The Great Benjamin Franklin E-Book

Avneet Kumar Singla

• Herausgeber: Avneet Kumar Singla
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 328

Beschreibung

This is a great non-fiction biography book describing the life of legendary Benjamin Franklin. This Non-Fiction biography book consists of 70000 words in approximate.Benjamin Franklin was a British-American polymath and one of the founding fathers of the United States. Franklin was a leading writer, printer, political philosopher, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, Humourist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist he was an important figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He founded many civic organizations, including the Library Company, Philadelphia's first fire department, and the University of Pennsylvania.Franklin received the title "the first American" for his early and tireless campaigns for colonial unity, first as an author and speaker in London for several colonies. As the first U.S. Ambassador to France, he illustrated the emerging American nation. Franklin was fundamental in defining the American ethos as a combination of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to political and religious authoritarianism with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager: "in a dream, the virtues of puritanism could be fused without its shortcomings, the Enlightenment of enlightenment without its warmth. For Walter Isaacson, Franklin is the most accomplished American of his time and the most influential when it comes to inventing the kind of society that would become America."Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, and published the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. After 1767 he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticism of the policies of the British parliament and the crown.He was the first president of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1751 and later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a national hero in America as an agent for several colonies when he tried in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American Minister in Paris and was an important figure in the development of positive FrenchAmerican relations. His efforts proved decisive for the American Revolution in securing shipments of important ammunition from France.He was promoted to Deputy Postmaster for the British colonies on August 15, 1753, after serving for many years as postmaster of Philadelphia, and this enabled him to establish the first national communications network. He initially owned and traded slaves, but by the end of the 1750s he began to argue against slavery, became an abolitionist, and promoted education and the integration of blacks into American society.More than two centuries after his death, his life and legacy of scientific and political achievements, as well as his status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers, have honoured Franklin with the fifty-cent piece, the $ 100 bill, warships, and the names of many cities, counties, educational institutions, and businesses, as well as numerous cultural references.Note :- We are offering this book at much discount as a promotional activity.

Leseprobe

The Great Benjamin Franklin

Avneet Kumar Singla

Copyright © 2020-2030 by Avneet Kumar Singla

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Contents

Copyright © 2020-2030 by Avneet Kumar Singla

Introductory Note

Biography of a great Man

FEW MAIN EVENTS IN FRANKLIN'S LIFE.

Introductory Note

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born in Milk Street, Boston, on January 6, 1706. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler who married twice and of his seventeen children Benjamin was the youngest son. His schooling ended at Ten, and at twelve he was an apprentice to his brother James, a printer who published The "New England Courant". "To this journal he became a contributor, and later was for a time its nominal editor. But the brothers quarrelled, and Benjamin ran away, going first to New York and thence to Philadelphia, where he arrived in October 1723. He soon received work as a printer, but after a few months he was induced by Governor Keith to go to London, where Keith found promises empty, he worked again as a composer until he was brought back to Philadelphia by a merchant named Denman, who gave him a position in his business. After Denman's death, he returned to his former profession and shortly thereafter established his own printing house, from which he published "the Pennsylvania Gazette", to which he contributed many essays and which he made a medium to stimulate a variety of local reforms. In 1732 he began to publish his famous "Poor Richard's Almanac", for whose enrichment he borrowed or composed those splendid expressions of worldly wisdom which form the basis of much of his popular reputation. In 1758, the year he stopped writing for the almanac, he printed in it "Father Abraham's sermon", which is now considered the most famous piece of literature in colonial America.

In the meantime, Franklin became more and more concerned with public affairs. He presented a plan for an Academy, which was later incorporated and eventually developed into the University of Pennsylvania; and he founded an "American Philosophical Society" to enable scientific men to communicate their discoveries with each other. He himself had already begun his electrical research, which he continued with other scientific investigations in the intervals of making money and politics until the end of his life. In 1748 he sold his business to get leisure for study, having now acquired comparative wealth; and in a few years he had made discoveries which gave him a reputation among scholars all over Europe. In politics, he proved to be both an administrator and a controversialist; but his record as an incumbent is tainted by the use he made of his position to advance his relatives. His most notable service in domestic politics was his reform of the postal system; his fame as a statesman, however, rests mainly on his services in connection with the colonies ' relations with Great Britain and later with France. In 1757 he was sent to England to protest against the influence of the Penn's in the government of the colony, and for five years he remained there to inform the people and the Ministry of England of the colonial conditions. On his return to America he played an honourable part in the Paxton affair, through which he lost his seat in the Assembly; but in 1764 he was again sent to England as agent for the colony, this time to ask the king to resume the government from the hands of the owners. In London he actively opposed the proposed Stamp Act, but lost the credit for it and much of its popularity through his search for a friend, the Office of stamp agent in America. Even his effective work to achieve the repeal of the act still left him suspicious; but he continued his efforts to present the case for the colonies as the problems intensified towards the crisis of the Revolution. In 1767 he went to France where he was received with honour; but before returning home in 1775 he lost his position as postmaster due to his share in Massachusetts's famous letter from Hutchinson and Oliver. On his arrival in Philadelphia he was elected a member of the Continental Congress and in 1777 was sent to France as commissioner for the United States. Here he remained until 1785, the favourite of French society; and with such success he conducted the affairs of his country in such a way that on his return he obtained a place second only to that of Washington, when he campaigned for American Independence. He died on April 17, 1917.

The first five chapters of the biography are related 1771 of England. This Biography is Written in the Spirit of such as Benjamin Franklin himself writing his biography himself. So the words I, My, Me etc. should be understood in regards to Benjamin Franklin

Biography of a great Man

TWYFORD, with the bishop of St. Asaph, [1] 1771.

Dear son: I have always enjoyed getting little anecdotes from my ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made among the remnants of my relationships when you were with me in England, and the journey I made to that end. Imagine it equally pleasant to [2] you know the circumstances in my life, many of which you do not yet know, and expect the enjoyment of a week of uninterrupted leisure in my country, to retire, I sit down to write to you for you. To which I have besides some other inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and darkness in which I was born and raised, into a state of prosperity and some prestige in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of bliss, the guiding means of which I have availed myself, which has succeeded so well with the blessing of God, my posterity may like to know, as they find some of them suitable for their own situations, and therefore suitable to be imitated.

[1] the estate of Bishop Shipley, the good bishop, as Dr. Franklin called him. - B.

[2] After the words "pleasant", the words" some of " were interlined and afterward effaced. - B.

This kindness, when I thought about it, has sometimes led me to say that if it were offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from the beginning, only the advantages that authors have in a second edition to correct some errors of the first. So I could, in addition to correcting the errors, change some scary accidents and events of it more favorably for others. But although this was rejected, I should accept the offer anyway. Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing that life seems to prefer to live again seems to be a memory of this life and to make this memory as permanent as possible by putting it down in writing.

Again, I will indulge in the tendency that is so natural in old men to speak of themselves and their own actions in the past; and I will allow others, without being tiresome, who might feel obliged to give me a hearing with regard to age, as this may or may not be read as one pleases. And finally (I can also confess, since my denial is not believed by anyone), perhaps I will satisfy my own vanity. In fact, I have rarely heard or seen the introductory words, "without vanity I can say," &C., but some vain things immediately followed. Most people do not like vanity in others, whatever they have of it themselves; but I give it fairly, wherever I meet with it, to be convinced that it is often productive of good to the owner and others within his sphere of action; and therefore in many cases it would not be altogether absurd for a man to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.

And now I speak of thanking God, I wish with all humility to acknowledge that I owe the happiness of my past life mentioned to his kind Providence, which led me to the means I used and gave them success. My faith in it leads me to hope, although I must not assume that the same kindness is still exercised on me to continue this happiness or to enable me to endure a fatal reversal that I can experience as others have done: the complexion of my future happiness is known only to him in whose power it is to bless us also our sufferings.

The notes that one of my uncles (who had the same curiosity when collecting family anecdotes) once placed in my hands provided me with several details about our ancestors. From these notes I learned that the family had lived in the same village, Ecton, in Northampton shire, for three hundred years, and how much longer did he not know (perhaps from the time when the name Franklin, which was previously the name of an order of people, was adopted by them as a surname, when others took surnames throughout the kingdom), on an open field of about thirty acres, supported by the blacksmith's business, which had continued in the family until his time, the eldest son always bred to this business; a custom he and my father followed to their eldest sons. When I searched the registers at Ecton, I found only one account of their births, marriages and burials from 1555, as at no time before had registers been kept in this parish. At that point, I realized that I was the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations. My grandfather Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived in Ecton until he became too old to follow the business any longer when he lived with his son John, a dyer in Banbury, in Oxford shire, with whom my father was apprenticed. There my grandfather died and is buried. We saw his gravestone in 1758. His eldest son Thomas lived in the house at Ecton, and left it to his only child, a daughter, who sold it with her husband, a fisherman from Welling-borough, to Mr. Isted, now Lord of the manor there. My grandfather had four sons who grew up, namely.: Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josias. I will tell you what I can of you at this distance from my papers, and if these are not lost in my absence, you will find among them many more details.

Thomas was bred under his father as a blacksmith; but, ingenious, and encouraged to learn (as all my brothers were) from an Esquire Palmer, then the captain in that parish, he qualified for the business of scrivener; became a considerable man in the county; was a prime mover of all public undertakings for the county or town of Northampton, and his own village, many cases of which were related by him; and much noted and patronised by the then Lord Halifax. He died in 1702, on January 6, only four years before my birth. I remember that the account we received from some old people in Ecton about his life and character impressed them as something extraordinary, from his resemblance to what they knew of me. "If he had died the same day," they said, " transmigration would have been suspected."

John was bred a dyer, I believe of woolens. Benjamin was bred as silk dyer and completed an apprenticeship in London. He was a brilliant man. I remember him well, because when I was a boy, he came to my father in Boston and lived with us in the house for a few years. He lived to a great age. His grandson, Samuel Franklin, now lives in Boston. He left two quarto volumes, MS., of his own poetry, consisting of small occasional pieces addressed to his friends and relatives, the following of which, sent to me, is a copy. 1 he had made a short hand of his own, which he had taught me, but I never practised it, and now I have forgotten it. I was named after this uncle, there is a special affection between him and my father. He was very pious, a great follower of the 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. Lately a collection of all the principal pamphlets on public affairs from 1641 to 1717 fell into my hands in London; many of the volumes are, as indicated by the numbering, but there remain eight volumes in folio, and twenty-four in quarto and in octavo. A dealer in old books met with them, and knowing me through my sometimes buying from him, he brought them to me. It seems that my uncle must have left them here when he went to America, which is about fifty years ago. There are many of his notes in the margin.

1 here, at the margin, follow the words in brackets: "here insert it", but the poetry is not given. Mr. Sparks informs us (Life of Franklin, P.6) that these volumes were preserved and owned by Mrs. Emmons of Boston, great-grandmother of their author.

This obscure family of ours was early in the Reformation, and continued Protestants through the reign of Queen Mary, when they were sometimes in danger of trouble because of her zeal against the popes. They had received an English Bible, and to conceal and secure it, it was fastened with ribbons under and inside the lid of an articulated stool. When my great-great-grandfather read it to his family, he turned the joint stool on his knees and then turned over the leaves under the ribbons. One of the children stood at the door to let us know when he saw the apparatus coming, which was an officer of the Clerical Court. In this case, the chair was put back on its feet when the Bible remained hidden under it as before. I had this anecdote from my uncle Benjamin. The family continued the entire Church of England until about the end of the reign of Charles the second, when some of the ministers who had been dismissed for nonconformity held monastic establishments in Northamptonshire, Benjamin and Josiah held on to them, and so they continued throughout their lives: the rest of the family remained with the Episcopal Church.

Josiah, my father, married young and carried his wife with three children to New England around 1682. The monastery had been forbidden by law, and frequently disturbed, induced some considerable men of his acquaintance to move to this country, and he was prevailed upon to accompany them to where they expected to enjoy their kind of religion with freedom. Of the same wife he had born there four more children, and of a second wife ten more, in all seventeen.; of which I remember thirteen sitting at once 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 Boston, New England. My mother, the second wife, was Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter Folger, one of the first settlers of New England, of whom Cotton Mather, in his ecclesiastical history of that country, with the title Magnalia Christi Americana, praises him as a "divine, learned Englishman," if I remember the words correctly. I have heard that he has written various small occasional pieces, but only one of them has been printed, which I have seen for many years. It was written in 1675 in the home-spun verse of that time and of the people and addressed to those then concerned in the government there. It was in favor of freedom of conscience, and in the name of the Baptists, Quakers, and other members of the sect who had been persecuted and who had attributed the Indian wars and other tribulations that had afflicted the country to this persecution, like so many judgments of God, to punish such a heinous crime and to demand the repeal of these uncharitable laws. The whole thing seemed to me written with much decent clarity and male freedom. I remember the six final lines, although I forgot the first two of the stanza; but the reproach from them was that his rebuke proceeded from Good Will, and, therefore, he would be known to be the author.

"Because being a libeller (he says)

I hate it with my heart;

From Sherburne town, where I now live

My name I put here ;

Without offense your real friend,

It is Peter Folgier."

My older brothers were all apprentices in various professions. I was transferred to high school at the age of eight, my father wanted to dedicate me to the service of the church as the tenth of his sons. My early willingness to learn to read (which must have been very early, since 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 to this end. My uncle Benjamin also agreed and suggested that I give all his short sermons, I suppose, as a share with which I could settle if I learned his character. However, I did not continue at the High School for quite a year, although during that time I gradually ascended from the middle of the class of that year to the ladder and was further removed to the next class above it, so that at the end of the year I would go to the third. But my father, in the meantime, from looking at the cost of a college education, to having such a large family that he could not well afford, and the Middle life many so educated were afterwards able to obtain—reasons which he gave to his friends in my hearing—changed his first intention, took me out of high school, and sent me to a school of writing and arithmetic, held by a then famous man, Mr. George Brownell, very successful in his profession in general, and by mild, encouraging methods. Under him I pretty soon acquired fair writing, but I failed in arithmetic and made no progress in it. At ten years of age I was brought home to help my father in his business, which was that of a tallow chandler and sope boiler; a business he had not bred, but had adopted on his arrival in New England, and in search of his dying trade his family would not be sustained in Little want. Accordingly, I was busy cutting Wicks for the candles, filling the dipping mold and molds for cast candles, visiting the store, running errands, etc.

I didn't like 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 difficulties; and on other occasions I was usually a leader among the young, and sometimes led them into scrapes, of which I mention an example, as it shows an early projecting public spirit, tho' not then justly performed.

There was a salt marsh that bordered a part of the mill pond, on the edge of which we stood at high water to fish for minnows. By much trampling, we had made it a mere quagmire. My suggestion was to build a wharf there, on which we could stand, and I showed my comrades a large pile of stones, which was intended for a new house near the swamp and which would fit very well for our purpose. Accordingly, in the evening, when the workers were gone, I gathered some of my playmates and worked diligently with them, like so many emmets, sometimes two or three to a stone, we took them all away and built our little wharff. The next morning, the workers were surprised that the stones found in our wharff were missing. We were discovered and lamented; some of us were corrected by our fathers; and although I pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me that nothing was useful that was not honest.

I think you might want to know something about his person and character. He had an excellent physique, was of medium stature, but well set, and very strong; he was brilliant, could draw beautifully, was a little skilled in music, and had a clear pleasant voice, so that when he played psalm tunes on his violin and sang withal, as he sometimes did one evening after the business of the day was over, it was very pleasant to hear. He also had a mechanical genius, and was occasionally very practical in the use of other craft tools; but his great excellence lay in a sound understanding and judgment in supervisory matters, both in private and public matters. In the latter he was indeed never busy, the numerous families he had to raise, and the straightforwardness of his circumstances which kept him near his trade; but I well remember that he was frequently visited by leading people who consulted him on his opinion in matters of the city or church to which he belonged, and showed much respect for his judgment and advice: he was also consulted by private persons on their affairs when difficulties arose, and frequently chose an arbitrator between the parties to the dispute.

At his table he liked to have, as often as he could, a reasonable friend or neighbor with whom he could converse, and always took care to start a brilliant or useful discourse topic that might tend to improve the minds of his children. In this way, he directed our attention to what was good, just, and prudent in the conduct of life; and it was never or hardly noticed what had to do with the rituals on the table, whether it was well or poorly dressed, in or out of season, of good or bad taste, preferable or inferior to this or that other thing of the kind, so that I bubbled in such perfect inattention to these matters that I was quite indifferent to what kind of food lay before me, and so unobserved of it that to this day, when I am asked, I can only say a few hours after dinner what I have got myself into. This was a convenience for me when traveling, where my companions were sometimes very unhappy because they wanted a suitable satisfaction of their more sensitive, because better instructed, tastes and appetites.

My mother also had an excellent Constitution: she sucked all her ten children. I never knew that my father or my mother had any illness, but the one of which she dy'd, he at 89, and she at 85 years. They lie buried together in Boston, where I laid a marble over their grave several years ago, with this inscription:

JOSIAH FRANKLIN,

and

ABIAH his wife,

lie buried here.

They lived lovingly together in marriage

fifty-five years.

Without estate or gainful employment,

Through constant work and industry,

with God's blessing,

They had a large family

comfortable,

and brought up thirteen children

and seven grandchildren

reputable.

From this instance, reader,

Be encouraged to diligence in your vocation,

And do not distrust Providence.

He was a pious and prudent man;

She, a discreet and virtuous woman.

Her youngest son,

In filial respect to your memory,

Lay this stone.

J. F. born 1655, died 1744, Ætat 89.

A. F. born 1667, died 1752,---85.

Through my wandering wanderings I feel like an adult. I would write more methodically. But you don't dress for private companies like a public Ball. This is perhaps only negligence.

To return: so I was employed for two years in my father's business, that is, until I was twelve years old; and my brother John, who was bred to this business after he left my father, married and settled in Rhode Island, it all looked as if I was destined to take his place and become a tallow chandler. But my aversion to trade continued, My father was under the fear that if he did not find one more agreeable to me, I should break away and go to sea, as his son Josiah had done, to his great annoyance. He therefore sometimes took me to go with him and see carpenters, masons, Turners, braziers, etc., at your work that he could observe my inclination, and strive to fix it on a trade or other on land. Since then, it has been a pleasure to see how good workers handle their tools; and it was useful for me to have learned so much that I could do small jobs even in my house if a worker could not easily be found, and to construct small machines for my experiments while the intention of the experiment was fresh and warm in my head. My father finally settled on the cutler's trade, and my uncle Benjamin's son Samuel, who was bred to this business in London, since he was founded in Boston about that time, I was sent to be with him for some time at will. But his expectations of a fee with me displeased my father, I was brought back home.

I loved reading from a child, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. Satisfied with the pilgrim's progress, my first collection of John Bunyan's works was in separate small volumes. After that, I sold them so I could buy R. Burton's historical collections; they were small chapmen books and cheap, 40 or 50 in all. My father's little library consisted mainly of books in polemical Divinity, most of which I read, and since then have often regretted that at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more correct books had not gotten in my way, as it was now decided that I should not be a clergyman. Plutarch's life was there, in which I read abundantly, and I still think that time was spent to great advantage. There was also a book by De Foe, called an Essay on projects, and another by Dr .. Mathers, called Essays to do good, which perhaps gave me a turn of mind that influenced some of the most important future events of my life.

This bookish inclination finally determined my father to make me a printer, even though he already had a son (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 my father's, but still had a longing for the sea. In order to prevent the arrested effect of such an inclination, my father was impatient to have me tied to my brother. I stood for some time, but was finally convinced, and signed the indentures when I was still but twelve years old. I was to serve as an apprentice until I was twenty-one years old, only I was allowed journeyman pay during the last year. In a short time, I gained great knowledge of the business and became a useful hand to my brother. I now had access to better books. An acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers sometimes enabled me to borrow a small one, which I wanted to return soon and cleanly. I often sat in my room and read most of the night when the book was borrowed in the evening and should be returned early in the morning so that it is not missed or desired.

And after some time, an ingenious craftsman, Mr. Matthew Adams, who had a nice collection of books and visited our printing house, took notice of me, invited me to his library and kindly lent me books that I wanted to read. I now took a fancy to poetry, and made some small pieces; my brother, thinking it might account for itself, encouraged me, and laid me down to compose 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 song on the taking of Teach (or Blackbeard) the pirate. They were miserable stuff, in the style of the Grub Street ballad; and when they were printed, he sent me across town to sell them. The first sold wonderfully, the event was recent after making a big noise. That flattered my vanity; but my father discouraged me by mocking my performances and telling me verse makers were generally beggars. So I escaped being a poet, most likely a very bad one; but since prose writing has been of great use to me throughout my life, and has been a principal means of my progress, I will tell you how in such a situation I have acquired the little ability I have in this way.

There was another bookish boy in town, John Collins by name, with whom I was intimately acquainted. We quarrelled sometimes, and very fond we were of quarrelling, and very desirous of confusing each other, the contentious turn, by the way, is apt to become a very bad habit, so that people are often very uncomfortable in company by the contradiction that is necessary to put it into practice; and therefore, besides souring and spoiling the conversation, is productive of disgust and, perhaps, enmities where they have occasion for friendship. I had caught it when I read my father's books on religion. Persons of good sense, I have since observed, rarely fall into it, except lawyers, University men, and men of all kinds who were bred in Edinborough.

One question was once, somehow or other, started between Collins and myself, the propriety of educating the female sex while learning, and her abilities for study. He felt that it was inappropriate and that they were inherently unequal. I took the opposite side, perhaps a little for the sake of argument. He was naturally more eloquent, had many words ready; and sometimes, as I thought, I was more bored by his fluency than by the strength of his reasons. When we parted without reaching an agreement and were not to see each other again for some time, I sat down to put my arguments in writing, which I copied fairly and sent to him. He answered, and I answered. Three or four letters from one page had passed when my father happened to find my papers and read them. Without entering into the discussion, he took the opportunity to talk to me about the way I was writing; although I had the advantage of my counterpart in the correct spelling and showing (what I said to the printer), I remained far behind me in the elegance of expression, in the method and in the sharpness of which he convinced me several times. I saw the Justice of his remark, and from there became more attentive to the way in writing, and determined to strive for improvement.

About this time, I met with an odd volume of viewers. It was the third. I had never seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over again and was very pleased about it. I found the writing excellent and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view, I took some of the papers, and made brief references to the mood in each sentence, put them around a few days, and then, without looking at the book, try not to complicate the papers again by expressing each implied mood in detail and as fully as it had been expressed before, in appropriate words that should come to hand. Then I compared my viewer to the original, discovered some of my mistakes and corrected them. But I found I wanted a supply of words, or a willingness to remember and use them, which I should have acquired before this time, if I had made verses; since the constant opportunity for words of equal meaning, but of different lengths, corresponding to the measure or another sound for the rhyme, would have placed me under the constant necessity of searching for Variety, and would also have tended to fix this variety in my mind and make me master it. Therefore, I took some of the stories and turned them into verses; and after a time, when I had quite well forgotten the prose, I turned it back. I also sometimes stumbled upon my collections of clues in confusion, and after a few weeks endeavoured to reduce them to the best order before I began to make the full sets and complete the paper. This should teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts. By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many errors and changed them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of imagining that, under certain circumstances, I was fortunate enough to improve the method or the language, and this encouraged me to believe that perhaps in time I could become a tolerable English writer, of whom I was extremely ambitious. My time for these exercises and reading was at night, after work, or before it began in the morning, or on Sunday, when I imagined myself to be alone in the printing house, and as much as possible withheld myself from the joint participation in the public service that my father gave me when I was under his care, and which, in fact, I still considered a duty, even though, as it seemed to me, I could not afford to practice.

When I was about 16 years old, I happened to meet a book written by a Tryon recommending a vegetable diet. I decided to go inside. My brother, who was still unmarried, did not keep a house, but boarded himself and his apprentices in another family. My refusal to eat meat caused an inconvenience, and I was frequently insulted for my singularity. I became familiar with Tryon's way of preparing some of his dishes, such as cooking potatoes or rice, making hasty pudding, and a few others, and then suggested to my brother that I would step in myself if he would give me half of the money he paid for my board every week. He immediately agreed, and I immediately found that I could save half what he paid me. This was an additional fund for the purchase of books. But I had another advantage in it. My brother and the rest who went from the printing house to their meals were left there alone, and when I was presently shipping my light repast, which was often no more than a biscuit or a slice of bread, a handful of raisins or a cake from the pastry shop and a glass of water, I had the rest of the time until their return to study, in which I made the greater progress, of that greater clarity of mind and quicker Apprehension which usually accompanied moderation in eating and drinking.

And now it was that when on one occasion I made asham'd of my ignorance in numbers that I had not learned twice in school, I took Cocker's book of arithmetic and went through the whole thing with great ease. I also read the navigation books of Seller and Shermy and got to know the little geometry they contain; but never went far in this science. And I read about this time lure on human understanding, and the art of thinking, of Mr. du Port Royal.

While I was trying to improve my language, I came across an English grammar (I think it was Greenwood's), at the end of which were two small sketches of the art of rhetoric and logic, the latter concluding with an example of a dispute in the Socratic method; and soon afterwards I proclaimed Xenophon's memorable things of Socrates, with many instances of the same method. I was charm'd with him, took it, dropped my abrupt contradiction and positive reasoning, and laid on the humble inquirer and doubter. And since, after reading Shaftesbury and Collins, I had become a real doubter on many points of our religious teaching, I found this method the safest for me and very embarrassing for those against whom I used it; therefore, I rejoiced in it, practised it constantly, and became very artful and competent in drawing people, even of superior knowledge, into concessions, the consequences of which they had not foreseen, entangling them in difficulties from which they could not free themselves, and thus achieving victories which neither I nor My Cause had always deserved. I continued this method for a few years, but gradually abandoned it, retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest Diffusion; never, when I suggest something that could possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any other that gives an opinion the air of positivity; but rather say, I understand or perceive something to be so and so; it seems to me, or I should think it so or so, for such and such reasons; or I imagine that it is so; or it is so, if I am not mistaken. I believe this habit has been of great benefit to me when I have had the opportunity to memorize my opinions and persuade men to take action that I have included in the promotion from time to time; and, since the most important ends of the conversation are to inform or be informed, to please or to convince, I wish well-meaning, reasonable men would not diminish their power to do good by a positive, accepted way that rarely does not detest, tends to create opposition and defeat any of these purposes for which we have been given the speech, receiving information or pleasure. Because, if you were to inform, a positive and dogmatic way of advancing your feelings can provoke contradictions and prevent Open attention. If you want information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and at the same time express yourself so firmly in your present opinions, modest, reasonable men who do not love disputation are likely to leave you undisturbed in possession of their error. And in this way, you can rarely hope to recommend yourself to please your audience, or to convince those whose concurrency you want. The Pope says, is reasonable:

"Men should be taught as if they did not teach them,

And things you never forgot;"

recommend to us

"To speak, tho' you sure, with apparent distrust."

And he might have coupled with this line, which he has coupled with another, I think, less properly,

"Because the desire for modesty is the desire for meaning."

If you ask why less right? I have to repeat the lines,

"Immodest words" without defence,

Because the desire for modesty is the desire for meaning."

Well, isn't it pointless (where a man is so unhappy as to want it) an excuse for his desire for modesty? and would not the lines stand more just?

"Immodest words, but this defence,

This desire for modesty is the desire for meaning."

However, I should submit this to better judgment.

My brother had begun to print a newspaper in 1720 or 1721. It was the second to appear in America and was called The New England Courant. The only one before that was the Boston newsletter. I remember that he was discouraged by some of his friends from the company when not likely to succeed in being a newspaper, in their judgment, enough for America. At this time (1771) there are no less than twenty-five. However, he continued with the company, and after I had worked on composing the types and printing the sheets, I was busy carrying the papers on the streets to the customers.