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[Illustration: FRANKLIN ARMS]
[Illustration: FRANKLIN SEAL]
[Illustration: Franklin at the Court of Louis XVI
"He was therefore, feasted and invited to all the court
parties. At these he sometimes met the old Duchess of
Bourbon, who, being a chess player of about his force,
they very generally played together. Happening once to
put her king into prize, the Doctor took it. 'Ah,' says
she, 'we do not take kings so.' 'We do in America,' said
the Doctor."--Thomas Jefferson.]
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF
BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
_by_
E. BOYD SMITH
EDITED
_by_
FRANK WOODWORTH PINE
[Illustration: Printers Mark]
_New York_
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1916
Copyright, 1916,
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
June, 1922
THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS
RAHWAY, N. J.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction vii
The Autobiography
I. Ancestry and Early Life in Boston 3
II. Beginning Life as a Printer 21
III. Arrival in Philadelphia 41
IV. First Visit to Boston 55
V. Early Friends in Philadelphia 69
VI. First Visit to London 77
VII. Beginning Business in Philadelphia 99
VIII. Business Success and First Public Service 126
IX. Plan for Attaining Moral Perfection 146
X. _Poor Richard's Almanac_ and Other Activities 169
XI. Interest in Public Affairs 188
XII. Defense of the Province 201
XIII. Public Services and Duties 217
XIV. Albany Plan of Union 241
XV. Quarrels with the Proprietary Governors 246
XVI. Braddock's Expedition 253
XVII. Franklin's Defense of the Frontier 274
XVIII. Scientific Experiments 289
XIX. Agent of Pennsylvania in London 296
Appendix
Electrical Kite 327
The Way to Wealth 331
The Whistle 336
A Letter to Samuel Mather 34O
Bibliography 343
ILLUSTRATIONS
Franklin at the Court of Louis XVI _Frontispiece_
"He was therefore, feasted and invited to all the court
parties. At these he sometimes met the old Duchess of
Bourbon, who, being a chess player of about his force,
they very generally played together. Happening once to
put her king into prize, the Doctor took it. 'Ah,' says
she, 'we do not take kings so.' 'We do in America,'
said the Doctor."--Thomas Jefferson.
PAGE
Portrait of Franklin vii
Pages 1 and 4 of _The Pennsylvania Gazette_, Number
XL, the first number after Franklin took control xxi
First page of _The New England Courant_ of December
4-11, 1721 33
"I was employed to carry the papers thro' the streets
to the customers" 36
"She, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I
made, as I certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous
appearance" 48
"I took to working at press" 88
"I see him still at work when I go home from club" 120
Two pages from _Poor Richard's Almanac_ for 1736 171
"I regularly took my turn of duty there as a common
soldier" 204
"In the evening, hearing a great noise among them,
the commissioners walk'd out to see what was the
matter" 224
"Our axes ... were immediately set to work to
cut down trees" 278
"We now appeared very wide, and so far from each
other in our opinions as to discourage all hope
of agreement" 318
"You will find it stream out plentifully from the key
on the approach of your knuckle" 328
Father Abraham in his study 330
The end papers show, at the front, the Franklin arms and
the Franklin seal; at the back, the medal given by the
Boston public schools from the fund left by Franklin for
that purpose as provided in the following extract from his
will:
"I was born in Boston, New England, and owe my first
instructions in literature to the free grammar-schools
established there. I therefore give one hundred pounds
sterling to my executors, to be by them ... paid over to
the managers or directors of the free schools in my native
town of Boston, to be by them ... put out to interest, and
so continued at interest forever, which interest annually
shall be laid out in silver medals, and given as honorary
rewards annually by the directors of the said free schools
belonging to the said town, in such manner as to the
discretion of the selectmen of the said town shall seem
meet."
[Illustration: B. Franklin From an engraving by J. Thomson from the
original picture by J. A. Duplessis]
[Illustration: B. Franklin's signature]
INTRODUCTION
We Americans devour eagerly any piece of writing that purports to tell
us the secret of success in life; yet how often we are disappointed to
find nothing but commonplace statements, or receipts that we know by
heart but never follow. Most of the life stories of our famous and
successful men fail to inspire because they lack the human element
that makes the record real and brings the story within our grasp.
While we are searching far and near for some Aladdin's Lamp to give
coveted fortune, there is ready at our hand if we will only reach out
and take it, like the charm in Milton's _Comus_,
"Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain
Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon;"
the interesting, human, and vividly told story of one of the wisest
and most useful lives in our own history, and perhaps in any history.
In Franklin's _Autobiography_ is offered not so much a ready-made
formula for success, as the companionship of a real flesh and blood
man of extraordinary mind and quality, whose daily walk and
conversation will help us to meet our own difficulties, much as does
the example of a wise and strong friend. While we are fascinated by
the story, we absorb the human experience through which a strong and
helpful character is building.
The thing that makes Franklin's _Autobiography_ different from every
other life story of a great and successful man is just this human
aspect of the account. Franklin told the story of his life, as he
himself says, for the benefit of his posterity. He wanted to help them
by the relation of his own rise from obscurity and poverty to eminence
and wealth. He is not unmindful of the importance of his public
services and their recognition, yet his accounts of these achievements
are given only as a part of the story, and the vanity displayed is
incidental and in keeping with the honesty of the recital. There is
nothing of the impossible in the method and practice of Franklin as he
sets them forth. The youth who reads the fascinating story is
astonished to find that Franklin in his early years struggled with the
same everyday passions and difficulties that he himself experiences,
and he loses the sense of discouragement that comes from a
realization of his own shortcomings and inability to attain.
There are other reasons why the _Autobiography_ should be an intimate
friend of American young people. Here they may establish a close
relationship with one of the foremost Americans as well as one of the
wisest men of his age.
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 in establishing 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 diplomacy as
well as to his facile pen, we are indebted for the foreign alliance
and the funds without which Washington's work must have failed. His
patience, fortitude, and practical wisdom, coupled with
self-sacrificing devotion to the cause of his country, are hardly less
noticeable than similar qualities displayed by Washington. In fact,
Franklin as a public man was much like Washington, 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 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 achievements, 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 industry, 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 wonderful 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 activity, 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 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 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 diplomacy and in literature. He was the
Edison of his day, turning his scientific discoveries to the benefit
of his fellow-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 practical affairs. Carlyle called
him the father of all the Yankees. He founded a fire company, assisted
in founding a hospital, and improved the cleaning and lighting of
streets. He developed journalism, established the American
Philosophical Society, the public library in Philadelphia, 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 Constitution. As a writer, he has produced, in
his _Autobiography_ and in _Poor Richard's Almanac_, two works that
are not surpassed by similar writing. He received honorary degrees
from Harvard and Yale, from Oxford and St. Andrews, and was made a
fellow of the Royal Society, which awarded him the Copley gold medal
for improving natural knowledge. He was one of the eight foreign
associates of the French Academy of Science.
The careful study of the _Autobiography_ is also valuable because of
the style in which it is written. If Robert Louis Stevenson is right
in believing that his remarkable style was acquired by imitation then
the youth who would gain the power to express his ideas clearly,
forcibly, and interestingly cannot do better than to study Franklin's
method. Franklin's 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 clearness of the style in which
he described his experiments, as to the results he was able to
announce. Sir Humphry Davy, the celebrated English chemist, himself an
excellent 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 contains."
Franklin's place in literature is hard to determine because he was not
primarily a literary man. His aim in his writings as in his life work
was to be helpful to his fellow-men. 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, 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 discoveries were explained in language at once so simple
and so clear that plow-boy and exquisite could follow his thought or
his experiment to its conclusion."[1]
[1] _The Many-Sided Franklin._ Paul L. Ford.
As far as American literature is concerned, Franklin has no
contemporaries. Before the _Autobiography_ only one literary work of
importance had been produced in this country--Cotton Mather's
_Magnalia_, a church history of New England in a ponderous, stiff
style. Franklin was the first American author to gain a wide and
permanent 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 characterized by the
development of prose. Periodical literature reached its perfection
early in the century in _The Tatler_ and _The Spectator_ of Addison
and Steele. Pamphleteers flourished throughout the period. The
homelier prose of Bunyan and Defoe gradually gave place to the more
elegant and artificial language of Samuel Johnson, 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 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 essentially a journalist. In his swift, terse style, he is most
like Defoe, who was the first great English journalist and master of
the newspaper narrative. The style of both writers is marked by
homely, vigorous expression, satire, burlesque, repartee. Here the
comparison must end. Defoe and his contemporaries were authors. Their
vocation was writing and their success rests on the imaginative or
creative 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 remarkable as that of his English
contemporaries. He wrote the best autobiography in existence, one of
the most widely known collections of maxims, and an unsurpassed series
of political and social satires, because he was a man of unusual scope
of power and usefulness, who knew how to tell his fellow-men the
secrets of that power and that usefulness.
The Story of the Autobiography
The account of how Franklin's _Autobiography_ came to be written and
of the adventures of the original manuscript forms in itself an
interesting story. The _Autobiography_ is Franklin's longest work,
and yet it is only a fragment. The first part, written as a letter to
his son, William Franklin, was not intended for publication; 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 evidence of revision.
In fact, the expression is so homely and natural that his grandson,
William Temple Franklin, in editing the work changed some of the
phrases because he thought them inelegant 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 Philadelphia in 1775. It was left there with his other papers when
he went to France in the following year, and disappeared 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
complete 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 reader. His work
was soon interrupted and was not resumed until 1788, when he was at
home in Philadelphia. He was now old, infirm, and suffering, and was
still engaged in public service. Under these discouraging conditions
the work progressed slowly. It finally stopped when the narrative
reached the year 1757. Copies of the manuscript were sent to friends
of Franklin in England and France, among others to Monsieur Le
Veillard at Paris.
The first edition of the _Autobiography_ was published in French at
Paris in 1791. It was clumsily and carelessly 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 _Autobiography_ had
started on a varied and adventurous career. It was left by Franklin
with his other works to his grandson, William Temple Franklin, whom
Franklin designated 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. By him it was later sold to Mr. E. Dwight Church
of New York, and passed with the rest of Mr. Church's library into the
possession of Mr. Henry E. Huntington. The original manuscript of
Franklin's _Autobiography_ now rests in the vault in Mr. Huntington's
residence at Fifth Avenue and Fifty-seventh Street, New York City.
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 unwarranted liberties with the original. Mr. Bigelow says he
found more than twelve hundred changes in the text. In 1868,
therefore, Mr. Bigelow published the standard 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 that of Mr.
Bigelow's editions.[2]
[2] For the division into chapters and the chapter
titles, however, the present editor is responsible.
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 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 words, homely
expressions, apt illustrations, and pointed allusions. Franklin had a
most interesting, varied, and unusual life. He was one of the greatest
conversationalists of his time.
His book is the record of that unusual life told in Franklin's own
unexcelled 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.
F. W. P.
The Gilman Country School,
Baltimore, September, 1916.
[Illustration: Pages 1 and 4 of The Pennsylvania Gazette, the first
number after Franklin took control. Reduced nearly one-half.
Reproduced from a copy at the New York Public Library.]
[Transcriber's note: Transcription of these pages are given at the end
of the text.]
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
I
ANCESTRY AND EARLY YOUTH IN
BOSTON
Twyford,[3] _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 I 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 expecting the enjoyment of a week's
uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, 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 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.
[3] A small village not far from Winchester in
Hampshire, southern England. Here was the country seat
of the Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Jonathan Shipley, the
"good Bishop," as Dr. Franklin used to style him. Their
relations were intimate and confidential. In his pulpit,
and in the House of Lords, as well as in society, the
bishop always opposed the harsh measures of the Crown
toward the Colonies.--Bigelow.
That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to
say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to
a repetition of the same life 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 favourable. 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 in
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 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 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_.[4] 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.
[4] In this connection Woodrow Wilson says, "And yet the
surprising and delightful thing about this book (the
_Autobiography_) is that, take it all in all, it has not
the low tone of conceit, 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.
And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to
acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my past life to His
kind providence, which lead me to the means I used and gave them
success. My belief of this induces me to _hope_, though I must not
_presume_, that the same goodness will still be exercised 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
Northamptonshire,[5] 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,[6] was assumed by them as a
surname when others took surnames all over the kingdom), on a freehold
of 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 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, 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 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 that grew up, viz.: Thomas,
John, Benjamin and Josiah. I will give you what account I can of them
at this distance from my papers, and if these are not lost in my
absence, you will among them find many more particulars.
[5] See _Introduction_.
[6] A small landowner.
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 gentleman in that parish, he qualified himself for
the business of 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. He died in 1702, January 6, old style,[7] 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 on the same day," you said, "one might have supposed a
transmigration."
[7] January 17, new style. This change in the calendar
was made in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, and adopted in
England in 1752. Every year whose number in the common
reckoning since Christ is not divisible by 4, as well as
every year whose number is divisible by 100 but not by
400, shall have 365 days, and all other years shall have
366 days. In the eighteenth century there was a
difference of eleven days between the old and the new
style of reckoning, which the English Parliament
canceled by making the 3rd of September, 1752, the 14th.
The Julian calendar, or "old style," is still retained
in Russia and Greece, whose dates consequently are now
13 days behind those of other Christian countries.
John was bred a dyer, I believe of woollens, Benjamin was bred a silk
dyer, serving an apprenticeship at London. He was an ingenious man. I
remember him well, for when I was a boy he came over to my father in
Boston, 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 pieces addressed to his friends and relations, of
which the following, sent to me, is a specimen.[8] 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 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, 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 met 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 about
fifty years since. There are many of his notes in the margins.
[8] The specimen is not in the manuscript of the
_Autobiography_.
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 on account of their zeal against
popery. They had got an English Bible, and to conceal and secure it,
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
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
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[9] in Northamptonshire, Benjamin and Josiah adhered to
them, and so continued all their lives: the rest of the family
remained with the Episcopal Church.
[9] Secret gatherings of dissenters from the established
Church.
[Illustration: Birthplace of Franklin. Milk Street, Boston.]
Josiah, my father, married young, and carried his wife with three
children into New England, about 1682. The conventicles having been
forbidden by law, and frequently disturbed, induced some considerable
men of his acquaintance 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 he 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 Boston,
New England.[10] 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,[11] in his church
history of that country, entitled _Magnalia Christi Americana_, as "_a
godly, learned Englishman_," if I remember the words rightly. I have
heard that he wrote sundry small occasional 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 addressed to
those then concerned in the government there. It was in favour 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 that had befallen the country, to that
persecution, as so many judgments of God to punish so heinous an
offense, and exhorting a repeal of those uncharitable 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
forgotten 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;
From Sherburne town,[12] where now I dwell
My name I do put here;
Without offense your real friend,
It is Peter Folgier."
[10] Franklin was born on Sunday, January 6, old style,
1706, in a house on Milk Street, opposite the Old South
Meeting House, where he was baptized on the day of his
birth, during a snowstorm. The house where he was born
was burned in 1810.--Griffin.
[11] Cotton Mather (1663-1728), clergyman, author, and
scholar. Pastor of the North Church, Boston. He took an
active part in the persecution of witchcraft.
[12] Nantucket.
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[13] 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.[14] I continued, however, at the grammar-school
not quite one year, though in that time I had risen gradually 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 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 sope-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 mould and the moulds for cast candles, attending the shop,
going of errands, etc.
[13] Tenth.
[14] System of short-hand.
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, learnt 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 public spirit, tho' 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 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 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 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 handy in the use of other tradesmen's tools; but
his great excellence lay in a sound understanding and solid judgment
in prudential matters, both in private and publick affairs. In the
latter, indeed, he was never employed, the numerous family he had to
educate and the straitness of his circumstances keeping him close to
his trade; but I remember well his being frequently visited by leading
people, 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 also 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 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 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 bro't up 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 my companions have been sometimes very
unhappy for want of a suitable gratification of their more delicate,
because better instructed, tastes and appetites.
My mother had likewise an excellent constitution: she suckled all her
ten children. I never knew either my father or mother to have any
sickness but that of which they dy'd, 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,[15] with this inscription:
Josiah Franklin,
and
Abiah his wife,
lie here interred.
They lived lovingly together in wedlock
fifty-five years.
Without an estate, or any gainful employment,
By constant labor and industry,
with God's blessing,
They maintained a large family
comfortably,
and brought up thirteen children
and seven grandchildren
reputably.
From this instance, reader,
Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling,
And distrust not Providence.
He was a pious and prudent man;
She, a discreet and virtuous woman.
Their youngest son,
In filial regard to their memory,
Places this stone.
J. F. born 1655, died 1744, Ætat 89.
A. F. born 1667, died 1752,----85.
[15] This marble having decayed, 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.
By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be grown old. I us'd
to write more methodically. But one does not dress for private company
as for a publick 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
destined 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
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 learnt 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. My father at last fixed upon the cutler's trade,
and my uncle Benjamin's son Samuel, who was bred to that business in
London, being about that time established in Boston, I was sent to be
with him some time on liking. But his expectations of a fee with me
displeasing my father, I was taken home again.
II
BEGINNING LIFE AS A PRINTER
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 R. Burton's
_Historical Collections_; they were small chapmen's books,[16] 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 proper 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 of 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.
[16] Small books, sold by chapmen or peddlers.
This bookish inclination at length determined my father to make me a
printer, though he had already one 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 that of
my father, but still had a hankering for the sea. To prevent the
apprehended effect of such an inclination, my father was impatient to
have me bound 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 I made great proficiency in the business, and became
a useful hand to my brother. I now had access to better books. An
acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers enabled me sometimes
to borrow a small one, which I was careful to return soon and clean.
Often I sat up in 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, 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, thinking it might
turn to account, encouraged me, and put me 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 the
Grub-street-ballad style;[17] 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 discouraged me by ridiculing my performances, and telling me
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 shall tell you how, in such a situation, I acquired
what little ability I have in that way.
[17] Grub-street: famous in English literature as the
home of poor writers.
There was another bookish lad in the town, John Collins by name, with
whom I was intimately acquainted. We sometimes disputed, and very fond
we were of argument, 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 bring it into practice; and thence,
besides souring and spoiling the conversation, is productive of
disgusts and, perhaps enmities where you may have occasion for
friendship. I had caught it by reading my father's books of dispute
about religion. Persons of good sense, I have since observed, seldom
fall into it, except lawyers, university men, and men of all sorts
that have been bred at Edinborough.
A question was once, somehow or other, started between Collins and me,
of the propriety of educating the female 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, perhaps a
little for dispute's sake. He was naturally more eloquent, had a ready
plenty of words, and sometimes, as 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. Three or four letters of
a side had passed, when my father happened to find my papers and read
them. Without 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 spelling and pointing (which I
ow'd 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, and determined to endeavor at
improvement.