GOV 
 ERNORS 
 
 IN my journey to Boston this year, I met at New York 
 with our new governor, Mr. Morris, just arrived there 
 
 15from England, with whom I had been before intimately 
 acquainted. He brought a commission to supersede Mr. 
 Hamilton, who, tired with the disputes his proprietary in 
 structions subjected him to, had resigned. Mr. Morris 
 asked me if I thought he must expect as uncomfortable an 
 
 20administration. I said, "No; you may, on the contrary, 
 have a very comfortable one, if you will only take care not 
 to enter into any dispute with the Assembly." " My 
 dear friend," says he, pleasantly, " how can you advise my 
 avoiding disputes? You know I love disputing; it is 
 
 25one of my greatest pleasures; however, to show the re 
 gard I have for your counsel, I promise you I will, if 
 possible, avoid them." He had some reason for loving 
 to dispute, being eloquent, an acute sophister, and, there- 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 149 
 
 fore, generally successful in argumentative conversation. 
 He had been brought up to it from a boy, his father, as 
 I have heard, accustoming his children to dispute with 
 one another for his diversion, while sitting at table after 
 dinner; but I think the practice was not wise; for, in5 
 the course of my observation, these disputing, contra 
 dicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate 
 in their affairs. They get victory sometimes, but they 
 never get good will, which would be of more use to 
 them. We parted, he going to Philadelphia, and I to 10 
 Boston. 
 
 In returning, I met at New York with the votes of the 
 Assembly, by which it appeared that, notwithstanding his 
 promise to me, he and the House were already in high 
 contention; and it was a continual battle between them 15 
 as long as he retained the government. I had my share 
 of it; for, as soon as I got back to my seat in the Assem 
 bly, I was put on every committee for answering his 
 speeches and messages, and by the committees always 
 desired to make the drafts. Our answers, as well as his 20 
 messages, were often tart, and sometimes indecently 
 abusive; and, as he knew I wrote for the Assembly, one 
 might have imagined that, when we met, we could 
 hardly avoid cutting throats; but he was so good-natured 
 a man that no personal difference between him and me 2 5 
 was occasioned by the contest, and we often dined to 
 gether. 
 
 One afternoon, in the height of this public quarrel, we 
 met in the street. " Franklin," says he, " you must go 
 home with me and spend the evening; I am to haveso 
 some company that you will like;" and, taking me by 
 the arm, he led me to his house. In gay conversation 
 over our wine, after supper, he told us, jokingly, that he 
 much admired the idea of Sancho Panza, who, when it wa$ 
 
150 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 proposed to give him a government, requested it might be a 
 government of blacks, as then, if he could not agree with 
 his people, he might sell them. One of his friends, who sat 
 next to me, says, " Franklin, why do you continue to side 
 5with these damned Quakers? Had not you better sell 
 them? The proprietor would give you a good price." 
 " The governor," says I, " has not yet blacked them 
 enough." He, indeed, had labored hard to blacken the 
 Assembly in all his messages, but they wiped off his color- 
 
 lOing as fast as he laid it on, and placed it, in return, thick 
 upon his own face; so that, finding he was likely to be 
 negrofied himself, he, as well as Mr. Hamilton, grew 
 tired of the contest, and quitted the government. 
 
 These public quarrels were all at bottom owing to the 
 
 15proprietaries, our hereditary governors, who, when any 
 expense was to be incurred for the defense of their prov 
 ince, with incredible meanness instructed their deputies to 
 pass no act for levying the necessary taxes, unless their 
 vast estates were in the same act expressly excused; and 
 
 20they had even taken bonds of these deputies to observe such 
 instructions. The Assemblies for three years held out 
 against this injustice, though constrained to bend at last. 
 At length Captain Denny, who was Governor Morris s 
 successor, ventured to disobey those instructions; how 
 
 25that was brought about I shall show hereafter. 
 
 But I am got forward too fast with my story: there are 
 still some transactions to be mentioned that happened 
 during the administration of Governor Morris. 
 
 War being in a manner commenced with France, the 
 
 SOgovernment of Massachusetts Bay projected an attack 
 upon Crown Point, and sent Mr. Quincy to Pennsylvania, 
 and Mr. Pownall, afterward Governor Pownall, to New 
 York, to solicit assistance. As I was in the Assembly, 
 knew its temper, and was Mr. Quincy s countryman, he 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 151 
 
 applied to me for my influence and assistance. I dictated 
 his address to them, which was well received. They 
 voted an aid of ten thousand pounds, to be laid out in pro 
 visions. But the governor refusing his assent to their bill 
 (which included this with other sums granted for the use5 
 of the crown), unless a clause were inserted exempting the 
 proprietary estate from bearing any part of the tax that 
 would be necessary, the Assembly, though very desirous of 
 making their grant to New England effectual, were at 
 a loss how to accomplish it. Mr. Quincy labored hard 10 
 with the governor to obtain his assent, but he was ob 
 stinate. 
 
 I then suggested a method of doing the business with 
 out the governor, by orders on the trustees of the Loan 
 Office, which, by law, the Assembly had the right of!5 
 drawing. There w y as, indeed, little or no money at that 
 time in the office, and therefore I proposed that the orders 
 should be payable in a year, and to bear an interest 
 of five per cent. With these orders I supposed the pro 
 visions might easily be purchased. The Assembly, with 20 
 very little hesitation, adopted the proposal. The orders 
 were immediately printed, and I was one of the committee 
 directed to sign and dispose of them. The fund for 
 paying them was the interest of all the paper currency 
 then extant in the province upon loan, together with the 25 
 revenue arising from the excise, which being known to be 
 more than sufficient, they obtained instant credit, and 
 were not only received in payment for the provisions, but 
 many moneyed people, who had cash lying by them, 
 vested it in those orders, which they found advantageous, 30 
 as they bore interest while upon hand, and might on any 
 occasion be used as money; so that they were eagerly 
 all bought up, and in a few weeks none of them were to 
 be seen. Thus this important affair was by my means 
 
152 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 completed. Mr. Quincy returned thanks to the Assembly 
 in a handsome memorial, went home highly pleased with 
 the success of his embassy, and ever after bore for me the 
 most cordial and affectionate friendship. 
 
 XVI 
 BRADDOCK S EXPEDITION 
 
 5 THE British government, not choosing to permit the 
 union of the colonies as proposed at Albany, and to trust 
 that union with their defense, lest they should thereby 
 grow too military, and feel their own strength, suspicions 
 and jealousies at this time being entertained of them, sent 
 
 lOover General Braddock with two regiments of regular 
 English troops for that purpose. He landed at Alexan 
 dria, in Virginia, and thence marched to Frederictown, in 
 Maryland, where he halted for carriages. Our Assembly 
 apprehending, from some information, that he had con- 
 
 isceived violent prejudices against them, as averse to the 
 service, wished me to wait upon him, not as from them, 
 but as postmaster-general, under the guise of proposing 
 to settle with him the mode of conducting with most ce 
 lerity and certainty the despatches between him and the 
 
 20governors of the several provinces, with whom he must 
 necessarily have continual correspondence, and of which 
 they proposed to pay the expense. My son accompanied 
 me on this journey. 
 
 We found the general at Frederictown, waiting im- 
 
 25patiently for the return of those he had sent through the 
 back parts of Maryland and Virginia to collect wagons. 
 I stayed with him several days, dined with him daily, and 
 had full opportunity of removing all his prejudices, by the 
 information of what the Assembly had before his arrival 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 153 
 
 actually done, and were still willing to do, to facilitate his 
 operations. When I was about to depart, the returns of 
 wagons to be obtained were brought in, by which it 
 appeared that they amounted only to twenty-five, and not 
 all of those were in serviceable condition. The generals 
 and all the officers were surprised, declared the expedi 
 tion was then at an end, being impossible, and exclaimed 
 against the ministers for ignorantly landing them in a 
 country destitute of the means of conveying their stores, 
 baggage, etc., not less than one hundred and fifty wagonslO 
 being necessary. 
 
 I happened to say I thought it was a pity they had not 
 been landed rather in Pennsylvania, as in that country 
 almost every farmer had his wagon. The general 
 eagerly laid hold of my words, and said, " Then you, sir, 15 
 who are a man of interest there, can probably procure 
 them for us, and I beg you will undertake it." I asked 
 what terms were to be offered the owners of the wagons, 
 and I was desired to put on paper the terms that appeared 
 to me necessary. This I did, and they were agreed to, 20 
 and a commission and instructions accordingly prepared 
 immediately. What those terms were will appear in the 
 advertisement I published as soon as I arrived at Lan 
 caster, which being, from the great and sudden effect it 
 produced, a piece of some curiosity, I shall insert it at 2 5 
 length, as follows : 
 
 " ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 "LANCASTER, April 26, 1755. 
 
 " Whereas, one hundred and fifty wagons, with four 
 horses to each wagon, and fifteen hundred saddle or30 
 pack horses, are wanted for the service of his majesty s 
 forces now about to rendezvous at Will s Creek, and his 
 excellency General Braddock having been pleased to em 
 power me to contract for the hire of the same, I hereby 
 
154 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 give notice that I shall attend for that purpose at Lan 
 caster from this day to next Wednesday evening, and at 
 York from next Thursday morning till Friday evening, 
 where I shall be ready to agree for wagons and teams, or 
 5 single horses, on the following terms, viz.: I. That there 
 shall be paid for each wagon, with four good horses and a 
 driver, fifteen shillings per diem; and for each able horse 
 with a pack-saddle, or other saddle and furniture, two 
 shillings per diem; and for each able horse without a 
 
 lOsaddle, eighteen pence per diem. 2. That the pay com 
 mence from the time of their joining the forces at Will s 
 Creek, which must be on or before the 2Oth of May 
 ensuing, and that a reasonable allowance be paid over and 
 above for the time necessary for their traveling to Will s 
 
 15 Creek and home again after their discharge. 3. Each 
 wagon and team, and every saddle or pack horse, is to 
 be valued by indifferent persons chosen between me and 
 the owner; and in case of the loss of any wagon, team, 
 or other horse in the service, the price according to such 
 
 2 evaluation is to be allowed and paid. 4. Seven days pay 
 is to be advanced and paid in hand by me to the owner 
 of each wagon and team, or horse, at the time of con 
 tracting, if required, and the remainder to be paid by 
 General Braddock, or by the paymaster of the army, at 
 
 25the time of their discharge, or from time to time, as it shall 
 be demanded. 5. No drivers of wagons, or persons 
 taking care of the hired horses, are on any account to be 
 called upon to do the duty of soldiers, or be otherwise 
 employed than in conducting or taking care of their 
 
 SOcarriages or horses. 6. All oats, Indian corn, or other 
 forage that wagons or horses bring to the camp, more than 
 is necessary for the subsistence of the horses, is to be taken 
 for the use of the army, and a reasonable price paid for 
 the same. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 155 
 
 " Note. My son, William Franklin, is empowered to 
 enter into like contracts with any person in Cumberland 
 county. " B. FRANKLIN/ 
 
 " To the inhabitants of the Counties of Lancaster, 
 
 York and Cumberland. 5 
 
 " Friends and Countrymen, 
 
 " Being occasionally at the camp at Frederic a few 
 days since, I found the general and officers extremely 
 exasperated on account of their not being supplied with 
 horses and carriages, which had been expected from thislO 
 province, as most able to furnish them; but, through the 
 dissensions between our governor and Assembly, money 
 had not been provided, nor any steps taken for that 
 purpose. 
 
 " It was proposed to send an armed force immediately 15 
 into these counties, to seize as many of the best carriages 
 and horses as should be wanted, and compel as many 
 persons into the service as would be necessary to drive and 
 take care of them. 
 
 " I apprehended that the progress of British soldiers20 
 through these counties on such an occasion, especially 
 considering the temper they are in, and their resent 
 ment against us, would be attended with many and 
 great inconveniences to the inhabitants, and therefore 
 more willingly took the trouble of trying first what 2 5 
 might be done by fair and equitable means. The people 
 of these back counties have lately complained to the As 
 sembly that a sufficient currency was wanting; you have 
 an opportunity of receiving and dividing among you a 
 very considerable sum; for, if the service of this expedi-30 
 tion should continue, as it is more than probable it will, 
 for one hundred and twenty days, the hire of these wagons 
 and horses will amount to upward of thirty thousand 
 
156 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 pounds, which will be paid you in silver and gold of the 
 king s money. 
 
 " The service will be light and easy, for the army will 
 scarce march above twelve miles per day, and the wagons 
 Band baggage-horses, as they carry those things that are 
 absolutely necessary to the welfare of the army, must 
 march with the army, and no faster; and are, for the 
 army s sake, always placed where they can be most secure, 
 whether in a march or in a camp. 
 
 10 " If you are really, as I believe you are, good and 
 loyal subjects to his majesty, you may now do a most 
 acceptable service, and make it easy to yourselves; for 
 three or four of such as cannot separately spare from the 
 business of their plantations a wagon and four horses and 
 
 15a driver, may do it together, one furnishing the wagon, 
 another one or two horses, and another the driver, and 
 divide the pay proportionably between you; but if you do 
 not this service to your king and country voluntarily, 
 when such good pay and reasonable terms are offered to 
 
 20you, your loyalty will be strongly suspected. The king s 
 business must be done; so many brave troops, come so 
 far for your defense, must not stand idle through your 
 backwardness to do what may be reasonably expected 
 from you; wagons and horses must be had; violent 
 
 25measures will probably be used, and you will be left to 
 seek for a recompense where you can find it, and your 
 case, perhaps, be little pitied or regarded. 
 
 " I have no particular interest in this affair, as, except 
 the satisfaction of endeavoring to do good, I shall have 
 
 SOonly my labor for my pains. If this method of obtain 
 ing the wagons and horses is not likely to succeed, I am 
 obliged to send word to the general in fourteen days; 
 and I suppose Sir John St. Clair, the hussar, with a body 
 of soldiers, will immediately enter the province for the 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 157 
 
 purpose, which I shall be sorry to hear, because I am 
 very sincerely and truly your friend and well-wisher, 
 
 " B. FRANKLIN/ 
 
 I received of the general about eight hundred pounds, 
 to be disbursed in advance-money to the wagon owners, 5 
 etc.; but that sum being insufficient, I advanced upward 
 of two hundred pounds more, and in two weeks the one 
 hundred and fifty wagons, with two hundred and fifty- 
 nine carrying horses, were on their march for the camp. 
 The advertisement promised payment according to the 10 
 valuation, in case any wagon or horse should be lost. 
 The owners, however, alleging they did not know General 
 Braddock, or what dependence might be had on his 
 promise, insisted on my bond for the performance, which 
 I accordingly gave them. 15 
 
 While I was at the camp, supping one evening with the 
 officers of Colonel Dunbar s regiment he represented to 
 me his concern for the subalterns, who, he said, were 
 generally not in affluence and could ill afford, in this 
 dear country, to lay in the stores that might be necessary 20 
 in so long a march, through a wilderness, where nothing 
 was to be purchased. I commiserated their case, and 
 resolved to endeavor procuring them some relief. I 
 said nothing, however, to him of my intention, but 
 wrote the next morning to the committee of the Assem-25 
 bly, who had the disposition of some public money, 
 warmly recommending the case of these officers to their 
 consideration, and proposing that a present should be 
 sent them of necessaries and refreshments. My son, 
 who had some experience of a camp life, and of its wants, 30 
 drew up a list for me, which I enclosed in my letter. 
 The committee approved, and used such diligence that, 
 conducted by my son, the stores arrived at the camp as 
 
158 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 soon as the wagons. They consisted of twenty parcels, 
 each containing 
 
 6 Ibs. loaf sugar. i Gloucester cheese. 
 
 6 Ibs. good Muscovado do. i keg containing 20 Ibs. good 
 5 i Ib. good green tea. butter. 
 
 i Ib. good bohea do. 2 doz. old Madeira wine. 
 
 6 Ibs. good ground coffee. 2 gallons Jamaica spirits. 
 
 6 Ibs. chocolate. i bottle flour of mustard. 
 
 1-2 cvvt. best white biscuit. 2 well-cured hams. 
 
 10 1-2 Ib. pepper. 1-2 dozen dried tongues, 
 i quart best white wine vine- 6 Ibs. rice, 
 
 gar. 6 Ibs. raisins. 
 
 These twenty parcels, well packed, were placed on as 
 many horses, each parcel, with the horse, being intended 
 
 15as a present for one officer. They were very thankfully 
 received, and the kindness acknowledged by letters to me 
 from the colonels of both regiments, in the most grateful 
 terms. The general, too, was highly satisfied with my 
 conduct in procuring him the wagons, etc., and readily 
 
 20paid my account of disbursements, thanking me repeat 
 edly, and requesting my farther assistance in sending pro 
 visions after him. I undertook this also, and was busily 
 employed in it till we heard of his defeat, advanc 
 ing for the service of my own money, upwards of one 
 
 25thousand pounds sterling, of which I sent him an ac 
 count. It came to his hands, luckily for me, a few days 
 before the battle, and he returned me immediately an 
 order on the paymaster for the round sum of one thousand 
 pounds, leaving the remainder to the next account. I 
 
 SOconsider this payment as good luck, having never been 
 
 able to obtain that remainder, of which more hereafter. 
 
 This general was, I think, a brave man, and might 
 
 probably have made a figure as a good officer in some 
 
 European war. But he had too much self-confidence, 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 159 
 
 too high an opinion of the validity of regular troops, and 
 too mean a one of both Americans and Indians. George 
 Croghan, our Indian interpreter, joined him on his march 
 with one hundred of those people, who might have been 
 of great use to his army as guides, scouts, etc., if he had5 
 treated them kindly; but he slighted and neglected them, 
 and they gradually left him. 
 
 In conversation with him one day, he was giving me 
 some account of his intended progress. " After taking 
 Fort Duquesne," says he, " I am to proceed to Niagara ;10 
 and, having taken that, to Frontenac, if the season will 
 allow time; and I suppose it will, for Duquesne can 
 hardly detain me above three or four days; and then I 
 see nothing that can obstruct my march to Niagara." 
 Having before revolved in my mind the long line his armylS 
 must make in their march by a very narrow road, to 
 be cut for them through the woods and bushes, and also 
 what I had read of a former defeat of fifteen hundred 
 French, who invaded the Iroquois country, I had con 
 ceived some doubts and some fears for the event of the20 
 campaign. But I ventured only to say, " To be sure, sir, 
 if you arrive well before Duquesne, with these fine troops, 
 so well provided with artillery, that place not yet com 
 pletely fortified, and as we hear with no very strong garri 
 son, can probably make but a short resistance. The only25 
 danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march is from 
 ambuscades of Indians, who, by constant practice, are 
 dexterous in laying and executing them; and the slender 
 line, near four miles long, which your army must make, 
 may expose it to be attacked by surprise in its flanks, and 30 
 to be cut like a thread into several pieces, which, from 
 their distance, cannot come up in time to support each 
 other." 
 
 He smiled at my ignorance, and replied, " These sav- 
 
160 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 ages may, indeed, be a formidable enemy to your raw 
 American militia, but upon the king s regular and dis 
 ciplined troops, sir-, it is impossible they should make any 
 impression." I was conscious of an impropriety in my 
 Bdisputing with a military man in matters of his profession, 
 and said no more. The enemy, however, did not take 
 the advantage of his army which I apprehended its long 
 line of march exposed it to, but let it advance without 
 interruption till within nine miles of the place; and then, 
 
 lOwhen more in a body (for it had just passed a river, where 
 the front had halted till all were come over), and in a 
 more open part of the woods than any it had passed, 
 attacked its advanced guard by heavy fire from behind 
 trees and bushes, which was the first intelligence the 
 
 15general had of an enemy s being near him. This guard 
 being disordered, the general hurried the troops up to 
 their assistance, which was done in great confusion, 
 through wagons, baggage, and cattle; and presently the 
 fire came upon their flank : the officers, being on horseback, 
 
 20were more easily distinguished, picked out as marks, and 
 fell very fast; and the soldiers were crowded together in 
 a huddle, having or hearing no orders, and standing to be 
 shot at till two-thirds of them were killed ; and then, being 
 seized with a panic, the whole fled with precipitation. 
 
 25 The wagoners took each a horse out of his team and 
 scampered; their example was immediately followed by 
 others; so that all the wagons, provisions, artillery, and 
 stores were left to the enemy. The general, being 
 wounded, was brought off with difficulty; his secretary, 
 
 SOMr. Shirley, was killed by his side ; and out of eighty-six 
 officers, sixty-three were killed or wounded, and seven 
 hundred and fourteen men killed out of eleven hundred. 
 These eleven hundred had been picked men from the 
 whole army; the rest had been left behind with Colonel 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 161 
 
 Dunbar, who was to follow with the heavier part of the 
 stores, provisions, and baggage. The flyers, not being 
 pursued, arrived at Dunbar s camp, and the panic they 
 brought with them instantly seized him and all his 
 people; and, though he had now above one thousand men, 5 
 and the enemy who had beaten Braddock did not at 
 most exceed four hundred Indians and French together, 
 instead of proceeding, and endeavoring to recover some 
 of the lost honor, he ordered all the stores, ammunition, 
 etc., to be destroyed, that he might have more horses to 10 
 assist his flight towards the settlements, and less lumber 
 to remove. He was there met with requests from the 
 governors of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, that 
 he would post his troops on the frontiers, so as to afford 
 some protection to the inhabitants; but he continued hislS 
 hasty march through all the country, not thinking him 
 self safe till he arrived at Philadelphia, where the inhabit 
 ants could protect him. This whole transaction gave us 
 Americans the first suspicion that our exalted ideas of 
 the prowess of British regulars had not been well founded. 20 
 
 In their first march, too, from their landing till they got 
 beyond the settlements, they had plundered and stripped 
 the inhabitants, totally ruining some poor families, besides 
 insulting, abusing, and confining the people if they remon 
 strated. This was enough to put us out of conceit of such 25 
 defenders, if we had really wanted any. How different 
 was the conduct of our French friends in 1781, who, 
 during a march through the most inhabited part of our 
 country from Rhode Island to Virginia, near seven hun 
 dred miles, occasioned not the smallest complaint for theSO 
 loss of a pig, a chicken, or even an apple. 
 
 Captain Orme, who was one of the general s aids-de 
 camp, and, being grievously wounded, was brought off 
 with him, and continued with him to his death, which 
 
1 62 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 happened in a few days, told me that he was totally silent 
 all the first day, and at night only said, " Who would 
 have thought it? " That he was silent again the follow 
 ing day, saying only at last, " We shall better know how 
 5/o deal with them another time; " and died in a few min 
 utes after. 
 
 The secretary s papers, with all the general s orders, 
 instructions, and correspondence, falling into the enemy s 
 hands, they selected and translated into French a number 
 
 lOof the articles, which they printed, to prove the hostile 
 intentions of the British court before the declaration of 
 war. Among these I saw some letters of the general to 
 the ministry, speaking highly of the great service I had 
 rendered the army, and recommending me to their no- 
 
 15tice. David Hume, too, who was some years after sec 
 retary to Lord Hertford, when minister in France, and 
 afterward to General Conway, when secretary of state, 
 told me he had seen among the papers in that office, 
 letters from Braddock highly recommending me. But, 
 
 2Qthe expedition having been unfortunate, my service, it 
 seems, was not thought of much value, for those recom 
 mendations were never of any use to me. 
 
 As to rewards from himself, I asked only one, which 
 was, that he would give orders to his officers not to enlist 
 
 25any more of our bought servants, and that he would dis 
 charge such as had been already enlisted. This he readily 
 granted, and several were accordingly returned to their 
 masters, on my application. Dunbar, when the command 
 devolved on him, was not so generous. He being at 
 
 SoPhiladelphia, on his retreat, or rather flight, I applied to 
 him for the discharge of the servants of three poor farm 
 ers of Lancaster county that he had enlisted, reminding 
 him of the late general s orders on that head. He prom 
 ised me that, if the masters would come to him at 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 163 
 
 Trenton, where he should be in a few days on his march 
 to New York, he would there deliver their men to them. 
 They accordingly were at the expense and trouble of go 
 ing to Trenton, and there he refused to perform his 
 promise, to their great loss and disappointment. 5 
 
 As soon as the loss of the wagons and horses was 
 generally known, all the owners came upon me for the 
 valuation which I had given bond to pay. Their de 
 mands gave me a great deal of trouble, my acquainting 
 them that the money was ready in the paymaster s hands, 10 
 but that orders for paying it must first be obtained 
 from General Shirley, and my assuring them that I had 
 applied to that general by letter; but, he being at a 
 distance, an answer could not soon be received, and they 
 must have patience, all this was not sufficient to satisfy, 15 
 and some began to sue me. General Shirley at length 
 relieved me from this terrible situation by appointing 
 commissioners to examine the claims, and ordering pay 
 ment. They amounted to near twenty thousand pound, 
 which to pay would have ruined me. 20 
 
 Before we had the news of this defeat, the two Doc 
 tors Bond came to me with a subscription paper for 
 raising money to defray the expense of a grand fire 
 work, which it was intended to exhibit at a rejoicing 
 on receipt of the news of our taking Fort Duquesne.25 
 I looked grave, and said it would, I thought, be time 
 enough to prepare for the rejoicing when we knew we 
 should have occasion to rejoice. They seemed surprised 
 that I did not immediately comply with their proposal. 
 "Why," says one of them, "you surely don t supposeSO 
 that the fort will not be taken ? " "I don t know that 
 it will not be taken, but I know that the events of war 
 are subject to great uncertainty." I gave them the rea 
 sons of my doubting; the subscription was dropped, and 
 
164 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 the projectors thereby missed the mortification they would 
 have undergone if the firework had been prepared. Dr. 
 Bond, on some other occasion afterward, said that he 
 did not like Franklin s forebodings. 
 
 5 Governor Morris, who had continually worried the 
 Assembly with message after message before the defeat 
 of Braddock, to beat them into the making of acts to 
 raise money for the defense of the province, without 
 taxing, among others, the proprietary estates, and had 
 
 10 rejected all their bills for not having such an exempting 
 clause, now redoubled his attacks with more hope of 
 success, the danger and necessity being greater. The 
 Assembly, however, continued firm, believing they had 
 justice on their side, and that it would be giving up an 
 
 15 essential right if they suffered the governor to amend 
 their money-bills. In one of the last, indeed, which was 
 for granting fifty thousand pounds, his proposed amend 
 ment was only of a single word. The bill expressed 
 " that all estates, real and personal, were to be taxed, 
 
 20those of the proprietaries not excepted." His amend 
 ment was, for not read only: a small, but very material 
 alteration. However, when the news of this disaster 
 reached England, our friends there whom we had taken 
 care to furnish with all the Assembly s answers to the 
 
 2 5 governor s messages, raised a clamor against the pro 
 prietaries for their meanness and injustice in giving their 
 governor such instructions; some going so far as to say 
 that, by obstructing the defense of their province, they 
 forfeited their right to it. They were intimidated by this, 
 
 30 and sent orders to their receiver-general to add five thou 
 sand pounds of their money to whatever sum might be 
 given by the Assembly for such purpose. 
 
 This, being notified to the House, was accepted in 
 lieu of their share of a general tax, and a new bill was 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 165 
 
 formed, with an exempting clause, which passed accord 
 ingly. By this act I was appointed one of the com 
 missioners for disposing of the money, sixty thousand 
 pounds. I had been active in modeling the bill and 
 procuring its passage, and had, at the same time, drawn 5 
 a bill for establishing and disciplining a voluntary militia, 
 which I carried through the House without much diffi 
 culty, as care was taken in it to leave the Quakers at 
 their liberty. To promote the association necessary to 
 form the militia, I wrote a dialogue, stating and answer- 10 
 ing all the objections I could think of to such a militia, 
 which was printed, and had, as I thought, great effect. 
 
 XVII 
 FRANKLIN S DEFENSE OF THE FRONTIER 
 
 WHILE the several companies in the city and country 
 were forming, and learning their exercise, the governor 
 prevailed with me to take charge of our North-western 15 
 frontier, which was infested by the enemy, and provide 
 for the defense of the inhabitants by raising troops and 
 building a line of forts. I undertook this military busi 
 ness, though I did not conceive myself well qualified 
 for it. He gave me a commission with full powers, and20 
 a parcel of blank commissions for officers, to be given 
 to whom I thought fit. I had but little difficulty in rais 
 ing men, having soon five hundred and sixty under my 
 command. My son, who had in the preceding war been 
 an officer in the army raised against Canada, was my 25 
 aid-de-camp, and of great use to me. The Indians had 
 burned Gnadenhut, a village settled by the Moravians, 
 and massacred the inhabitants ; but the place was thought 
 a good situation for one of the forts. 
 
1 66 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 In order to march thither, I assembled the companies 
 at Bethlehem, the chief establishment of those people. 
 I was surprised to find it in so good a posture of defense ; 
 the destruction of Gnadenhut had made them apprehend 
 5 danger. The principal buildings were defended by a 
 stockade; they had purchased a quantity of arms and 
 ammunition from New York, and had even placed quan 
 tities of small paving stones between the windows of their 
 high stone houses, for their women to throw down upon 
 
 lOthe heads of any Indians that should attempt to force 
 into them. The armed brethren, too, kept watch, and 
 relieved as methodically as in any garrison town. In 
 conversation with the bishop, Spangenberg, I mentioned 
 this my surprise; for, knowing they had obtained an act 
 
 15of Parliament exempting them from military duties in the 
 colonies, I had supposed they were conscientiously scru 
 pulous of bearing arms. He answered me that it was not 
 one of their established principles, but that, at the time 
 of their obtaining that act, it was thought to be a prin- 
 
 20ciple with many of their people. On this occasion, how 
 ever, they, to their surprise, found it adopted by but a 
 few. It seems they were either deceived in themselves, 
 or deceived the Parliament; but common sense, aided 
 by present danger, will sometimes be too strong for 
 
 25whimsical opinions. 
 
 It was the beginning of January when we set out upon 
 this business of building forts. I sent one detachment 
 toward the Minisink, with instructions to erect one for 
 the security of that upper part of the country, and 
 
 SOanother to the lower part, with similar instructions; and 
 I concluded to go myself with the rest of my force to 
 Gnadenhut, where a fort was thought more immediately 
 necessary. The Moravians procured me five wagons for 
 our tools, stores, baggage, etc. 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 167 
 
 Just before we left Bethlehem, eleven farmers, who had 
 been driven from their plantations by the Indians, came 
 to me requesting a supply of firearms, that they might go 
 back and fetch off their cattle. I gave them each a gun 
 with suitable ammunition. We had not marched many 5 
 miles before it began to rain, and it continued raining all 
 day; there were no habitations on the road to shelter us, 
 till we arrived near night at the house of a German, 
 where, and in his barn, we were all huddled together, as 
 wet as water could make us. It was well we were not 10 
 attacked in our march, for our arms were of the most or 
 dinary sort, and our men could not keep their gun locks 
 dry. The Indians are dexterous in contrivances for that 
 purpose, which we had not. They met that day the 
 eleven poor farmers above mentioned, and killed ten of 15 
 them. The one who escaped informed that his and his 
 companions guns would not go off, the priming being 
 wet with the rain. 
 
 The next day being fair, we continued our march, and 
 arrived at the desolated Gnadenhut. There was a saw- 20 
 mill near, round which were left several piles of boards, 
 with which we soon hutted ourselves; an operation the 
 more necessary at that inclement season, as we had no 
 tents. Our first work was to bury more effectually the 
 dead we found there, who had been half interred by the 25 
 country people. 
 
 The next morning our fort was planned and marked 
 out, the circumference measuring four hundred and fifty- 
 five feet, which would require as many palisades to be 
 made of trees, one with another, of a foot diameter each. 30 
 Our axes, of which we had seventy, were immediately 
 set to work to cut down trees, and, our men being dex 
 terous in the use of them, great dispatch was made. See 
 ing the trees fall so fast, I had the curiosity to look at 
 
1 68 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 my watch when two men began to cut at a pine; in six 
 minutes they had it upon the ground, and I found it of 
 fourteen inches diameter. Each pine made three pal 
 isades of eighteen feet long, pointed at one end. While 
 5 these were preparing, our other men dug a trench all 
 round, of three feet deep, in which the palisades were to 
 be planted; and, our wagons, the bodies being taken off, 
 and the fore and hind wheels separated by taking out the 
 pin which united the two parts of the perch, we had 
 
 lOten carriages, with two horses each, to bring the palisades 
 from the woods to the spot. When they were set up, 
 our carpenters built a stage of boards all round within, 
 about six feet high, for the men to stand on when to fire 
 through the loopholes. We had one swivel gun, which 
 
 15we mounted on one of the angles, and fired it as soon as 
 fixed, to let the Indians know, if any were within hearing, 
 that we had such pieces; and thus our fort, if such a 
 magnificent name may be given to so miserable a stock 
 ade, was finished in a week, though it rained so hard 
 
 20every other day that the men could not work. 
 
 This gave me occasion to observe, that, when men are 
 employed, they are best contented ; for on the days they 
 worked they were good-natured and cheerful, and, with 
 the consciousness of having done a good day s work, they 
 
 25spent the evening jollily; but on our idle days they were 
 mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their pork, 
 the bread, etc., and in continual ill-humor, which put me 
 in mind of a sea-captain, whose rule it was to keep his 
 men constantly at work; and, when his mate once told 
 
 SOhim that they had done everything, and there was nothing 
 further to employ them about, " Oh" says he, " make 
 them scour the anchor" 
 
 This kind of fort, however contemptible, is a sufficient 
 defense against Indians, who have no cannon. Finding 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 169 
 
 ourselves now posted securely, and having a place to re 
 treat to on occasion, we ventured out in parties to scour 
 the adjacent country. We met with no Indians, but we 
 found the places on the neighboring hills where they had 
 lain to watch our proceedings. There was an art in theirS 
 contrivance of those places that seems worth mention. 
 It being winter, a fire was necessary for them; but a 
 common fire on the surface of the ground would by its 
 light have discovered their position at a distance. They 
 had therefore dug holes in the ground about three feetlO 
 diameter, and somewhat deeper; we saw where they had 
 with their hatchets cut off the charcoal from the sides of 
 burnt logs lying in the woods. With these coals they had 
 made small fires in the bottom of the holes, and we ob 
 served among the weeds and grass the prints of their 15 
 bodies, made by their lying all round, with their legs hang 
 ing down in the holes to keep their feet warm, which, with 
 them, is an essential point. This kind of fire, so managed, 
 could not discover them, either by its light, flame, sparks, 
 or even smoke: it appeared that their number was not 20 
 great, and it seems they saw we were too many to be 
 attacked by them with prospect of advantage. 
 
 We had for our chaplain a zealous Presbyterian min 
 ister, Mr. Beatty, who complained to me that the men 
 did not generally attend his prayers and exhortations. 2 5 
 When they enlisted, they were promised, besides pay and 
 provisions, a gill of rum a day, which was punctually 
 served out to them, half in the morning, and the other 
 half in the evening; and I observed they were as punctual 
 in attending to receive it; upon which I said to Mr. Beatty, 30 
 " It is, perhaps, below the dignity of your profession to act 
 as steward of the rum, but if you were to deal it out and 
 only just after prayers, you would have them all about 
 you." He liked the thought, undertook the office, and, 
 
170 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 with the help of a few hands to measure out the liquor, 
 executed it to satisfaction, and never were prayers more 
 generally and more punctually attended ; so that I thought 
 this method preferable to the punishment inflicted by some 
 5military laws for non-attendance on divine service. 
 
 I had hardly finished this business, and got my fort well 
 stored with provisions, when I received a letter from the 
 governor, acquainting me that he had called the Assembly, 
 and wished my attendance there, if the posture of affairs 
 
 lOon the frontiers was such that my remaining there was no 
 longer necessary. My friends, too, of the Assembly, 
 pressing me by their letters to be, if possible, at the meet 
 ing, and my three intended forts being now completed, and 
 the inhabitants contented to remain on their farms under 
 
 15 that protection, I resolved to return; the more willingly, 
 as a New England officer, Colonel Clapham, experienced 
 in Indian war, being on a visit to our establishment, con 
 sented to accept the command. I gave him a commis 
 sion, and parading the garrison, had it read before them, 
 
 20and introduced him to them as an officer who, from his 
 skill in military affairs, was much more fit to command 
 them than myself; and, giving them a little exhortation, 
 took my leave. I was escorted as far as Bethlehem, 
 where I rested a few days to recover from the fatigue I 
 
 25had undergone. The first night, being in a good bed, 
 I could hardly sleep, it was so different from my hard lodg 
 ing on the floor of our hut at Gnaden wrapped only in 
 a blanket or two. 
 
 While at Bethlehem, I inquired a little into the practice 
 
 30of the Moravians; some of them had accompanied me, 
 and all were very kind to me. I found they worked for 
 a common stock, ate at common tables, and slept in com 
 mon dormitories, great numbers together. In the dor 
 mitories I observed loopholes, at certain distances all along 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 171 
 
 just under the ceiling, which I thought judiciously placed 
 for change of air. I was at their church, where I was 
 entertained with good music, the organ being accompanied 
 with violins, hautboys, flutes, clarinets, etc. I under 
 stood that their sermons were not usually preached to 5 
 mixed congregations of men, women, and children, as 
 is our common practice, but that they assembled some 
 times the married men, at other times their wives, then 
 the young men, the young women, and the little chil 
 dren, each division by itself. The sermon I heard was 10 
 to the latter, who came in and were placed in rows on 
 benches; the boys under the conduct of a young man, their 
 tutor, and the girls conducted by a young woman. The 
 discourse seemed well adapted to their capacities, and was 
 delivered in a pleasing, familiar manner, coaxing them, as 15 
 it were, to be good. They behaved very orderly, but 
 looked pale and unhealthy, which made me suspect they 
 were kept too much within doors, or not allowed sufficient 
 exercise. 
 
 I inquired concerning the Moravian marriages, whether 20 
 the report was true that they were by lot. I was told 
 that lots were used only in particular cases; that gen 
 erally, when a young man found himself disposed to marry, 
 he informed the elders of his class, who consulted the 
 elder ladies that governed the young women. As these 25 
 elders of the different sexes were well acquainted with 
 the tempers and dispositions of their respective pupils, 
 they could best judge what matches were suitable, and 
 their judgments were generally acquiesced in ; but if, 
 for example, it should happen that two or three young 30 
 women were found to be equally proper for the young 
 man, the lot was then recurred to. I objected, if the 
 matches are not made by the mutual choice of the parties, 
 some of them may chance to be very unhappy. " And so 
 
172 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 they may," answered my informer, " if you let the parties 
 
 choose for themselves ; " which, indeed, I could not deny. 
 
 Being returned to Philadelphia, I found the association 
 
 went on swimmingly, the inhabitants that were not Quak- 
 
 5ers having pretty generally come into it, formed themselves 
 
 into companies, and chose their captains, lieutenants, and 
 
 ensigns, according to the new law. Dr. B. visited me, 
 
 and gave me an account of the pains he had taken to 
 
 spread a general good liking to the law, and ascribed 
 
 lOmuch to those endeavors. I had had the vanity to as- 
 scribe all to my Dialogue; however, not knowing but 
 that he might be in the right, I let him enjoy his opinion, 
 which I take to be generally the best way in such cases. 
 The officers, meeting, chose me to be colonel of the regi- 
 
 15ment, which I this time accepted. I forget how many 
 companies we had, but we paraded about twelve hundred 
 well-looking men, with a company of artillery, who had 
 been furnished with six brass field-pieces, which they had 
 become so expert in the use of as to fire twelve times in 
 
 20a minute. The first time I reviewed my regiment they 
 accompanied me to my house, and would salute me with 
 some rounds fired before my door, which shook down 
 and broke several glasses of my electrical apparatus. And 
 my new honor proved not much less brittle; for all our 
 
 25commissions were soon after broken by a repeal of the 
 law in England. 
 
 During this short time of my colonelship, being about 
 to set out on a journey to Virginia, the officers of my regi 
 ment took it into their heads that it would be proper for 
 
 SOthem to escort me out of town, as far as the Lower Ferry. 
 Just as I was getting on horseback they came to my door, 
 between thirty and forty, mounted, and all in their uni 
 forms. I had not been previously acquainted with the 
 project, or I should have prevented it. being naturally 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 173 
 
 averse to the assuming of state on any occasion; and I 
 was a good deal chagrined at their appearance, as I could 
 not avoid their accompanying me. What made it worse 
 was, that, as soon as we began to move, they drew their 
 swords and rode with them naked all the way. Some- 5 
 body wrote an account of this to the proprietor, and it 
 gave him great offense. No such honor had been paid 
 him when in the province, nor to any of his governors; 
 and he said it was only proper to princes of the blood 
 royal, which may be true for aught I know, who was, and 10 
 still am, ignorant of the etiquette in such cases. 
 
 This silly affair, however, greatly increased his rancor 
 against me, which was before not a little, on account of 
 my conduct in the Assembly respecting the exemption of 
 his estate from taxation, which I had always opposed very 15 
 warmly, and not without severe reflections on his mean 
 ness and injustice of contending for it. He accused me 
 to the ministry as being the great obstacle to the King s 
 service, preventing, by my influence in the House, the 
 proper form of the bills for raising money, and he in- 20 
 stanced this parade with my officers as a proof of my 
 having an intention to take the government of the prov 
 ince out of his hands by force. He also applied to Sir 
 Everard Fawkener, the postmaster-general, to deprive me 
 of my office; but it had no other effect than to procure25 
 from Sir Everard a gentle admonition. 
 
 Notwithstanding the continual wrangle between the 
 governor and the House, in which I, as a member, had 
 so large a share, there still subsisted a civil intercourse be 
 tween that gentleman and myself, and we never had anySO 
 personal difference. I have sometimes since thought that 
 his little or no resentment against me, for the answers it 
 was known I drew up to his messages, might be the effect of 
 professional habit, and that, being bred a lawyer, he 
 
174 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 might consider us both as merely advocates for contend 
 ing clients in a suit, he for the proprietaries and I for the 
 Assembly. He would, therefore, sometimes call in a 
 friendly way to advise with me on difficult points, and 
 Ssometimes, though not often, take my advice. 
 
 We acted in concert to supply Braddock s army with 
 provisions; and, when the shocking news arrived of his 
 defeat, the governor sent in haste for me, to consult with 
 him on measures for preventing the desertion of the back 
 
 lOcounties. I forget now the advice I gave; but I think 
 it was, that Dunbar should be written to, and prevailed 
 with, if possible, to post his troops on the frontiers for 
 their protection, till, by reinforcements from the colonies, 
 he might be able to proceed on the expedition. And, 
 
 loafter my return from the frontier, he would have had 
 me undertake the conduct of such an expedition with 
 provincial troops, for the reduction of Fort Duquesne, 
 Dunbar and his men being otherwise employed; and he 
 proposed to commission me as general. I had not so 
 
 20good an opinion of my military abilities as he professed to 
 have, and I believe his professions must have exceeded 
 his real sentiments; but probably he might think that 
 my popularity would facilitate the raising of the men, and 
 my influence in Assembly, the grant of money to pay 
 
 25them, and that, perhaps, without taxing the proprietary 
 estate. Finding me not so forward to engage as he ex 
 pected, the project was dropped, and he soon after left 
 the government, being superseded by Captain Denny. 
 
 XVIII 
 SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS 
 
 BEFORE I proceed in relating the part I had in public 
 soaffairs under this new governor s administration, it may 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 175 
 
 not be amiss here to give some account of the rise and 
 progress of my philosophical reputation. 
 
 In 1 746, being at Boston, I met there with a Dr. Spence, 
 who was lately arrived from Scotland, and showed me 
 some electric experiments. They were imperfectly per-5 
 formed, as he was not very expert; but, being on a subject 
 quite new to me, they equally surprised and pleased me. 
 Soon after my return to Philadelphia, our library company 
 received from Mr. P. Collinson, Fellow of the Royal So 
 ciety of London, a present of a glass tube, with some ac-10 
 count of the use of it in making such experiments. I ea 
 gerly seized the opportunity of repeating what I had seen at 
 Boston ; and, by much practice, acquired great readiness 
 in performing those, also, which we had an account of 
 from England, adding a number of new ones. I say!5 
 much practice, for my house was continually full, for 
 some time, with people who came to see these new wonders. 
 
 To divide a little this incumbrance among my. friends, 
 I caused a number of similar tubes to be blown at our 
 glass-house, with which they furnished themselves, so that 20 
 we had at length several performers. Among these, the 
 principal was Mr. Kinnersley, an ingenious neighbor, who, 
 being out of business, I encouraged to undertake showing 
 the experiments for money, and drew up for him two 
 lectures, in which the experiments were ranged in such 2 5 
 order, and accompanied with such explanations in such 
 method, as that the foregoing should assist in compre 
 hending the following. He procured an elegant appa 
 ratus for the purpose, in which all the little machines 
 that I had roughly made for myself were nicely formed 30 
 by instrument-makers. His lectures were well attended, 
 and gave great satisfaction ; and after some time he went 
 through the colonies, exhibiting them in every capital 
 town, and picked up some money. In the West India 
 
176 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 islands, indeed, it was with difficulty the experiments 
 could be made, from the general moisture of the air. 
 
 Obliged as we were to Mr. Collinson for his present of 
 the tube, etc., I thought it right he should be informed of 
 5our success in using it, and wrote him several letters con 
 taining accounts of our experiments. He got them read 
 in the Royal Society, where they were not at first thought 
 worth so much notice as to be printed in their Transac 
 tions. One paper, which I wrote for Mr. Kinnersley, on 
 
 lOthe sameness of lightning with electricity, I sent to Dr. 
 Mitchel, an acquaintance of mine, and one of the mem 
 bers also of that society, who wrote me word that it had 
 been read, but was laughed at by the connoisseurs. The 
 papers, however, being shown to Dr. Fothergill, he thought 
 
 15them of too much value to be stifled, and advised the 
 printing of them. Mr. Collinson then gave them to Cave 
 for publication in his Gentleman s Magazine; but he 
 chose to print them separately in a pamphlet, and Dr. 
 Fothergill wrote the preface. Cave, it seems, judged 
 
 20rightly for his profit, for by the additions that arrived 
 afterward, they swelled to a quarto volume, which has 
 had five editions, and cost him nothing for copy-money. 
 
 It was, however, some time before those papers were 
 much taken notice of in England. A copy of them hap- 
 
 25pening to fall into the hands of the Count de Buffon, a 
 philosopher deservedly of great reputation in France, and, 
 indeed, all over Europe, he prevailed with M. Dalibard 
 to translate them into French, and they were printed at 
 Paris. The publication offended the Abbe Nollet, pre- 
 
 SOceptor in Natural Philosophy to the royal family, and 
 an able experimenter, who had formed and published a 
 theory of electricity, which then had the general vogue. 
 He could not at first believe that such a work came from 
 America, and said it must have been fabricated by his 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 177 
 
 enemies at Paris, to decry his system. Afterwards, hav 
 ing been assured that there really existed such a person 
 as Franklin at Philadelphia, which he had doubted, he 
 wrote and published a volume of Letters, chiefly addressed 
 to me, defending his theory, and denying the verity of my5 
 experiments, and of the positions deduced from them. 
 
 I once purposed answering the abbe, and actually began 
 the answer; but, on consideration that my writings con 
 tained a description of experiments which anyone might 
 repeat and verify, and if not to be verified, could not be 10 
 defended ; or of observations offered as conjectures, and 
 not delivered dogmatically, therefore not laying me 
 under any obligation to defend them; and reflecting that 
 a dispute between two persons, writing in different lan 
 guages, might be lengthened greatly by mistranslations, and 15 
 thence misconceptions of one another s meaning, much 
 of one of the abbe s letters being founded on an error in 
 the translation, I concluded to let my papers shift for 
 themselves, believing it was better to spend what time I 
 could spare from public business in making new experi-20 
 ments, than in disputing about those already made. I 
 therefore never answered M. Nollet, and the event gave 
 me no cause to repent my silence; for my friend M. le 
 Roy, of the Royal Academy of Sciences, took up my cause 
 and refuted him; my book was translated into the Italian, 25 
 German, and Latin languages; and the doctrine it con 
 tained was by degrees universally adopted by the philoso 
 phers of Europe, in preference to that of the abbe; so 
 that he lived to see himself the last of his sect, except 
 
 Monsieur B , of Paris, his eleve and immediate dis-30 
 
 ciple. 
 
 What gave my book the more sudden and general 
 celebrity, was the success of one of its proposed experi 
 ments, made by Messrs. Dalibard and De Lor at Marly, 
 
178 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 for drawing lightning from the clouds. This engaged 
 the public attention everywhere. M. de Lor, who had 
 an apparatus for experimental philosophy, and lectured 
 in that branch of science, undertook to repeat what he 
 Scalled the Philadelphia Experiments; and, after they were 
 performed before the king and court, all the curious of 
 Paris flocked to see them. I will not swell this narrative 
 with an account of that capital experiment, nor of the 
 infinite pleasure I received in the success of a similar one 
 
 10 1 made soon after with a kite at Philadelphia, as both are 
 to be found in the histories of electricity. 
 
 Dr. Wright, an English physician, when at Paris, wrote 
 to a friend, who was of the Royal Society, an account of 
 the high esteem my experiments were in among the learned 
 
 15abroad, and of their wonder that my writings had been 
 so little noticed in England. The society, on this, re 
 sumed the consideration of the letters that had been read 
 to them ; and the celebrated Dr. Watson drew up a sum 
 mary account of them, and of all I had afterwards sent 
 
 20to England on the subject, which he accompanied with 
 some praise of the writer. This summary was then 
 printed in their Transactions; and some members of the 
 society in London, particularly the very ingenious Mr. 
 Canton, having verified the experiment of procuring light- 
 
 25ning from the clouds by a pointed rod, and acquainting 
 them with the success, they soon made me more than 
 amends for the slight with which they had before treated 
 me. Without my having made any application for that 
 honor, they chose me a member, and voted that I should be 
 
 SOexcused the customary payments, which would have 
 amounted to twenty-five guineas; and ever since have 
 given me their Transactions gratis. They also presented 
 me with the gold medal of Sir Godfrey Copley for the 
 year 1753, the delivery of which was accompanied by a 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 179 
 
 very handsome speech of the president, Lord Macclesfield, 
 wherein I was highly honored. 
 
 XIX 
 AGENT OF PENNSYLVANIA IN LONDON 
 
 OUR new governor, Captain Denny, brought over for 
 me the before-mentioned medal from the Royal Society, 
 which he presented to me at an entertainment given him 5 
 by the city. He accompanied it with very polite expres 
 sions of his esteem for me, having, as he said, been long 
 acquainted with my character. After dinner, when the 
 company, as was customary at that time, were engaged in 
 drinking, he took me aside into another room, and ac-10 
 quainted me that he had been advised by his friends in 
 England to cultivate a friendship with me, as one who was 
 capable of giving him the best advice, and of contributing 
 most effectually to the making his administration easy ; that 
 he therefore desired of all things to have a good un-15 
 derstanding with me, and he begged me to be assured 
 of his readiness on all occasions to render me every serv 
 ice that might be in his power. He said much to me, 
 also, of the proprietor s good disposition towards the 
 province, and of the advantage it might be to us all, and 20 
 to me in particular, if the opposition that had been so 
 long continued to his measures was dropped, and harmony 
 restored between him and the people; in effecting which, 
 it was thought no one could be more serviceable than 
 myself; and I might depend on adequate acknowledg-25 
 ments and recompenses, etc., etc. The drinkers, finding 
 we did not return immediately to the table, sent us a 
 decanter of Madeira, which the governor made liberal 
 
180 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 use of, and in proportion became more profuse of his 
 solicitations and promises. 
 
 My answers were to this purpose: that my circum 
 stances, thanks to God, were such as to make proprietary 
 5 favors unnecessary to me; and that, being a member of 
 the Assembly, I could not possibly accept of any; that, 
 however, I had no personal enmity to the proprietary, 
 and that, whenever the public measures he proposed should 
 appear to be for the good of the people, no one should 
 
 lOespouse and forward them more zealously than myself; 
 my past opposition having been founded on this, that the 
 measures which had been urged were evidently intended 
 to serve the proprietary interest, with great prejudice to 
 that of the people; that I was much obliged to him (the 
 
 ISgovernor) for his professions of regard to me, and that 
 he might rely on everything in my power to make his ad 
 ministration as easy as possible, hoping at the same time 
 that he had not brought with him the same unfortunate 
 instruction his predecessor had been hampered with. 
 
 20 On this he did not then explain himself; but when he 
 afterwards came to do business with the Assembly, the/ 
 appeared again, the disputes were renewed, and I was as 
 active as ever in the opposition, being the penman, first, 
 of the request to have a communication of the instruc- 
 
 25tions, and then of the remarks upon them, which may be 
 found in the votes of the time, and in the Historical Re 
 view I afterward published. But between us personally 
 no enmity arose; we were often together; he was a man 
 of letters, had seen much of the world, and was very 
 
 SOentertaining and pleasing in conversation. He gave me 
 the first information that my old friend Jas. Ralph was 
 still alive; that he was esteemed one of the best political 
 writers in England; had been employed in the dispute 
 between Prince Frederic and the king, and had obtained 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 181 
 
 a pension of three hundred a year; that his reputation 
 was indeed small as a poet, Pope having damned his 
 poetry in the Dunciad, but his prose was thought as good 
 as any man s. 
 
 The Assembly finally finding the proprietary obsti-5 
 nately persisted in manacling their deputies with instruc 
 tions inconsistent not only with the privileges of the 
 people, but with the service of the crown, resolved to 
 petition the king against them, and appointed me their 
 agent to go over to England, to present and support thelO 
 petition. The House had sent up a bill to the governor, 
 granting a sum of sixty thousand pounds for the king s 
 use (ten thousand pounds of which was subjected to the 
 orders of the then general Lord Loudoun), which the 
 governor absolutely refused to pass, in compliance with 15 
 his instructions. 
 
 I had agreed with Captain Morris, of the packet at 
 New York, for my passage, and my stores were put on 
 board, when Lord Loudoun arrived at Philadelphia, ex 
 pressly, as he told me, to endeavor an accommodation 20 
 between the governor and Assembly, that his majesty s 
 service might not be obstructed by their dissensions. Ac 
 cordingly, he desired the governor and myself to meet him, 
 that he might hear what was to be said on both sides. 
 We met and discussed the business. In behalf of the 25 
 Assembly, I urged all the various arguments that may be 
 found in the public papers of that time, which were of 
 my writing, and are printed with the minutes of the 
 Assembly; and the governor pleaded his instructions, the 
 bond he had given to observe them, and his ruin if he30 
 disobeyed, yet seemed not unwilling to hazard himself if 
 Lord Loudoun would advise it. This his lordship did 
 not choose to do, though I once thought I had nearly 
 prevailed with him to do it; but finally he rather chose 
 
1 82 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 to urge the compliance of the Assembly ; and he entreated 
 me to use my endeavors with them for that purpose, de 
 claring that he would spare none of the king s troops for 
 the defense of our frontiers, and that, if we did not con- 
 Stinue to provide for that defense ourselves, they must re 
 main exposed to the enemy. 
 
 I acquainted the House with what had passed, and, 
 presenting them with a set of resolutions I had drawn up, 
 declaring our rights, and that we did not relinquish our 
 
 lOclaim to those rights, but only suspended the exercise of 
 them on this occasion through force, against which we pro 
 tested, they at length agreed to drop that bill, and frame 
 another conformable to the proprietary instructions. This 
 of course the governor passed, and I was then at lib- 
 
 ISerty to proceed on my voyage. But, in the meantime, the 
 packet had sailed with my sea-stores, which was some loss 
 to me, and my only recompense was his lordship s thanks 
 for my service, all the credit of obtaining the accommoda 
 tion falling to his share. 
 
 20 He set out for New York before me; and, as the time 
 for dispatching the packet-boats was at his disposition, 
 and there were two then remaining there, one of which, 
 he said, was to sail very soon, I requested to know the 
 precise time, that I might not miss her by any delay of 
 
 25mine. His answer was, " I have given out that she is to 
 sail on Saturday next; but I may let you know, entre 
 nous, that if you are there by Monday morning, you will 
 be in time, but do not delay longer." By some accidental 
 hindrance at a ferry, it was Monday noon before I ar- 
 
 SOrived, and I was much afraid she might have sailed, as 
 the wind was fair; but I was soon made easy by the in 
 formation that she was still in the harbor, and would not 
 move till the next day. One would imagine that I 
 was now on the very point of departing for Europe. I 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 183 
 
 thought so; but I was not then so well acquainted with 
 his lordship s character, of which indecision was one of the 
 strongest features. I shall give some instances. It was 
 about the beginning of April that I came to New York, 
 and I think it was near the end of June before we sailed. 5 
 There were then two of the packet-boats, which had been 
 long in port, but were detained for the general s letters, 
 which were always to be ready to-morrow. Another 
 packet arrived; she too was detained; and, before we 
 sailed, a fourth was expected. Ours was the first to be 10 
 dispatched, as having been there longest. Passengers were 
 engaged in all, and some extremely impatient to be gone, 
 and the merchants uneasy about their letters, and the or 
 ders they had given for insurance (it being war time) 
 for fall goods; but their anxiety availed nothing; his lord- 15 
 ship s letters were not ready; and yet whoever waited on 
 him found him always at his desk, pen in hand, and con 
 cluded he must needs write abundantly. 
 
 Going myself one morning to pay my respects, I found 
 in his antechamber one Innis, a messenger of Philadelphia, 20 
 who had come from thence express with a packet from 
 Governor Denny for the general. He delivered to me 
 some letters from my friends there, which occasioned my 
 inquiring when he was to return, and where he lodged, 
 that I might send some letters by him. He told me he 25 
 was ordered to call to-morrow at nine for the general s 
 answer to the governor, and should set off immediately. 
 I put my letters into his hands the same day. A fort 
 night after I met him again in the same place. " So, 
 you are soon returned, Innis?" "Returned! no, I am30 
 not gone yet." "How so?" "I have called here by 
 order every morning these two weeks past for his lord 
 ship s letter, and it is not yet ready." " Is it possible, 
 when he is so great a writer? for I see him constantly at 
 
184 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 his escritoire." "Yes," says Innis, "but he is like St. 
 George on the signs, always on horseback, and never 
 rides on! 1 This observation of the messenger was, it 
 seems, well founded ; for, when in England, I understood 
 5that Mr. Pitt gave it as one reason for removing this 
 general, and sending Generals Amherst and Wolfe, that 
 the minister never heard from him, and could not know 
 what he was doing. 
 
 This daily expectation of sailing, and all the three 
 
 lOpackets going down to Sandy Hook, to join the fleet there, 
 the passengers thought it best to be on board, lest by 
 a sudden order the ships should sail, and they be left 
 behind. There, if I remember right, we were about six 
 weeks, consuming our sea-stores, and obliged to procure 
 
 ISmore. At length the fleet sailed, the general and all his 
 army on board, bound to Louisburg, with the intent to 
 besiege and take that fortress; all the packet-boats in 
 company ordered to attend the general s ship, ready to 
 receive his dispatches when they should be ready. We 
 
 20were out five days before we got a letter with leave to 
 part, and then our ship quitted the fleet and steered for 
 England. The other two packets he still detained, carried 
 them with him to Halifax, where he stayed some time to 
 exercise the men in sham attacks upon sham forts, then 
 
 25altered his mind as to besieging Louisburg, and returned 
 to New York, with all his troops, together with the two 
 packets above mentioned, and all their passengers! Dur 
 ing his absence the French and savages had taken Fort 
 George, on the frontier of that province, and the sav- 
 
 30ages had massacred many of the garrison after capitula 
 tion. 
 
 I saw afterwards in London Captain Bonnell, who 
 commanded one of those packets. He told me that, when 
 he had been detained a month, he acquainted his lordshif 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 185 
 
 that his ship was grown foul, to a degree that must neces 
 sarily hinder her fast sailing, a point of consequence for a 
 packet-boat, and requested an allowance of time to heave 
 her down and clean her bottom. He was asked how long 
 time that would require. He answered, three days.C 
 The general replied, " If you can do it in one day, I give 
 leave; otherwise not; for you must certainly sail the day 
 after to-morrow." So he never obtained leave, though 
 detained afterwards from day to day during full three 
 months. 10 
 
 I saw also in London one of Bonnell s passengers, who 
 was so enraged against his lordship for deceiving and 
 detaining him so long at New York, and then carrying 
 him to Halifax and back again, that he swore he would 
 sue him for damages. Whether he did or not, I never 15 
 heard; but, as he represented the injury to his affairs, it 
 was very considerable. 
 
 On the whole, I wondered much how such a man came 
 to be intrusted with so important a business as the con 
 duct of a great army; but, having since seen more of the 20 
 great world, and the means of obtaining, and motives 
 for giving places, my wonder is diminished. General 
 Shirley, on whom the command of the army devolved 
 upon the death of Braddock, would, in my opinion, if 
 continued in place, have made a much better campaign 25 
 tfian that of Loudoun in 1757, which was frivolous, expen 
 sive, and disgraceful to our nation beyond conception; 
 for, though Shirley was not a bred soldier, he was sensible 
 and sagacious in himself, and attentive to good advice 
 from others, capable of forming judicious plans, and quick 30 
 and active in carrying them into execution. Loudoun, 
 instead of defending the colonies with his great army, left 
 them totally exposed while he paraded idly at Halifax, by 
 which means Fort George was lost; besides, he deranged 
 
1 86 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 all our mercantile operations, and distressed our trade, by 
 a long embargo on the exportation of provisions, on pre 
 tense of keeping supplies from being obtained by the 
 enemy, but in reality for beating down their price in 
 5 favor of the contractors, in whose profits, it was said, 
 perhaps from suspicion only, he had a share. And, when 
 at length the embargo was taken off, by neglecting to 
 send notice of it to Charlestown, the Carolina fleet was 
 detained near three months longer, whereby their bottoms 
 
 lOwere so much damaged by the worm that a great part of 
 them foundered in their passage home. 
 
 Shirley was, I believe, sincerely glad of being relieved 
 from so burdensome a charge as the conduct of an army 
 must be to a man unacquainted with military business. I 
 
 15was at the entertainment given by the city of New York 
 to Lord Loudoun, on his taking upon him the command. 
 Shirley, though thereby superseded, was present also. 
 There was a great company of officers, citizens, and stran 
 gers, and, some chairs having been borrowed in the neigh- 
 
 20borhood, there was one among them very low, which fell 
 to the lot of Mr. Shirley. Perceiving it as I sat by him, 
 I said, " They have given you, sir, too low a seat." 
 " No matter," says he, " Mr. Franklin, I find a low seat 
 the easiest." 
 
 25 While I was, as afore mentioned, detained at New York, 
 I received all the accounts of the provisions, etc., that I 
 had furnished to Braddock, some of which accounts could 
 not sooner be obtained from the different persons I had 
 employed to assist in the business. I presented them to 
 
 30 Lord Loudoun, desiring to be paid the balance. He 
 caused them to be regularly examined by the proper officer, 
 who, after comparing every article with its voucher, 
 certified them to be right ; and the balance due for which 
 his lordship promised to give me an order on the pay- 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 187 
 
 master. This was, however, put off from time to time; 
 and, though I called often for it by appointment, I did not 
 get it. At length, just before my departure, he told me 
 he had, on better consideration, concluded not to mix 
 his accounts with those of his predecessors. " And you, "5 
 says he, " when in England, have only to exhibit your 
 accounts at the treasury, and you will be paid immedi- 
 ately." 
 
 I mentioned, but without effect, the great and unex 
 pected expense I had been put to by being detained so 10 
 long at New York, as a reason for my desiring to be 
 presently paid; and on my observing that it was not 
 right I should be put to any further trouble or delay 
 in obtaining the money I had advanced, as I charged no 
 commission for my service. " O, Sir," says he, " you mustl5 
 not think of persuading us that you are no gainer; we 
 understand better those affairs, and know that every one 
 concerned in supplying the army finds means, in the do 
 ing it, to fill his own pockets." I assured him that was 
 not my case, and that I had not pocketed a farthing; but 20 
 he appeared clearly not to believe me; and, indeed, I 
 have since learned that immense fortunes are often made 
 in such employments. As to my balance, I am not paid 
 it to this day, of which more hereafter. 
 
 Our captain of the packet had boasted much, before we 25 
 sailed, of the swiftness of his ship; unfortunately, when 
 we came to sea, she proved the dullest of ninety-six sail, 
 to his no small mortification. After many conjectures re 
 specting the cause, when we were near another ship al 
 most as dull as ours, which, however, gained upon us, 30 
 the captain ordered all hands to come aft, and stand as near 
 the ensign staff as possible. We were, passengers in 
 cluded, about forty persons. While we stood there, the 
 ship mended her pace, and soon left her neighbor far be- 
 
1 88 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 hind, which proved clearly what our captain suspected, that 
 she was loaded too much by the head. The casks of 
 water, it seems, had been all placed forward; these he 
 therefore ordered to be moved further aft, on which the 
 5ship recovered her character, and proved the best sailer in 
 the fleet. 
 
 The captain said she had once gone at the rate of 
 thirteen knots, which is accounted thirteen miles per 
 hour. We had on board, as a passenger, Captain Ken- 
 
 lOnedy, of the Navy, who contended that it was impossible, 
 and that no ship ever sailed so fast, and that there must 
 have been some error in the division of the log-line, or 
 some mistake in heaving the log. A wager ensued be 
 tween the two captains, to be decided when there should 
 
 15be sufficient wind. Kennedy thereupon examined rigor- 
 osuly the log-line, and, being satisfied with that, he de 
 termined to throw the log himself. Accordingly some days 
 after, when the wind blew very fair and fresh, and the 
 captain of the packet, Lutwidge, said he believed she 
 
 20then went at the rate of thirteen knots, Kennedy made 
 the experiment, and owned his wager lost. 
 
 The above fact I give for the sake of the following 
 observation. It has been remarked, as an imperfection 
 in the art of ship-building, that it can never be known, 
 
 25till she is tried, whether a new ship will or will not be a 
 good sailer; for that the model of a good-sailing ship 
 has been exactly followed in a new one, which has proved, 
 on the contrary, remarkably dull. I apprehend that this 
 may partly be occasioned by the different opinions of sea- 
 
 SOmen respecting the modes of lading, rigging, and sailing of 
 a ship ; each has his system ; and the same vessel, laden 
 by the judgment and orders of one captain, shall sail 
 better or worse than when by the orders of another. Be 
 sides, it scarce ever happens that a ship is formed, fitted 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 189 
 
 for the sea, and sailed by the same person. One man 
 builds the hull, another rigs her, a third lades and sails 
 her. No one of these has the advantage of knowing all 
 the ideas and experience of the others, and, therefore, 
 cannot draw just conclusions from a combination of the 5 
 whole. 
 
 Even in the simple operation of sailing when at sea, I 
 have often observed different judgments in the officers 
 who commanded the successive watches, the wind being 
 the same. One would have the sails trimmed sharper or 1C* 
 flatter than another, so that they seemed to have no cer 
 tain rule to govern by. Yet I think a set of experiments 
 might be instituted: first, to determine the most proper 
 form of the hull for swift sailing; next, the best dimen 
 sions and properest place for the masts; then the formlS 
 and quantity of sails, and their position, as the wind may 
 be; and, lastly, the disposition of the lading. This is an 
 age of experiments, and I think a set accurately made and 
 combined would be of great use. I am persuaded, there 
 fore, that ere long some ingenious philosopher will under- 20 
 take it, to whom I wish success. 
 
 We were several times chased in our passage, but out 
 sailed everything, and in thirty days had soundings. We 
 had a good observation, and the captain judged himself so 
 near our port, Falmouth, that, if we made a good run in 25 
 the night, we might be off the mouth of that harbor in the 
 morning, and by running in the night might escape the 
 notice of the enemy s privateers, who often cruised near 
 the entrance of the channel. Accordingly, all the sail was 
 set that we could possibly make, and the wind being very 30 
 fresh and fair, we went right before it, and made great 
 way. The captain, after his observation, shaped his course, 
 as he thought, so as to pass wide of the Scilly Isles ; but it 
 seems there is sometimes a strong indraught setting up St. 
 
190 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 George s Channel, which deceives seamen and caused the 
 loss of Sir Cloudesley Shovel s squadron. This indraught 
 was probably the cause of what happened to us. 
 
 We had a watchman placed in the bow, to whom they 
 5often called, " Look well out before there" and he as often 
 answered, " Ay, ay; " but perhaps had his eyes shut, and 
 was half asleep at the time, they sometimes answering, as 
 is said, mechanically; for he did not see a light just be 
 fore us, which had been hid by the studding-sails from the 
 
 lOman at the helm, and from the rest of the watch, but by 
 an accidental yaw of the ship was discovered, and occa 
 sioned a great alarm, we being very near it, the light ap 
 pearing to me as big as a cart wheel. It was midnight, 
 and our captain fast asleep; but Captain Kennedy, jump- 
 
 15ing upon deck, and seeing the danger, ordered the ship to 
 wear round, all sails standing; an operation dangerous to 
 the masts, but it carried us clear, and we escaped ship 
 wreck, for we were running right upon the rocks on which 
 the lighthouse was erected. This deliverance impressed 
 
 20me strongly with the utility of lighthouses, and made me 
 resolve to encourage the building more of them in America 
 if I should live to return there. 
 
 In the morning it was found by the soundings, etc., 
 that we were near our port, but a thick fog hid the land 
 
 25from our sight. About nine o clock the fog began to rise, 
 and seemed to be lifted up from the water like the curtain 
 at a play-house, discovering underneath, the town of Fal- 
 mouth, the vessels in its harbor, and the fields that sur 
 rounded it. This was a most pleasing spectacle to those 
 
 30who had been so long without any other prospects than the 
 uniform view of a vacant ocean, and it gave us the more 
 pleasure as we were now free from the anxieties which 
 the state of war occasioned. 
 
 I set out immediately, with my son,, for London, and 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 191 
 
 we only stopped a little by the way to view Stonehenge on 
 Salisbury Plain, and Lord Pembroke s house and gardens, 
 with his very curious antiquities at Wilton. We arrived 
 in London the 27th of July, 1757. 
 
 As soon as I was settled in a lodging Mr. Charles had 5 
 provided for me, I went to visit Dr. Fothergill, to whom I 
 was strongly recommended, and whose counsel respecting 
 my proceedings I was advised to obtain. He was against 
 an immediate complaint to government, and thought the 
 proprietaries should first be personally applied to, who 10 
 might possibly be induced by the interposition and persua 
 sion of some private friends, to accommodate matters 
 amicably. I then waited on my old friend and corre 
 spondent, Mr. Peter Collinson, who told me that John 
 Hanbury, the great Virginia merchant, had requested to be!5 
 informed when I should arrive, that he might carry me to 
 Lord Granville s, who was then President of the Council 
 and wished to see me as soon as possible. I agreed to 
 go with him the next morning. Accordingly Mr. Han- 
 bury called for me and took me in his carriage to that 20 
 nobleman s, who received me with great civility ; and after 
 some questions respecting the present state of affairs in 
 America and discourse thereupon, he said to me: "You 
 Americans have wrong ideas of the nature of your con 
 stitution; you contend that the king s instructions to his25 
 governors are not laws, and think yourselves at liberty to 
 regard or disregard them at your own discretion. But 
 those instructions are not like the pocket instructions given 
 to a minister going abroad, for regulating his conduct 
 in some trifling point of ceremony. They are first drawn 30 
 up by judges learned in the laws; they are then considered, 
 debated, and perhaps amended in Council, after which they 
 are signed by the king. They are then, so far as they 
 relate to you, the law of the land, for the king is the LEG- 
 
192 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 ISLATOR OF THE COLONIES." I told his lordship this was 
 new doctrine to me. I had always understood from our 
 charters that our laws were to be made by our Assemblies, 
 to be presented indeed to the king for his royal assent, but 
 6that being once given the king could not repeal or alter 
 them. And as the Assemblies could not make permanent 
 laws without his assent, so neither could he make a law 
 for them without theirs. He assured me I was totally 
 mistaken. I did not think so, however, and his lordship s 
 
 lOconversation having a little alarmed me as to what might 
 be the sentiments of the court concerning us, I wrote it 
 down as soon as I returned to my lodgings. I recollected 
 that about 20 years before, a clause in a bill brought into 
 Parliament by the ministry had proposed to make the 
 
 IBking s instructions laws in the colonies, but the clause 
 was thrown out by the Commons, for which we adored 
 them as our friends and friends of liberty, till by their con 
 duct towards us in 1765 it seemed that they had refused 
 that point of sovereignty to the king only that they might 
 
 20 reserve it for themselves. 
 
 After some days, Dr. Fothergill having spoken to the 
 proprietaries, they agreed to a meeting with me at Mr. 
 T. Penn s house in Spring Garden. The conversation 
 at first consisted of mutual declarations of disposition to 
 
 25reasonable accommodations, but I suppose each party had 
 its own ideas of what should be meant by reasonable. We 
 then went into consideration of our several points of com 
 plaint, which I enumerated. The proprietaries justified 
 their conduct as well as they could, and I the Assembly s. 
 
 SOWe now appeared very wide, and so far from each other 
 in our opinions as to discourage all hope of agreement. 
 However, it was concluded that I should give them the 
 heads of our complaints in writing, and they promised then 
 to consider them. I did so soon after, but they put the 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 193 
 
 paper into the hands of their solicitor, Ferdinand John 
 Paris, who managed for them all their law business in 
 their great suit with the neighboring proprietary of Mary 
 land, Lord Baltimore, which had subsisted 70 years, and 
 wrote for them all their papers and messages in theirS 
 dispute with the Assembly. He was a proud, angry 
 man, and as I had occasionally in the answers of the 
 Assembly treated his papers with some severity, they be 
 ing really weak in point of argument and haughty in ex 
 pression, he had conceived a mortal enmity to me, which 10 
 discovering itself whenever we met, I declined the pro 
 prietary s proposal that he and I should discuss the heads 
 of complaint between our two selves, and refused treating 
 with anyone but them. They then by his advice put the 
 paper into the hands of the Attorney and Solicitor-Gen- 15 
 eral for their opinion and counsel upon it, where it lay un 
 answered a year wanting eight days, during which time 
 I made frequent demands of an answer from the pro 
 prietaries, but without obtaining any other than that they 
 had not yet received the opinion of the Attorney and So- 20 
 licitor-General. What it was when they did receive it 
 I never learned, for they did not communicate it to me, 
 but sent a long message to the Assembly drawn and signed 
 by Paris, reciting my paper, complaining of its want of 
 formality, as a rudeness on my part, and giving a flimsy 25 
 justification of their conduct, adding that they should be 
 willing to accommodate matters if the Assembly would 
 send out some person of candor to treat with them for that 
 purpose, intimating thereby that I was not such. 
 
 The want of formality or rudeness was, probably, my 30 
 not having addressed the paper to them with their assumed 
 titles of True and Absolute Proprietaries of the Province 
 of Pennsylvania, which I omitted as not thinking it nec 
 essary in a paper, the intention of which was only to reduce 
 
194 Franklin s Autobiography 
 
 to a certainty by writing, what in conversation I had 
 delivered viva voce. 
 
 But during this delay, the Assembly having prevailed 
 
 with Governor Denny to pass an act taxing the proprie- 
 
 otary estate in common with the estates of the people, which 
 
 was the grand point in dispute, they omitted answering the 
 
 message. 
 
 When this act, however, came over, the proprietaries, 
 counseled by Paris, determined to oppose its receiving 
 
 lOthe royal assent. Accordingly they petitioned the king 
 in Council, and a hearing wias appointed in which two 
 lawyers were employed by them against the act, and two 
 by me in support of it. They alleged that the act was 
 intended to load the proprietary estate in order to spare 
 
 15those of the people, and that if it were suffered to con 
 tinue in force, and the proprietaries, who were in odium 
 with the people, left to their mercy in proportioning the 
 taxes, they would inevitably be ruined. We replied that 
 the act had no such intention, and would have no such 
 
 20effect. That the assessors were honest and discreet m*i 
 under an oath to assess fairly and equitably, and that 
 any advantage each of them might expect in lessening his 
 own tax by augmenting that of the proprietaries was too 
 trifling to induce them to perjure themselves. This is 
 
 25the purport of what I remember as urged by both sides, 
 except that we insisted strongly on the mischievous conse 
 quences that must attend a repeal, for that the money, 
 100,000, being printed and given to the king s use, ex 
 pended in his service, and now spread among the people, 
 
 30the repeal would strike it dead in their hands to the ruin 
 of many, and the total discouragement of future grants, 
 and the selfishness of the proprietors in soliciting such a 
 general catastrophe, merely from a groundless fear of their 
 estate being taxed too highly, was insisted on in the 
 
Franklin s Autobiography 195 
 
 strongest terms. On this, Lord Mansfield, one of the 
 counsel, rose, and beckoning me took me into the clerk s 
 chamber, while the lawyers were pleading, and asked me if 
 I was really of opinion that no injury would be done the 
 proprietary estate in the execution of the act. I said cer-5 
 tainly. " Then," says he, " you can have little objection 
 to enter into an engagement to assure that point." I 
 answered, " None at all." He then called in Paris, and 
 after some discourse, his lordship s proposition was ac 
 cepted on both sides; a paper to the purpose was drawnlO 
 up by the Clerk of the Council, which I signed with 
 Mr. Charles, who was also an Agent of the Province 
 for their ordinary affairs, when Lord Mansfield returned 
 to the Council Chamber, where finally the law was allowed 
 to pass. Some changes were however recommended andlS 
 we also engaged they should be made by a subsequent law, 
 but the Assembly did not think them necessary; for one 
 year s tax having been levied by the act before the order 
 of Council arrived, they appointed a committee to examine 
 the proceedings of the assessors, and on this committee they 20 
 put several particular friends of the proprietaries. After a 
 full inquiry, they unanimously signed a report that they 
 found the tax had been assessed with perfect equity. 
 
 The Assembly looked into my entering into the first part , 
 of the engagement, as an essential service to the Prov-25 
 ince, since it secured the credit of the paper money then 
 spread over all the country. They gave me their thanks 
 in form when I returned. But the proprietaries were 
 enraged at Governor Denny for having passed the act, and 
 turned him out with threats of suing him for breach of30 
 instructions which he had given bond to observe. He, 
 however, having done it at the instance of the general, 
 and for His Majesty s service, and having some powerful 
 interest at court, despised the threats and they were never 
 put in execution* 
 
Father Abraham in his STUDY. 
 
 r !pHE SHADE of Him who Counfcl can beftow, 
 
 J. Still plcas d to teach, and yet not proud to know f 
 Unbias d or by Favour or by Spite ; 
 Nor dully prepoflefs d, nor blindly right; 
 Thd learn d, well-bred ; and, th6 well-bred, fiaccre ; 
 Modeftly bold* and humanely fevere ; 
 Wfho to a Friend his Faults can .fweetfy ftow. 
 And gladly* praife the Merit of a Foe. 
 Here, there lie fits, his chearful Aid to-. lead ; } 
 A firm, onfliaken, oncorrnpted Friend* > 
 
 Printed ly Benjamin Mecom, at the New 
 Prindng-Office, (near the TOWN-HOUSE, in Bofton) wbere 
 BOOKS are Sold, and PRINTING-WORK done, Cheap. 
 
 Reproduced by Permission of The New York Public Library from 
 " Father Abraham s Speech," 1760. 
 
ELECTRICAL KITE 
 
 To Peter Collinson. 
 
 [Philadelphia], Oct. 19, 1752. 
 SIR, 
 
 As frequent mention is made in public papers from 
 Europe of the success of the Philadelphia experiment for 
 drawing the electric fire from clouds by means of pointed 5 
 rods of iron erected on high buildings, &c., it may be 
 agreeable to the curious to be informed, that the same ex 
 periment has succeeded in Philadelphia, though made in a 
 different and more easy manner, which is as follows: 
 
 Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the armsio 
 so long as to reach to the four corners of a large, thin silk 
 handkerchief when extended ; tie the corners of the hand 
 kerchief to the extremities of the cross, so you have the 
 body of a kite; which being properly accommodated with 
 a tail, loop, and string, will rise in the air, like those madei5 
 of paper; but this being of silk, is fitter to bear the wet and 
 wind of a thunder-gust without tearing. To the top of 
 the upright stick of the cross is to be fixed a very sharp- 
 pointed wire, rising a foot or more above the wood. To 
 the end of the twine, next the hand, is to be tied a silk20 
 ribbon, and where the silk and twine join, a key may be 
 fastened. This kite is to be raised when a thunder-gust 
 appears to be coming on, and the person who holds the 
 string must stand within a door or window, or under some 
 cover, so that the silk ribbon may not be wet; and care 2 5 
 must be taken that the twine does not touch the frame of 
 the door or window. As soon as any of the thunder 
 clouds come over the kite, the pointed wire will draw the 
 
 197 
 
198 Electrical Kite 
 
 electric fire from them, and the kite, with all the twine, 
 will be electrified, and the loose filaments of the twine will 
 stand out every way and be attracted by an approaching 
 finger. And when the rain has wet the kite and twine, 
 5so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will 
 find it stream out plentifully from the key on the ap 
 proach of your knuckle. At this key the phial may be 
 charged; and from electric fire thus obtained, spirits may 
 be kindled, and all the electric experiments be performed, 
 XOwhich are usually done by the help of a rubbed glass globe 
 or tube, and thereby the sameness of the electric matter 
 with that of lightning completely demonstrated. 
 
 B. FRANKLIN. 
 
THE WAY TO WEALTH 
 
 (From Father Abraham s Speech forming the preface 
 to Poor Richard s Almanac for 1758.) 
 
 IT would be thought a hard Government that should 
 tax its People one-tenth Part of their Time, to be em 
 ployed in its Service. But Idleness taxes many of us 
 much more, if we reckon all that is spent in absolute Sloth, 
 or doing of nothing, with that which is spent in idle Em-5 
 ployments or Amusements, that amount to nothing. 
 Sloth, by bringing on Diseases, absolutely shortens Life. 
 Sloth, like Rust, consumes faster than Labor wears; while 
 the used key is always bright, as Poor Richard says. But 
 dost thou love Life, then do not squander Time, for that s^ 
 the stuff Life is made of, as Poor Richard says. How 
 much more than is necessary do we spend in sleep, for 
 getting that The sleeping Fox catches no Poultry, and that 
 There will be sleeping enough in the Grave, as Poor Rich 
 ard says. 15 
 
 // Time be of all Things the most precious, wasting 
 Time must be, as Poor Richard says, the greatest Prodigal 
 ity; since, as he elsewhere tells us, Lost Time is never found 
 again; and what we call Time enough, always proves little 
 enough: Let us then up and be doing, and doing to the20 
 Purpose; so by Diligence shall we do more with less Per 
 plexity. Sloth makes all Things difficult, but Industry all 
 easy, as Poor Richard says ; and He that riseth late must 
 trot all Day, and shall scarce overtake his Business at 
 Night; while Laziness travels so slowly, that Poverty^ 
 soon overtakes him, as we read in Poor Richard, who adds, 
 
 199 
 
200 The Way to Wealth 
 
 Drive thy Business, let not that drive thee; and Early to 
 Bed, and early to rise, makes a Man healthy, wealthy, and 
 wise. 
 
 Industry need not wish, and he that lives upon Hope 
 5will die fasting. 
 
 There are no Gains without Pains. 
 He that hath a Trade hath an Estate; and he that hath 
 a Calling, hath an Office of Profit and Honor; but then 
 the Trade must be worked at, and the Calling well fol- 
 lOlowed, or neither the Estate nor the Office will enable us 
 to pay our Taxes. 
 
 What though you have found no Treasure, nor has any 
 rich Relation left you a Legacy, Diligence is the Mother of 
 Good-luck, as Poor Richard says, and God gives all Things 
 15^0 Industry. 
 
 One To-day is worth two To-morrows, and farther, 
 Have you somewhat to do To-morrow, do it To-day. 
 
 If you were a Servant, would you not be ashamed that a 
 good Master should catch you idle? Are you then your 
 20own Master, be ashamed to catch yourself idle* 
 
 Stick to it steadily; and you will see great Effects, for 
 Constant Dropping wears away Stones, and by Diligence 
 and Patience the Mouse ate in two the Cable; and 
 Little Strokes fell great Oaks. 
 
 25 Methinks I hear some of you say, Must a Man afford 
 himself no Leisure? I will tell thee, my friend, what 
 Poor Richard says, Employ thy Time well, if thou meanest 
 to gain Leisure; and, since thou are not sure of a Min 
 ute, throw not away an Hour. Leisure, is Time for do- 
 SOing something useful ; this Leisure the diligent Man will 
 obtain, but the lazy Man never; so that, as Poor Richard 
 says, A Life of Leisure and a Life of Laziness are two 
 things. 
 
The Way to Wealth 201 
 
 Keep thy Shop, and thy Shop will keep thee; and again, 
 If you would have your business done, go; if not, send. 
 
 If you would have a faithful Servant, and one that you 
 like, serve yourself. 
 
 A little Neglect may breed great Mischief ; adding, for 5 
 want of a Nail the Shoe was lost; for want of a Shoe the 
 Horse was lost; and for want of a Horse the Rider was 
 lost, being overtaken and slain by the Enemy; all for the 
 want of Care about a Horse-shoe Nail. 
 
 So much for Industry, my Friends, and Attention 10 
 to one s own Business; but to these we must add Fru 
 gality. 
 
 What maintains one Vice, would bring up two Chil 
 dren. You may think perhaps, that a little Tea, or a 
 little Punch now and then, Diet a little more costly, 15 
 Clothes a little finer, and a little Entertainment now and 
 then, can be no great Matter; but remember what Poor 
 Richard says, Many a Little makes a Mickel. 
 
 Beware of little expenses; A small Leak will sink a 
 great Ship; and again, Who Dainties love, shall Beggars^ 
 prove; and moreover, Fools make Feasts, and wise Men 
 eat them. 
 
 Buy what thou hast no Need of, and ere long thou shalt 
 sell thy Necessaries. 
 
 If you would know the Value of Money, go and try to 25 
 borrow some; for, he that goes a borrowing goes a sor 
 rowing. 
 
 The second Vice is Lying, the first is running in Debt. 
 
 Lying rides upon Debt s Back. 
 
 Poverty often deprives a Man of all Spirit and Virtue: 30 
 Tis hard for an empty Bag to stand upright. 
 
 And now to conclude, Experience keeps a dear School, 
 but Fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that; for it 
 
202 The Way to Wealth 
 
 is true, we may give Advice, but we cannot give Conduct, 
 as Poor Richard says: However, remember this, They 
 that wont be counseled, cant be helped, as Poor Richard 
 says: and farther, That, if you will not hear Reason, she ll 
 Ssurely rap your Knuckles. 
 
THE WHISTLE 
 To Madame Brillon 
 
 PASSY, November 10, 1779. 
 
 I am charmed with your description of Paradise, and 
 with your plan of living there; and I approve much of 
 your conclusion, that, in the meantime, we should draw 
 all the good we can from this world. In my opinion, 5 
 we might all draw more good from it than we do, and 
 suffer less evil, if we would take care not to give too much 
 for whistles. For to me it seems, that most of the un 
 happy people we meet with, are become so by neglect of that 
 caution. 10 
 
 You ask what I mean? You love stories, and will ex 
 cuse my telling one of myself. 
 
 When I was a child of seven year old, my friends, on a 
 holiday, filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly 
 to a shop where they sold toys for children; and being 15 
 charmed with the sound of a whistle, that I met by the 
 way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and 
 gave all my money for one. I then came home, and 
 went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my 
 whistle, but disturbing all the family. My brothers, and20 
 sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, 
 told me I had given four times as much for it as it was 
 worth ; put me in mind what good things I might have 
 bought with the rest of the money; and laughed at me so 
 much for my folly, that I cried with vexation ; and the re-25 
 flection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me 
 pleasure. 
 
 This, however, was afterwards of use to me, the im- 
 203 
 
204 The Whistle 
 
 pression continuing on my mind ; so that often, when I was* 
 tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself; 
 Don t give too much for the whistle; and I saved my 
 money. 
 
 5 As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the 
 actions of men, I thought I met with many, very many, 
 who gave too much for the whistle. 
 
 When I saw one too ambitious of court favor, sacrific 
 ing his time in attendance on levees, his repose, his lib- 
 
 lOerty, his virtue, and perhaps his friends, to attain it, I 
 have said to myself, This man gives too much for his 
 whistle. 
 
 When I saw another fond of popularity, constantly em 
 ploying himself in political bustles, neglecting his own 
 
 15 affairs, and ruining them by neglect, He pays, indeed, said 
 I, too much for his whistle. 
 
 If I knew a miser who gave up every kind of comfort 
 able living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all 
 the esteem of his fellow citizens, and the joys of benevo- 
 
 20lent friendship, for the sake of accumulating wealth, 
 Poor man, said I, you pay too much for your whistle. 
 
 When I met with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every 
 laudable improvement of the mind, or of his fortune, to 
 mere corporeal sensations, and ruining his health in their 
 
 2 5 pursuit, Mistaken man, said I, you are providing pain for 
 yourself, instead of pleasure; you give too much for your 
 whistle. 
 
 If I see one fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine 
 houses, fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his for- 
 
 30 tune, for which he contracts debts, and ends his career in 
 a prison, Alas! say I, he has paid dear, very dear, for his 
 whistle. 
 
 When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl married 
 
The Whistle 205 
 
 to an ill-natured brute of a husband, What a pity, say I, 
 that she should pay so much for a whistle! 
 
 In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries of 
 mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they 
 have made of the value of things, and by their giving too 5 
 much for their whistles. 
 
 Yet I ought to have charity for these unhappy people, 
 when I consider, that, with all this wisdom of which I 
 am boasting, there are certain things in the world so tempt 
 ing, for example, the apples of King John, which happily 10 
 are not to be bought ; for if they were put to sale by auc 
 tion, I might very easily be led to ruin myself in the pur 
 chase, and find that I had once more given too much for 
 the whistle. 
 
 Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever yours very 15 
 sincerely and with unalterable affection, 
 
 B. FRANKLIN. 
 
A LETTER TO SAMUEL MATHER 
 
 PASSY, May 12, 1784. 
 REVD SIR, 
 
 It is now more than 60 years since I left Boston, but 
 I remember well both your father and grandfather, hav- 
 5ing heard them both in the pulpit, and seen them in their 
 houses. The last time I saw your father was in the be 
 ginning of 1724, when I visited him after my first trip 
 to Pennsylvania. He received me in his library, and on 
 my taking leave showed me a shorter way out of the house 
 
 lOthrough a narrow passage, which was crossed by a beam 
 overhead. We were still talking as I withdrew, he ac 
 companying me behind, and I turning partly towards him, 
 when he said hastily, "Stoop, stoop!" I did not un 
 derstand him, till I felt my head hit against the beam. 
 
 15 He was a man that never missed any occasion of giv 
 ing instruction, and upon this he said to me, " You 
 are young, and have the world before you; stoop as 
 you go through it, and you will miss many hard thumps." 
 This advice, thus beat into my head, has frequently been 
 
 20of use to me; and I often think of it, when I see 
 pride mortified, and misfortunes brought upon people by 
 their carrying their heads too high. 
 
 B. FRANKLIN. 
 
 THE END 
 
 206 
 
NOTES AND COMMENT 
 
NOTES AND COMMENT 
 
 (Heavy numerals refer to page; light ones to line.) 
 
 ANCESTRY AND EARLY YOUTH IN BOSTON (pages 1-12) 
 
 1, 16. The conducing means. This clause is made clearer 
 in the following arrangement of W. T. Franklin s edition of 
 1817: "As constant good fortune has accompanied me even 
 to an advanced period of life, my posterity will, perhaps, be 
 desirous of learning the means which I employed, and which, 
 thanks to Providence, so well succeeded with me." 
 
 2, 1 8. Gratify my own vanity. Franklin defended vanity 
 in a letter written in 1751: "That this (to praise ourselves) 
 is a natural inclination appears in that all children show it, 
 and say freely, I am a good boy; am I not a good girl? . . . 
 Being forbid to praise themselves, they learn instead of it to 
 censure others, which is only a roundabout way of praising 
 themselves; for condemning the conduct of another, in any par 
 ticular, amounts to as much as saying, / am so honest, or wise, 
 or good, or prudent, that I could not do or approve of such an 
 action. This fondness for ourselves, rather than malevolence 
 to others, I take to be the general source of censure and back 
 biting; and I wish men had not been taught to dam up natural 
 currents, to the overflowing and damage of their neighbor s 
 grounds." 
 
 In this connection Woodrow Wilson says, " And yet the sur 
 prising and delightful thing about this book (the Autobiog 
 raphy) is that, take it all in all, it has not the low tone of con 
 ceit, but is a staunch man s sober and unaffected assessment of 
 himself and the circumstances of his career." 
 
 Gibbon and Hume, the great British historians, who were 
 contemporaries of Franklin, express in their autobiographies the 
 same feeling about the propriety of just self-praise. 
 
 20Q 
 
2io Notes and Comment 
 
 Note illustrations in the Autobiography of Franklin s grat 
 ification of his vanity. 
 
 3, to. Family . . . lived in ... Ecton. See In 
 troduction, page ix. 
 
 3, 13. Name of an order: a small landowner. 
 
 " Chaucer, too, calls his country gentleman a Franklin, and, 
 after describing his good housekeeping, thus characterizes him; 
 
 This worthy Franklin had a purse of silk, 
 Fixed to his girdle, white as morning milk. 
 Knight of the Shire, first justice at the Assize, 
 To help the poor, the doubtful to advise. 
 In all employments, generous, just, he proved, 
 Renowned for courtesy, by all beloved. " 
 
 4, 31. The following: not in the manuscript. 
 
 5, 32. Outed for non-conformity. They were put out of 
 the Church of England for not following the established usages, 
 and had to preach secretly to gatherings of dissenters from the 
 established Church, which were called conventicles. 
 
 7, 6. Sherburne: Nantucket. 
 
 7, n. Grammar-school: a school where Latin was taught. 
 
 7, 12. Tithe. The Puritans, who interpreted the Bible liter 
 ally, often followed its injunction to give the tithe or tenth of 
 one s possessions to God s service. 
 
 7, 20. Stock to set up with. Franklin is probably making 
 fun in a mild way of the profession of the preacher. Later 
 (page 107) Franklin, like Addison, approves of ordinary 
 preachers using the sermons of greater thinkers. See " The 
 Spectator at Coverley Hall" (Spectator No. 106, July 2, 1711). 
 
 7, 21. Character: system of shorthand. 
 
 9, 6. Nothing was useful which was not honest. Explain 
 the meaning of this statement and illustrate it by an example 
 other than that in the book. 
 
 10, 1 8. Marble over their grave. This marble having de 
 cayed, the citizens of Boston in 1827 erected in its place a granite 
 obelisk, twenty-one feet high, bearing the original inscription 
 quoted in the text and another explaining the erection of the 
 monument. 
 
 n, 8. One does not dress. How does this figure of speech 
 explain Franklin s purpose in writing the Autobiography? 
 
Notes and Comment 211 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. Give Franklin s reasons for writing the Autobiography, 
 and point out the traits of his character indicated in these 
 reasons. 2. What were the characteristics of life in Boston in 
 the early eighteenth century? 3. What indications do you note 
 in the boy Franklin of his later power to rule other men, and 
 on what trait of Franklin s character was that power based? 
 4. What did Franklin consider his most important work in life? 
 See page 8. 5. Write a character sketch of Franklin s father. 
 
 II 
 
 BEGINNING LIFE AS A PRINTER (pages 12-23) 
 
 12, 9. My father s little library. This description is inter 
 esting as indicating the bent of the elder Franklin s mind. 
 Pilgrim s Progress was then read almost as widely as the Bible. 
 The possession of Plutarch, the Greek historian s forty-six 
 Parallel Lives of Greeks and Romans, showed a wider culture. 
 DeFoe s Essay on Projects and Cotton Mather s Essays to do 
 Good, or Bonefacius (an essay upon the good that is to be de 
 vised and designed by those who desire to answer the great end 
 of life and to do good while they live), show the practical side 
 of Josiah Franklin s character. He was somewhat a Yankee as 
 well as a Puritan. The projects related to banks, assurance 
 companies, asylums, academies, etc. 
 
 13, 21. Occasional ballads. These ballads owed their pop 
 ularity to their subjects, which were of general interest. Gold 
 smith, when he was a student at Trinity College, Dublin, made 
 money by selling in the streets ballads of his own composition. 
 
 13, 26. Grub-street: famous in English literature as the 
 home of poor writers. 
 
 15, i. Pointing: punctuation. 
 
 15, 7. The Spectator: a daily London journal, comprising 
 satirical essays on social subjects, published by Addison and 
 Steele in 1711-1712. The Spectator and its predecessor, the 
 Tattler (1709) marked the beginning of periodical literature. 
 
 15, ii. I took some of the papers. Robert Louis Stevenson 
 followed the same plan. In his Memories and Portraits he 
 writes: "Whenever I read a book or a passage that particu 
 larly pleased me, in which a thing was said or an effect ren 
 dered with propriety, in which there was either some conspicr 
 
212 Notes and Comment 
 
 uous force or some happy distinction in the style, I must sit 
 down at once and set myself to ape that quality. I was un 
 successful, and I knew it; and tried again, and again was 
 unsuccessful and always unsuccessful ; but, at least, in these 
 vain bouts I got some practice in rhythm, in harmony, in con 
 struction, and in the coordination of parts. . . . That, like 
 it or not, is the way to learn to write; whether I have profited 
 or not, that is the way. It was so Keats learned, and there was 
 never a finer temperament for literature than Keats s; it was 
 so, if we could trace it out, that all men have learned; and 
 that is why a revival of letters is always accompanied or 
 heralded by a. cast back to earlier and fresher models. Per 
 haps I hear some one cry out: But this is not the way to be 
 original! It is not; nor is there any way but to be born so. 
 Nor yet, if you are born original, is there anything in this 
 training that shall clip the wings of your originality." 
 
 Note, also, that Franklin took pains to acquire the art of 
 arranging his material properly. Every good writer plans his 
 writing. Some are able to carry the plan in the mind, but it 
 is better for young writers to set down suitable general heads 
 under which their details may be marshaled. 
 
 17, 13. Locke On Human Understanding: John Locke 
 (1632-1704), a celebrated English philosopher, founder of the 
 so-called "common-sense" school of philosophers. He drew 
 up a constitution for the colonists of Carolina. 
 
 The Messrs, du Port Royal: a noted society of scholarly and 
 devout men occupying the abbey of Port Royal near Paris, who 
 published learned works, among them the one here referred to, 
 better known as the Port Royal Logic. 
 
 17, 20. The Socratic method. Socrates confuted hii op 
 ponents in argument by asking questions so skillfully devised 
 that the answers would confirm the questioner s position 0r show 
 the error of the opponent. 
 
 17, 26. Shaftsbury and Collins: Anthony Ashley Cooper, 
 third Earl of Shaftsbury (1671-1713), and Anthony Collins 
 (1676-1729), two leaders of the Deists, a theological sect that 
 believed in the existence of God, but not in Christianity. 
 
 18, 31. Pope: Alexander Pope (1688-1744), the greatest 
 English poet of the first half of the eighteenth century. 
 
 19, 1 6. The second that appeared in America: Franklin s 
 memory does not serve him correctly here. The Courant was 
 really the fifth newspaper established in America, although gen- 
 
Notes and Comment 213 
 
 erally called the fourth, because the first, Public Occurrences, 
 published in Boston in 1690, was suppressed after the first issue. 
 Following is the order in which the other four papers were 
 published: Boston News Letter, 1704; Boston Gazette, Decem 
 ber 21, 1719; The American Weekly Mercury, Philadelphia, 
 December 22, 1719; The New England Courant, 1721. 
 
 20, 24. Discovered: in a sense not often used now, that of 
 disclosed. Look up also ingenious, page 19, line 27; and de 
 meaned, page 20, line 33. 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. The influence of Franklin s early reading on his life and 
 character. 2. What do you think of Franklin s method of learn 
 ing to write? 3. Try to find other cases of great men who 
 educated themselves under difficulties. 4. What habit of Frank 
 lin s in disputes was responsible for his success in argument and 
 persuasion? 5. How did Franklin first come to edit a news 
 paper? 6. Why did Franklin leave Boston? 
 
 Ill 
 ARRIVAL IN PHILADELPHIA (pages 23-31) 
 
 23, 15. William Bradford. Bradford quarreled with Gov 
 ernor Keith, and went to New York, where he published the 
 first newspaper in that colony in 1725. 
 
 23, 26. Kill: Kill van Kull, the channel separating Staten 
 Island from New Jersey on the north. 
 
 24, 16. DeFoe . . . Richardson. See Introduction, pages 
 xxii-xxiii. Samuel Richardson, the father of the English novel, 
 wrote Pamela, Clarissa Harlowe, and the History of Sir 
 Charles Grandison, novels published in the form of letters. 
 
 25, 6. The water we sailed on being salt. The language 
 of this description is strikingly like that of similar descriptions 
 in Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 25, 8. Cold water drunk plentifully. Only in recent times 
 have fever patients been allowed cold water, but cold applica 
 tions are now used to reduce fever. Franklin here, as often, by 
 the exercise of common sense anticipated modern discoveries 
 and methods. 
 
 2 5 33* Cotton had done Virgil. Charles Cotton (1630- 
 1687) wrote Scarronides, or the First Book of Virgil Travestie. 
 
214 Notes and Comment 
 
 26, 8. Bought gingerbread. The introduction of these 
 homely incidents into the narrative of the great man s life gives 
 it the natural touch often mentioned as one of its charms. 
 
 29, 27. Sophister. The boy of seventeen displayed the keen 
 insight into character and the power of observation that later 
 marked the diplomat and scientist. 
 
 30, 5. Copy: manuscript. 
 
 30, 6. Cases. The frames for holding type are in two sec 
 tions, the upper for capitals and the lower for small letters. 
 
 30, 21. French prophets: protestants of the South of France, 
 who became fanatical under the persecutions of Louis XIV, and 
 thought they had the gift of prophecy. They had as mottoes 
 "No Taxes" and "Liberty of Conscience." 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. Reproduce Franklin s narrative of his trip to Philadelphia. 
 2. Compare this trip with a similar journey to-day. 3. What 
 part of the story of the trip do you find most interesting and 
 why? 4. What traits of Franklin s character do you note in 
 the narrative of his first experiences in Philadelphia? See 
 psges 25 and 27-31. 5. What makes the pictures on pages 25 
 and 26 effective? 6. Discuss discovered, page 20, line 24; in 
 genious, page 19, line 27; and demeaned, page 20, line 33. 
 
 IV 
 
 FIRST VISIT TO BOSTON (pages 31-40) 
 
 32, 19. Stared like a pig poisoned. Temple Franklin con 
 sidered this specific figure vulgar and changed it to " Stared 
 with astonishment." For similar bookish equivalents of homely 
 words and expressions, see notes: pages 36, 38, 51, 61. What 
 is the effect of these changes? 
 
 32, 25. Both governments: Pennsylvania and Delaware. 
 
 33, 30. Raree-show: a peep-show in a box. 
 
 33, 30. Paper being the money of Boston. There were no 
 mints in the colonies^ so the metal money was of foreign coin 
 age and not nearly so common as paper money, which was 
 printed in large quantities in America, even in small denomina 
 tions. 
 
 33, 33- Piece of eight: Spanish dollar about equivalent to 
 our dollar. 
 
Notes and Comment 215 
 
 34, 5. Could never forget or forgive it. The human na 
 ture exhibited by both Franklin and his brother during this visit 
 is cleverly brought out. Note the dry humor of line 6. 
 
 36, 32. Sotting with brandy. Temple Franklin amends as 
 follows: "But during my absence he had acquired a habit of 
 drinking of brandy; and I found by his own account as well as 
 that of others, that he had been drunk every day since his ar 
 rival at New York, and behaved himself in a very extravagant 
 manner." 
 
 Another good example of his removal of the strength and 
 virility of Franklin s language is found on the next page. " The 
 Governor received me with great civility, showed me his 
 library, which was a considerable one, and we had a good 
 deal of conversation relative to books and authors." See also 
 page 32 and note. 
 
 37, 7. Had a great many books i Notice how many times 
 Franklin s love of books and reading gave him pleasure and 
 obtained him favor. See pages 25 and 31. 
 
 38, 24. The breaking into this money. Temple Franklin 
 has, " The Violation of my trust respecting Vernon s money." 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. What is the most natural part of the narrative of Frank 
 lin s trip to Boston? 2. Of what benefit to him was Franklin s 
 love of books? 3. What do you think of the judgment of 
 Franklin s father in refusing to set up his son in business? 4. 
 What illustration did Franklin cite in approval of it? 
 
 EARLY FRIENDS IN PHILADELPHIA (pages 40-44) 
 
 41, 31. Flesh-pots of Egypt: Exodus xvi. 3. 
 
 42, 15. Brogden: Brockden. See page 83. 
 
 44, 19. Pope cured him. " In one of the later editions of 
 the Dunciad occur the following lines: 
 
 Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls, 
 And makes night hideous answer him, ye owls. 
 
 To this the poet adds the following note: 
 
 James Ralph, a name inserted after the first editions, not 
 known till he writ a swearing-piece called Sawney, very 
 abusive of Dr. Swift, Mr. Gay, and myself. " 
 
216 Notes and Comment 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 x. What does Franklin s choice of friends when he first went 
 to Philadelphia, show about his character? 2. Franklin s sense 
 of humor. (See pages 30 and 41.) 3. Does Franklin s lan 
 guage suit his narrative; is it clear; is it forcible? (Illustrate 
 what you say by reference to pages 32, 36, 38, 51 and 61, and 
 the notes bearing on these pages.) 
 
 VI 
 
 FIRST VISIT TO LONDON (pages 45-58) 
 
 45, 14. Newcastle. See page 31. 
 
 47, 30. To be bound for him: to be his security. 
 
 48, 19. Little Britain: one of the oldest parts of London, 
 north of St. Paul s Cathedral, called " Little Britain " because 
 the Dukes of Brittany used to live there. See the essay en 
 titled "Little Britain" in Washington Irving s Sketch Book. 
 
 48, 26. Pistole: a gold coin worth about four dollars in our 
 money. 
 
 48, 30. Wilkes: a popular comedian, manager of Drury Lane 
 Theater. 
 
 48, 33. Paternoster Row: Bartholomew Close: streets 
 north of St. Paul s, occupied by publishing houses. 
 
 49. 3- The Temple: law schools and lawyers residences sit 
 uated southwest of St. Paul s, between Fleet Street and the 
 Thames. 
 
 49, 22. A Dissertation on Liberty. See Introduction, page 
 xi. 
 
 51, 17. Young s Satires: Edward Young (1681-1765), an 
 English poet. See his satires, Vol. Ill, Epist. ii, page 70. 
 
 51, 24. Watts s. The printing press at which Franklin 
 worked is preserved in the Patent Office at Washington. 
 
 51, 32. Guzzlers of beer: "drinkers of beer" in Temple 
 Franklin s edition. 
 
 52, 15. More flour in a pennyworth of bread. This opin 
 ion with regard to the lack of nutritious properties in beer, 
 however agreeable it may be as a drink, is fully established at 
 present. See note to page 25, line 8. Franklin s attitude toward 
 drink is one of few relieving features of his conduct in Lon 
 don. Fortunately his life at this time was not indicative of his 
 real character, which later asserted itself. 
 
Notes- and Comment 217 
 
 52, 23. Composing room. Franklin now left the work of 
 operating the printing presses, which was largely a matter of 
 manual labor, and began setting type, which required more 
 skill and intelligence. 
 
 53, 2. Folly of being on ill terms. This is a wise view 
 point, which it takes many of us a long time to arrive at. 
 
 53, 6. Chapel laws. A printing house is called a chapel 
 because Caxton, the first English printer, did his printing in a 
 chapel connected with Westminster Abbey. 
 
 53, 1 8. I watched the pay-table; While Franklin was gen 
 erous, he was usually not foolishly so. 
 
 53, 24. St. Monday: a holiday taken to prolong the dissipa 
 tion of Saturday s wages. 
 
 55, 1 6. Saint Veronica. The story is that she met Christ 
 on His way to crucifixion and offered Him her handkerchief to 
 wipe the blood from His face, after which the handkerchief 
 always bore the image of Christ s bleeding face. 
 
 55, 19. I give it. How is the reason given for introducing 
 this incident characteristic of Franklin? 
 
 55, 30. Don Saltero s curiosities. James Salter, a former 
 servant of Hans Sloane, lived in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. " His 
 house, a barber-shop, was known as Don Saltero s Coffee- 
 House. The curiosities were in glass cases and constituted an 
 amazing and motley collection a petrified crab from China, a 
 lignified hog, Job s tears, Madagascar lances, William the 
 Conqueror s flaming sword, and Henry the Eighth s coat of 
 mail." (Smyth.) 
 
 55 33- Chelsea to Blackfnars: about three miles. 
 
 57, ii. Fifty pounds a year: about one hundred and sixty 
 dollars. 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. What weaknesses of Franklin s character are shown by 
 the " errata " or mistakes he mentions as having made in Lon 
 don? Summarize all of these "errata" to date and try to 
 form a general conclusion as to the cause of his mistakes. 2. 
 What kind of men were the London printers? 3. What fur 
 ther evidence does this London experience offer of Franklin s 
 powers as a leader of men? 4. What evidences are there of 
 Franklin s common sense and his practical nature; his gener 
 osity; his bodily strength and agility? (See pages 48, 52, 53, 
 55, 560 
 
2i 8 Notes and Comment 
 
 VII 
 
 BEGINNING BUSINESS IN PHILADELPHIA (pages 58-75) 
 
 58, 19. Plan: "not found in the manuscript journal, which 
 was left among Franklin s papers." (Bigelow.) 
 
 60, 7. These hands. Notice how clearly and distinctly 
 Franklin gives an idea of the character of each of these com 
 panions in a few sentences. He properly enlarges on the ex 
 periences of the Oxford scholar because they are so unusual for 
 a college man, as to be interesting. 
 
 61, 17. Footed it. Temple Franklin has walked. 
 
 61, 22. Crimp s bill. A crimp was the agent of a shipping 
 company. Crimps were sometimes employed to decoy men into 
 such service as is here mentioned. 
 
 65, i. An odd fish: another excellent pen picture. 
 
 65, 31. Deism. See page 17, line 26. 
 
 66, 10. Though it might be true, was not very useful. 
 The harmfulness of Franklin s speculations was offset by his 
 practical standards of judgment. He wisely acted on the Bible 
 standard, " By their fruits ye shall know them." 
 
 66, 12. Dryden: a great English poet, dramatist, and critic 
 (1631-1700). 
 
 The lines are inaccurately quoted from Dryden s (Edipus, Act 
 III, Scene I, line 293. 
 
 67, n. Necessity. Would the word excuse be better here 
 from a moral standpoint? 
 
 68, 28. Rules that I drew up. Some rules not mentioned 
 here are worthy of note: "Any person to be qualified to 
 stand up, and lay his hand upon his breast, and be asked these 
 questions, viz.: 
 
 " ist. Have you any particular disrespect to any present 
 member? 
 
 "2nd. Do you sincerely declare that you love mankind in 
 general, of what profession or religion soever? 
 
 " 3d. Do you think any person ought to be harmed in 
 his body, name, or goods, for mere speculative opinions, or 
 his external way of worship? 
 
 " 4th. Do you love truth for truth s sake, and will you 
 endeavor impartially to find and receive it yourself, and 
 communicate it to others ? " 
 
Notes and Comment 219 
 
 Sparks in his Works of Franklin, Vol. II, page 9, says, " The 
 following rules for the regulation of the Junto, drawn up in 
 1728, will give a clearer idea of its character, and, I may add, 
 of the character of its members: 
 
 " Have you met with anything in the author you last 
 read, remarkable or suitable to be communicated to the 
 Junto ? 
 
 " Have you lately heard how any present rich man, 
 here or elsewhere, got his estate? 
 
 " Do you know of a fellow-citizen, who has lately done 
 a worthy action, deserving praise and imitation? 
 
 " Do you think of anything at present in which the Junto 
 may be serviceable to mankind, to their country, to their 
 friends or to themselves? 
 
 " Do you know of any deserving young beginner lately set 
 up, whom it lies in the power of the Junto any way to 
 encourage? " 
 
 70, 23. Pro patria size: a sheet 8^2 by 13^ inches, having 
 the words pro patria in translucent letters in the body of the 
 paper. 
 
 72, 2. Busy Body. See Introduction, page xii. 
 
 72, 23. To be much talked of. Franklin was sensible of 
 the value of advertising. See pages 70, 71, and 77. 
 
 74, 7. I thought myself under great obligations. Frank 
 lin s sense of honor here certainly dominated his business in 
 stinct. 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. Write paragraphs on the following subjects: (a) The 
 hands in Keimer s printing-house, (b) Franklin s facility in 
 making friends, (c) Franklin and the Croaker. 2. Reproduce 
 from memory as nearly as you can, Franklin s paragraph be 
 ginning: "It was an odd thing to find an Oxford scholar in 
 the situation of a bought servant." 3. What was the purpose 
 of the Junto and what were some of its rules? 4. What char 
 acteristics did its members have in common? 5. What were 
 the circumstances of the publication of Franklin s first news 
 paper? 6. Describe the appearance and character of this 
 paper. 
 
22O Notes and Comment 
 
 VIII 
 
 BUSINESS SUCCESS AND FIRST PUBLIC SERVICE (pages 75-87) 
 
 75, 15. Sunk: recalled to be redeemed. 
 
 75, 27. Walnut Street. This part of Philadelphia is now 
 the center of the wholesale business district. 
 
 76, 24. Beyond which the quantity may be hurtful. 
 Paper money is a promise to pay its face value in gold or sil 
 ver. When a state or nation issues more such promises than 
 there is a likelihood of its being able to redeem, the paper rep 
 resenting the promises depreciates in value. Before the success 
 of the colonies in the Revolution was assured, it took hundreds 
 of dollars of their paper money to buy a pair of boots. 
 
 77, i. Assisted in that by my friend. Notice how gener 
 ously Franklin always gives credit to those who help him, not 
 a too common practice among successful men. 
 
 78, 13. However, as he kept the post-office. This sen 
 tence is a good illustration of the looseness of conversational 
 English. If it were properly divided and more smoothly ar 
 ranged, it might lose in naturalness and informality what it 
 gained in clearness. 
 
 80, 21. A good and faithful helpmate. Mrs. Franklin 
 survived her marriage over forty years. Franklin s correspond 
 ence abounds with evidence that their union was a happy one. 
 " We are grown old together, and if she has any faults, I am 
 so used to them that I don t perceive them." The following is 
 a stanza from one of Franklin s own songs written for the 
 Junto : 
 
 " Of their Chloes and Phyllises poets may prate, 
 
 I sing my plain country Joan, 
 
 These twelve years my wife, still the joy of my life, 
 Blest day that I made her my own." 
 
 Franklin was evidently a good judge of poetry. See page 
 13, lines 18-32. 
 
 81, 33. The above letters. After this memorandum, Frank 
 lin inserted letters from Abel James and Benjamin Vaughan, 
 urging him to continue his Autobiography. 
 
 86, 25. Had he been in my opinion a good preacher, 
 perhaps I might have continued. Franklin expressed a dif 
 ferent view about the duty of attending church later. Ke 
 
Notes and Comment 221 
 
 writes to his daughter Sarah: "Go constantly to church, who 
 ever preaches. The act of devotion ... is your princi 
 pal business there." 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. Mention instances where Franklin s ability to write was 
 of practical value to him. 2. What prominent trait of Frank 
 lin s character appears in his statement: "I took care not only 
 to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appear 
 ances to the contrary"? (See page 77 and the note to line 23, 
 page 72.) 3. Why did David Harry not become a formidable 
 rival of Franklin s in the printing business? 4. What great 
 erratum did Franklin correct in 1730? 5. What kind of woman 
 was Mrs. Franklin and how did she help her husband? (See 
 pages 80 and 85.) 6. What attitude did Franklin recommend 
 for those who solicit subscriptions? 7. Write paragraphs on 
 the following topics: (a) Franklin s change in principles, 
 morals, and religious belief. (See pages 85-87.) (b) The 
 essentials of religion according to Franklin. 8. What was 
 Franklin s opinion of the importance of church attendance? 
 (See note to line 25, page 86.) 
 
 IX 
 PLAN FOR ATTAINING MORAL PERFECTION (pages 87-103) 
 
 88, i. A task of more difficulty than I had imagined. 
 Franklin here displays his knowledge of human nature. The ac 
 curacy of his description of the difficulty of acquiring right habits 
 appeals to us. In this connection it is interesting to read the 
 remarkable and convincing chapter on "Habit" in the late 
 Professor William James s Principles of Psychology. What 
 ever we may think of the moral value of Franklin s plan, we 
 must acknowledge the soundness of his judgment in the selec 
 tion of the vital virtues and his ingenuity in arranging the 
 order of their acquirement. Compare Philippians IV, 8. 
 
 90, 29. Pythagoras: a famous Greek philosopher, who lived 
 about 582-500 B. c. The Golden Verses here ascribed to him 
 are probably of later origin. " The time which he recommends 
 for this work is about even or bed-time, that we may conclude 
 the action of the day with the judgment of conscience, making 
 the examination of our conversation an evening song to God. 
 
222 Notes and Comment 
 
 Wherein have I transgressed? What have I done? What 
 duty have I omitted? So shall we measure our lives by the 
 rules above mentioned, if to the law of the mind we join the 
 judgment of reason." Translated from Hierocles version of 
 the verses. (Bigelow.) 
 
 92, 29. O Vitae, etc. "O philosophy, guide of life! O 
 searcher out of virtue and exterminator of vice! One day 
 spent well and in accordance with thy precepts is worth an 
 immortality of sin." Tusculan Inquiries, Book V. 
 
 93, 6. Following little prayer. Both these prayers are 
 excellent. Note the comprehensiveness of the first; wisdom, 
 strength, service. 
 
 95, 6. Order gave me the most trouble. Professor Mc- 
 Master tells us that when Franklin was American Agent in 
 France, his lack of business order was a source of annoyance 
 to his colleagues and friends. " Strangers who came to see him 
 were amazed to behold papers of the greatest importance scat 
 tered in the most careless way over the table and floor." 
 
 97, 6. Joint influence of the whole mass of the virtues. 
 While there can be no question that Franklin s moral improve 
 ment and happiness were due to the practice of these virtues, 
 yet most people will agree that we shall have to go back of his 
 plan for the impelling motive to a virtuous life. Franklin s 
 own suggestion that the scheme smacks of " foppery in morals " 
 seems justified. Woodrow Wilson well puts it: "Men do not 
 take fire from such thoughts, unless something deeper, which is 
 missing here, shine through them. What may have seemed to 
 the eighteenth century a system of morals seems to us nothing 
 more vital than a collection of the precepts of good sense and 
 sound conduct. What redeems it from pettiness in this book is 
 the scope of power and of usefulness to be seen in Franklin 
 himself, who set these standards up in all seriousness and 
 candor for his own life." See Galatians, chapter V, for the 
 Christian plan of moral perfection. 
 
 99, 10. Denied myself the pleasure of contradicting: a 
 wise practice. Addison adopted the opposite method, which 
 Macaulay accounts one of the great writer s few weaknesses. 
 See Macaulay s Essay on Addison. 
 
 100, 2. Pride. See pages 2 and 83-84 and the letter to Sam 
 uel Mather, page 206. 
 
 100, 10. I am now about to write. "This is a marginal 
 memorandum." (Bigelow,) 
 
Notes and Comment 223 
 
 ior, 4. Their own and their country s interest was united. 
 This is at present the plea of private enterprise for the control 
 of public utilities and national resources, and for special legis 
 lative favors. 
 
 102, 20. Free from the dominion of vice. See Galatians, 
 chapter V. 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. Be able to name in order the virtues Franklin cultivated, 
 and to give his reasons for the order. 2. Criticise the Plan, 
 giving its advantages and its weakness. 3. What results in 
 his own life did Franklin attribute to his following the Plan? 
 4. Why would such a plan be more helpful to Franklin than to 
 ordinary men? 5. Which one of the virtues gave Franklin the 
 most trouble? 6. What bearing on the Plan had the story of 
 the speckled ax? 7. What trait of Franklin is shown in his 
 discussion of humility? 8. Why did Franklin call a United 
 Party for Virtue, the Society of the Free and Easy? 9. What 
 was the purpose of this society and what its creed ? 
 
 POOR RICHARD S ALMANAC; OTHER ACTIVITIES 
 (pages 103-112) 
 
 103, 10. Almanac. The almanac at that time was a kind 
 of periodical as well as a guide to natural phenomena and the 
 weather. Franklin took his title from Poor Robin, a famous 
 English almanac, and from Richard Saunders, a well-known 
 almanac publisher. For the maxims of Poor Richard, see 
 pages 199-202. 
 
 104, 28. Excluded all libeling. This paragraph should be 
 read carefully for its direct bearing on the present abuse of 
 the liberty of the press in the same way. Liberty means not 
 license but added responsibility. 
 
 106, 24. Inculcated strongly the practice of virtue. See 
 pages 85-86. 
 
 107, 17. Good sermons composed by others. See note to 
 page 7, line 20. 
 
 108, 4. Beat one another into that language. Franklin 
 turned even Ijis games to practical use. 
 
224 Notes and Comment 
 
 109, 5. Serviceable to them in common life. "The au 
 thority of Franklin, the most eminently practical man of his 
 age, in favor of reserving the study of the dead languages until 
 the mind has reached a certain maturity, is confirmed by the 
 confession of one of the most eminent scholars of any age. 
 
 " Our seminaries of learning, says Gibbon, do not exactly 
 correspond with the precept of a Spartan king, that the child 
 should be instructed in the arts which will be useful to the 
 man; since a finished scholar may emerge from the head of 
 Westminster or Eton, in total ignorance of the business and 
 conversation of English gentlemen in the latter end of the 
 eighteenth century. But these schools may assume the merit of 
 teaching all that they pretend to teach, the Latin and Greek 
 languages. " (Bigelow.) 
 
 no, 31. Influencing the public opinion. The establish 
 ment of the Junto and its expansion illustrate Franklin s great 
 capacity for organization. In our day he might easily have 
 been the leader of some powerful political or commercial or 
 ganization. 
 
 112, i. More profitable ... to remove. Franklin does 
 not give sounder advice than this. It is the secret of the success 
 of public men. 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. Discuss Poor Richard s Almanac; name, purpose, and suc 
 cess. 2. What was Franklin s attitude toward the liberty of 
 the press? 3. What kind of preaching did Franklin prefer? 
 4. What do you think of Franklin s theory regarding the study 
 of languages? 5. How did Franklin turn his games to prac 
 tical use? 6. Compare the newspaper of Franklin s day with 
 the modern newspaper. (See pages 19-21.) 7. What was 
 Franklin s method of removing the hostility of an opponent? 
 
 XI 
 
 FRANKLIN S INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS (pages 112-120) 
 
 113, 3. A place of profit. It is interesting to note that 
 corruption and inefficiency in public service are not a modern 
 product. Notice that Franklin was a practica.1 reformer. He 
 
Notes and Comment 225 
 
 argued along lines that he knew would appeal most strongly 
 to his fellow-citizens. 
 
 114, 34. Mr. Whitefield: George Whiten" eld, pronounced 
 Hwit field (1714-1770), a celebrated English clergyman and 
 pulpit orator, one of the founders of Methodism. 
 
 115, 24. Westminster Hall: a part of the palace of West 
 minster, now forming the vestibule to the Houses of Parliament 
 in London. 
 
 116, 3. Instead of being made with hardy, industrious 
 husbandmen. The purpose of the founder of Georgia, James 
 Oglethorpe, was not to build up the colony so much as it was to 
 relieve the poor debtors in England. Franklin s just criticism 
 should be directed to the practicability of the relief thus offered. 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. Write paragraphs on the following subjects: (a) Corrup 
 tion and inefficiency in public service are not modern products, 
 (b) The equipment of a fire company in Franklin s day. (c) 
 George Whitefield s power of persuasion. (See page 116.) 2. 
 What advantage has an itinerant (traveling) preacher over a 
 stationary preacher, according to Franklin? 3. Why did 
 George Whitefield s writing and printing give great advantage 
 to his enemies? 4. How did Franklin prove to his own satis 
 faction that Whitefield could be heard in the open air by an 
 audience of thirty thousand? 5. Why were Franklin s relations 
 with his partners always friendly? 
 
 XII 
 
 DEFENSE OF THE PROVINCE (pages 120-130) 
 
 123, 18. Into German. Wm. Penn s agents sought recruits 
 for the colony of Pennsylvania in the low countries of Germany, 
 and there are still in eastern Pennsylvania many Germans, in 
 accurately called Pennsylvania Dutch. Many of them use a 
 Germanized English. 
 
 125, 26. After a little seeming hesitation. On many occa 
 sions Franklin proved himself an adroit politician. (See pages 
 136-137.) 
 
 129, z 8. An open stove. The Franklin stove is still in use. 
 
226 Notes and Comment 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 I. How did Franklin succeed in having measures for the 
 defense of the province adopted? 2. Illustrate by anecdotes the 
 attitude of the Quakers toward defensive warfare. (See pages 
 126-128.) 3. Write paragraphs on the following subjects: (a) 
 Religious narrowness and the man in the fog. (b) The inven 
 tion of the Franklin stove. 
 
 XIII 
 PUBLIC SERVICES AND DUTIES (pages 130-145) 
 
 137, 28. Might have the credit of being charitable with 
 out the expense. Where else does Franklin show knowledge 
 of human nature? (See pages 83-84 and in.) 
 
 141, 7. Vauxhall: Vauxhall Gardens, once a popular and 
 fashionable London resort, situated on the Thames above 
 Lambeth. The Gardens were closed in 1859, but they will al 
 ways be remembered because of Sir Roger de Coverley s visit 
 to them in the Spectator and from the descriptions in Smollett s 
 Humphry Clinker and Thackeray s Vanity Fair. 
 
 141, 33. Craven Street: a short street near Charing Cross, 
 London. 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. Write paragraphs on the following subjects: (a) The 
 founding of the University of Pennsylvania, (b) A treaty 
 with the Indians, (c) Franklin as a politician. (See pages 
 125 and 137-138.) 2. What was Franklin s method of securing 
 subscriptions? (See pages 83-84, 136 and 138.) 3. How did 
 Franklin improve on the London street lamps, and where did 
 he get the idea for the improvement? 4. What was Franklin s 
 plan for cleaning the London streets and what is your opinion 
 of its merits? 5. What honors did Franklin receive in 1753? 
 
 XIV 
 
 ALBANY PLAN OF UNION (pages 145-148) 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. Write three paragraphs on the Plan of Union, giving (i) 
 its origin, (2) a description of the plan and the reasons for its 
 
Notes and Comment 227 
 
 rejection, and (3) Franklin s conviction of the important results 
 that would have followed its adoption. 
 
 XV 
 
 QUARRELS WITH THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNORS (pages 148-152) 
 
 149, 8. They never get good will. This shrewd comment 
 should not be overlooked. For another similar expression see 
 page in, line 34. Franklin s methods of gaining the support 
 of his fellow-citizens and so making his schemes for the public 
 welfare effective might well be copied by our present-day 
 reformers. 
 
 149, 34. Sancho Panza: the " round, selfish, and self-im 
 portant " squire of Don Quixote in Cervantes romance of that 
 name. 
 
 150, 14. These public quarrels. " My acts in Morris s 
 time, military, etc." (Marg. note.) 
 
 150, 31. Crown Point: on Lake Champlain, ninety miles 
 north of Albany. It was captured by the French in 1731, at 
 tacked by the English in 1755 and 1756, and abandoned by the 
 French in 1759. It was finally captured from the English by 
 the Americans in 1775. 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. What was Franklin s opinion of the practice of disputing 
 with people? 2. What qualities did Franklin show in his con 
 tention with the proprietary governors? 3. What was the 
 cause of the trouble between the Assembly and the proprietary 
 governors? 
 
 XVI 
 
 BRADDOCK S EXPEDITION (pages 152-165) 
 
 I 55> 7- Occasionally: by chance. 
 
 156, 28. I have no particular interest. This circular let 
 ter is admirably conceived to meet its purpose, but does not 
 give a favorable impression of the patriotism of the Pennsyl- 
 vanians. In this respect it accords with Parkman s view of 
 these colonists, as expressed in his Montcalm and Wolfe. 
 
 159, 10. Fort Duquesne: Pittsburg; Frontenac: Kingston, 
 at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. 
 
228 Notes and Comment 
 
 161, 20. The prowess of British regulars had not been 
 well founded. Other accounts of this expedition and defeat 
 should be read, as Fiske s Washington and his Country, or 
 Lodge s George Washington, Vol. I. Find out, if you can, any 
 reason for Franklin s omission of Washington s part in the 
 battle and retreat. 
 
 162, 15. David Hume: a famous Scotch philosopher and 
 historian (1711-1776). 
 
 163, 1 6. General Shirley: Governor of Massachusetts and 
 Commander of the British forces in America. 
 
 165, 10. Dialogue. This dialogue and the militia act are 
 in the Gentleman s Magazine for February and March, 1756. 
 (Marg. note.) 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. In what ways did Franklin appeal to the Pennsylvania 
 farmers, in his advertisement and circular letter, to provide 
 horses and wagons for Braddock s expedition? 2. From the 
 nature of this appeal, what idea do you get of the character 
 of the colonists? 3. What was Franklin s opinion of General 
 Braddock? 4. Write briefly Franklin s account of Braddock s 
 defeat and the British retreat. 5. Account for an important 
 difference that you note between Franklin s narrative of the 
 defeat and the narrative as given in histories. 6. What idea 
 of the camp fare of British officers in the eighteenth century, 
 do you get from the present sent to General Braddock s offi 
 cers? 7. What illustration of Franklin s good sense do you 
 note, in connection with a proposed celebration of the as 
 sumed victory for Braddock? 
 
 XVII 
 FRANKLIN S DEFENSE OF THE FRONTIER (pages 165-174) 
 
 J 65, 27. Gnadenhut: pronounced Gna -den-hoot. 
 
 167, 12. Gunlocks: flint-lock guns, discharged by means of 
 a spark struck from flint and steel into powder (priming) in 
 an open pan. 
 
 168, 9. Perch: here the pole connecting the front and rear 
 wheels of a wagon. 
 
 1 68, 13. To fire: firing is the more usual construction. 
 
 169, 32. Steward of the rum: an excellent example of Frank- 
 
Notes and Comment 229 
 
 lin s ingenuity and his practical nature. What constitutes the 
 humor of the incident? 
 
 170, 34. I observed loopholes. Franklin s power of ob 
 servation was of great assistance to him in all his work. 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. Write paragraphs on the following subjects: (a) The In 
 dians and wet guns, (b) How Franklin built a fort, (c) 
 How the Indians kept a fire unobserved. 2. How did Franklin 
 illustrate from his own experiences that when men are em 
 ployed they are best contented, and that reward is preferable to 
 punishment as a means of making people do their duty? 3. 
 Write a paragraph on Moravian customs. 
 
 XVIII 
 
 SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS (pages 174-179) 
 
 175, 9. Royal Society. The Royal Society of London for 
 Improving Natural Knowledge was founded in 1660 and holds 
 the foremost place among English societies for the advance 
 ment of science. 
 
 176, 10. Sameness of lightning with electricity. See page 
 197. 
 
 176, 25. Buffon: a celebrated French naturalist (1707-1788). 
 
 176, 27. Dalibard. Dalibard, who had translated Franklin s 
 letters to Collinson into French, was the first to demonstrate, in 
 a practical application of Franklin s experiment, that lightning 
 and electricity are the same. " This was May loth, 1752, one 
 month before Franklin flew his famous kite at Philadelphia and 
 proved the fact himself." (McMaster.) 
 
 178, 33. Copley: an English baronet (died in 1709) dona- 
 tor of a fund of 100, " in trust for the Royal Society of Lon 
 don for improving natural knowledge." 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. Write a brief account of the publication and reception of 
 Franklin s theory of electricity. 2. Write a paragraph on the 
 kite experiment. (See page 197.) 3. Give Franklin s reasons 
 for not answering the Abbe Nollet s letters. 
 
230 Notes and Comment 
 
 XIX 
 
 AGENT OF PENNSYLVANIA IN LONDON (pages 179-195) 
 
 180, 6. I could not possibly accept of any. Franklin here 
 illustrates the right attitude of a public official toward private 
 interests seeking legislative favors. 
 
 180, 21. They: refers to instruction in line 19, which Frank 
 lin must have thought of as plural. 
 
 180, 33. Dispute: quarrel between George II and his son, 
 Frederick, Prince of Wales, who died before his father. 
 
 181, 3. Dunciad: a satirical poem by Alexander Pope di 
 rected against various contemporary writers. 
 
 184, 5. Mr. Pitt: William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham (1708- 
 1778), a great English statesman and orator. Under his able 
 administration, England won Canada from France. He was a 
 friend of America at the time of our Revolution. 
 
 185, 1 8. Such a man came to be intrusted. This relation 
 illustrates the corruption that characterized English public life 
 in the eighteenth century. (See page 187.) It was gradually 
 overcome in the early part of the next century. 
 
 186, 10. Worm: teredo or ship-worm. 
 
 188, 13. Log: a piece of wood shaped and weighted so as 
 to keep it stable when in the water. To this is attached a line 
 knotted at regular distances. By these devices it is possible to 
 tell the speed of a ship. 
 
 191, i. Stonehenge: a celebrated prehistoric ruin, probably 
 of a temple built by the early Britons, near Salisbury, England. 
 It consists of inner and outer circles of enormous stones, some 
 of which are connected by stone slabs. 
 
 191, 3. We arrived in London. " Here terminates the 
 Autobiography, as published by Wm. Temple Franklin and his 
 successors. What follows was written in the last year of Dr. 
 Franklin s life, and was never before printed in English." 
 (Mr. Bigelow s note in his edition of 1868.) 
 
 191, 17. Lord Granville: George Granville or Grenville 
 (1712-1770). As English premier from 1763 to 1765, he intro 
 duced the direct taxation of the American Colonies and has 
 sometimes been called the immediate cause of the Revolution. 
 
 191, 34. The king is the Legislator of the Colonies. 
 This whole passage shows how hopelessly divergent were the 
 English and American views on the relations between the 
 
Notes and Comment 231 
 
 mother country and her colonies. Grenville here made clear 
 that the Americans were to have no voice in making or amend 
 ing their laws. Parliament and the king were to have absolute 
 power over the colonies. No wonder Franklin was alarmed 
 by this new doctrine. With his keen insight into human nature 
 and his consequent knowledge of American character, he fore 
 saw the inevitable result of such an attitude on the part of 
 England. This conversation with Grenville makes these last 
 pages of the Autobiography one of its most important parts. 
 
 192, 24. Mutual declarations of disposition to reasonable 
 accommodations. This little incident shows that some of our 
 political methods are not so modern as we think. It is a favor 
 ite device of some present-day politicians to agree with the 
 people on all great principles of public policy, and then quietly 
 defeat the application of those principles in given cases wher 
 ever it suits their private interest to do so. 
 
 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 
 
 i. What was Franklin s attitude as a public official toward 
 proprietary favors? 2. Write paragraphs on the following 
 subjects: (a) Lord London s dilatoriness. (b) The slowness of 
 Franklin s ship and how this defect was remedied, (c) A 
 narrow escape. 3. What was Lord Grenville s view of Amer 
 ican rights? 4. Write briefly on the following subjects: (a) 
 The many-sided Franklin, (b) Franklin s place in literature, 
 (c) The character of Benjamin Franklin, (d) The history of 
 the Autobiography. 5. What were Franklin s chief qualities as 
 a business man and as a public official? 6. Find examples of 
 Franklin s knowledge of human nature; of his tact; of his 
 habit of observation. 
 
LOAN DEPT. 
 
 LD2lA-60m-2 67 
 (H241slO)476B 
 
 XJi/ ^-1^.,-j^ -, 
 
 (6889slO)476B 
 
 .General Library 
 
 University pf California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
 Berkeley 
 
ID