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the most convenient disposition for his son, Franklin's father bound him apprentice, at the age of eleven, to an elder brother, James by name, who was a printer. For the five or six years following, Benjamin worked at his trade in his brother's office, devoting his leisure to reading, and especially to endeavors to perfect himself in the art of putting his thoughts on paper, of which he says he was "extremely ambitious." To his reading, at this time, of Cotton Mather's "Essays to do Good," he modestly attributes his lifelong inclination to works of utility and beneficence.

During the years of his apprenticeship his brother James treated him with rigor, and even with cruelty. Of this, in old age, Franklin said: "I fancy his harsh and tyrannical treatment of me might have been a means of impressing me with that aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to me through my whole life." At last the boy ran away, taking ship to New York, and thence to Philadelphia, where he heard there might be employment for him at his trade. This was in October, 1723.

Being by nature prudent and by training thrifty, Franklin found himself at the age of thirty well established in business in the city of his adoption, and he now began to take an active interest in public affairs. His counsels were so sagacious and his services so useful that step by step he rose in popular esteem, holding in succession many offices of influence and trust, until in 1757 he was sent to London as the agent of the Pennsylvania Plantations. Here his labors in behalf of the people of Pennsylvania were so shrewdly directed and so influential that one after another all the American colonies put him in charge of their interests. Unable, however, to avert the conflict which he foresaw and foretold, Franklin returned home on the eve of the Revolutionary War. But his stay in America was short, for he undertook a mission to Paris, as the agent of the revolted colonies, to secure the alliance and support of France. This accomplished, he took up his residence in that country as American ambassador, remaining till he had negotiated the treaty in which the independence of the United States was acknowledged. Franklin died in Philadelphia in April, 1790.

His works are voluminous, consisting of letters on philosophical subjects, on which a large part of his fame rests, essays and tracts, moral, historical, political, and commercial, and his Autobiography, from which our selection is taken. Lord Jeffrey thus characterizes Franklin :

"In one point of view, the name of Franklin must be considered as standing higher than any of the others which illustrated the eighteenth century. Distinguished as a statesman, he was equally great as a philosopher, thus uniting in himself a rare degree of excellence in both those pursuits, to excel in either of which is deemed the highest praise. Nor was his pre-eminence in the one pursuit of that doubtful kind which derives its value from such an uncommon conjunction. His efforts in each were sufficient to have made him greatly famous had he done nothing in the other Much as has been given to the world of this great man's works, each succes sive publication increases our esteem for his virtues, and our admiration of

his understanding. The distinguishing feature of his understanding was great soundness and sagacity, combined with extraordinary quickness of penetration. He possessed also a strong and lively imagination, which gave his speculations, as well as his conduèt, a singularly original turn. The peculiar charm of his writings, and his great merit, also, in action, consisted in the clearness with which he saw his object, and the bold and steady pursuit of it by the surest and the shortest road. He never suffered himself in conduct to be turned aside by the seductions of interest or vanity, or to be scared by hesitation and fear, or to be misled by the arts of his adversaries. Neither did he, in discussion, ever go out of his way in search of ornament, or stop short from dread of the consequences. He never could be caught, in short, acting absurdly or writing nonsensically. At all times, and in everything he undertook, the vigor of an understanding at once original and practical was distinctly perceivable.

"His style has all the vigor and even conciseness of Swift, without any of his harshness. It is in no degree more flowery, yet both elegant and lively.. The wit, or rather humor, which prevails in his works, varies with the subject. Sometimes he is bitter and sarcastic; oftener gay, and even droll, reminding us in this respect far more frequently of Addison than of Swift, as might be naturally expected from his admirable temper or the happy turn of his imagination. When he rises into vehemence or severity, it is only when his country or the rights of men are attacked, or when the sacred ties of humanity are violated by unfeeling or insane rulers. There is nothing more delightful than the constancy with which those amiable feelings, those sound principles, those truly profound views of human affairs make their appearance at every opportunity, whether the immediate subject be speculative or practical, of a political or of a more general description."

REMEMBRANCES OF MY BOYHOOD1

I

DEAR SON,2-I have ever had pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my ancestors. Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, I sit down to write them for you. To which I have besides some other inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred to a state of affluence and some

1 from Franklin's Autobiography, begun in 1771

2 William Franklin, then Governor of New Jersey

degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of (which with the blessing 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...

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 tiresome to others who through respect to age might conceive themselves obliged to give me a hearing; since this may be read or not as any one 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 introductory words, "Without vanity, I may say," etc., but some vain thing immediately 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 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. . . .

My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different 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 readiness in learning to read (which must have been very early, as I do not remember when I could not read), 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 proposed to give me all his short-hand volumes of sermons, I suppose as a stock to set up with, if I would learn his character. I continued, however, at the grammar-school not quite one year, though in

1 tithe, literally "tenth,"

a humorous reference to his father's ten sons 2 i. e., his system of short-hand. Franklin elsewhere says, "He had formed a short-hand of his own, which he taught me."

that time I had risen gradually from the middle of the class of that year to be the head of it, and, further, was removed into the next class above it, in order to go with that into the third at the 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, — altered his first intention, took me from the grammar-school, and sent me to a school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a then famous man, Mr. George Brownell, 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 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 England, and on finding his dyeing trade would not maintain his family, being in little request. Accordingly, I was employed in cutting wick for the candles, filling the dipping-mold and the molds for cast candles, attending the shop, going of errands, etc.

2

I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination for the sea; but my father declared against it. However, living 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, and sometimes led them into scrapes, of which I will mention one instance, as it shows an early projecting 3 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 stand to fish for

1 Compare the etymology of candle and kindle. 2 "Josiah, my father, married young, children, into New England about 1682." Eton, in Northamptonshire, England.

and carried his wife, with three Their former home had been at 8 projecting full of projects

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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 suit our purpose. Accordingly, in the evening, when the workmen were gone, I assembled a number of my playfellows, 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 morning 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 I pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me that nothing was useful which was not honest.

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 destined to supply his place and become a tallowchandler. 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 therefore 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; 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. . . .

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 afterwards sold

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