inconsistency in our common mode of teaching languages.[n] We are told
that it is proper to begin first with the Latin, and, having acquired
that, it will be more easy to attain those modern languages which are
derived from it; and yet we do not begin with the Greek in order more
easily to acquire the Latin. It is true that, if you can clamber and
get to the top of the staircase without using the steps, you will more
easily gain them in descending; but certainly, if you begin with the
lowest you will with more ease ascend to the top; and I would
therefore offer it to the consideration of those who superintend the
education of our youth, whether,--since many of those who begin with
the Latin quit the same after spending some years without having made
any great proficiency, and what they have learned becomes almost
useless, so that their time has been lost,--it would not have been
better to have begun with the French, proceeding to the Italian, etc.;
for, though, after spending the same time, they should quit the study
of languages and never arrive at the Latin, they would, however, have
acquired another tongue or two, that, being in modern use, might be
serviceable to them in common life.
After ten years' absence from Boston, and having become easy in my
circumstances, I made a journey thither to visit my relations, which I
could not sooner well afford. In returning, I called at Newport to see
my brother, then settled there with his printing house. Our former
differences were forgotten, and our meeting was very cordial and
affectionate. He was fast declining in his health, and requested of me
that, in case of his death, which he apprehended not far distant, I
would take home his son, then but ten years of age, and bring him up
to the printing business. This I accordingly performed, sending him a
few years to school before I took him into the office. His mother
carried on the business till he was grown up, when I assisted him with
an assortment of new types, those of his father being in a manner worn
out. Thus it was that I made my brother ample amends for the service I
had deprived him of by leaving him so early.
In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the
smallpox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and
still regret, that I had not given it to him by inoculation.[124]
This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation on the
supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died
under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either
way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.
Our club, the Junto, was found so useful, and afforded such
satisfaction to the members, that several were desirous of introducing
their friends, which could not well be done without exceeding what we
had settled as a convenient number, namely, twelve. We had from the
beginning made it a rule to keep our institution a secret, which was
pretty well observed. The intention was to avoid applications of
improper persons for admittance, some of whom, perhaps, we might find
it difficult to refuse. I was one of those who were against any
addition to our number, but, instead of it, made in writing a proposal
that every member separately should endeavor to form a subordinate
club, with the same rules respecting queries, etc., and without
informing them of the connection with the Junto. The advantages
proposed were the improvement of so many more young citizens by the
use of our institutions; our better acquaintance with the general
sentiments of the inhabitants on any occasion, as the Junto member
might propose what queries we should desire, and was to report to the
Junto what passed in his separate club; the promotion of our
particular interests in business by more extensive recommendation; and
the increase of our influence in public affairs and our power of doing
good by spreading through the several clubs the sentiments of the Junto.
The project was approved, and every member undertook to form his club,
but they did not all succeed. Five or six only were completed, which
were called by different names, as "The Vine," "The Union," "The
Band," etc. They were useful to themselves, and afforded us a good
deal of amusement, information, and instruction, besides answering, in
some considerable degree, our views of influencing the public opinion
on particular occasions, of which I shall give some instances in
course of time as they happened.
[Footnote 111: The following is taken from the commentary of Hierocles
upon the Golden Verses of Pythagoras. The English version is given by
Bigelow in his edition of the Autobiography:
"He [Pythagoras, who lived in the sixth century B.C.] requires also
that this examination be daily repeated. The time which he recommends
for this work is about even or bedtime, that we may conclude the
action of the day with the judgment of conscience, making the
examination of our conversation an evening song to God. Wherein have I
transgressed? What have I done? What duty have I omitted? So shall we
measure our lives by rules.
"We should have our parents and relations in high esteem, love and
embrace good men, raise ourselves above corporeal affections,
everywhere stand in awe of ourselves, carefully observe justice,
consider the frailty of riches and momentary life, embrace the lot
which falls to us by divine judgment, delight in a divine frame of
spirit, convert our mind to what is most excellent, love good
discourses, not lie open to impostures, not be servilely affected in
the possession of virtue, advise before action to prevent repentance,
free ourselves from uncertain opinions, live with knowledge, and
lastly, that we should adapt our bodies and the things without to the
exercise of virtue. These are the things which the lawgiving mind has
implanted in the souls of men."]
[Footnote 112: It is dated July 1, 1733.]
[Footnote 113: "O philosophy, thou guide of life! O thou searcher
after virtue and banisher of vice! One day lived well and in obedience
to thy precepts should be preferred to an eternity of sin."]
[Footnote 114: FRANKLIN'S NOTE.--Nothing so likely to make a man's
fortune as virtue.]
[Footnote 115: Thus far written at Passy, 1784.]
[Footnote 116: The Revolution.]
[Footnote 117: Almanacs were the first issues of the American press.
It is not easy in our day to understand their importance to the early
colonists, and their consequent popularity. The makers, philomaths
("lovers of learning") as Franklin called them, set out their wares in
every attractive form the taste and ingenuity of the age could devise.
They made them a diary, a receipt book, a jest book, and a weather
prophet, as well as a calendar book of dates. The household was poor
indeed which could not scrape up a twopence or a sixpence for the
annual copy. Once bought, it hung by the big chimney-piece, or lay
upon the clock shelf with the Bible and a theological tract or two. It
was read by the light that shone from the blazing logs of the
fireplace or the homemade tallow dip. Its recipes helped the mother in
her dyeing or weaving or cooking. Its warnings of "cold storms,"
"flurries of snow," cautioned the farmer against too early planting of
corn; and its perennial jokes flavored the mirth of many a corn
husking or apple paring.]
[Footnote 118: See p. 201.]
[Footnote 119: See pp. 193-200.]
[Footnote 120: A sheet printed on one side only and without
arrangement in columns.]
[Footnote 121: Statement.]
[Footnote 122: Departure from the faith held by the members of the
synod or assembly.]
[Footnote 123: "Pro and con," i.e., for and against.]
[Footnote 124: Vaccination was not at this time known. By inoculation
the smallpox poison was introduced into the arm, and produced a milder
form of the disease.]
§ 6. ENTERS PUBLIC LIFE.
My first promotion was my being chosen, in 1736, clerk of the General
Assembly. The choice was made that year without opposition; but the year
following, when I was again proposed, (the choice, like that of the
members, being annual,) a new member made a long speech against me, in
order to favor some other candidate. I was, however, chosen, which was
the more agreeable to me as, besides the pay for the immediate service
as clerk, the place gave me a better opportunity of keeping up an
interest among the members, which secured to me the business of printing
the votes, laws, paper money, and other occasional jobs for the public,
that, on the whole, were very profitable.
I therefore did not like the opposition of this new member, who was a
gentleman of fortune and education, with talents that were likely to
give him, in time, great influence in the House; which, indeed,
afterward happened. I did not, however, aim at gaining his favor by
paying any servile respect to him, but, after some time, took this
other method. Having heard that he had in his library a certain very
scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing my desire
of perusing that book, and requesting he would do me the favor of
lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I
returned it in about a week with another note, expressing strongly my
sense of the favor. When we next met in the House, he spoke to me
(which he had never done before), and with great civility; and he ever
after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we
became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death. This
is another instance of the truth of an old maxim I had learned, which
says: "He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do
you another than he whom you yourself have obliged." And it shows how
much more profitable it is prudently to remove, than to resent,
return, and continue, inimical proceedings.
In 1737, Colonel Spotswood, late governor of Virginia, and then
postmaster-general, being dissatisfied with the conduct of his deputy
at Philadelphia respecting some negligence in rendering and
inexactitude of his accounts, took from him the commission and offered
it to me. I accepted it readily, and found it of great advantage; for,
though the salary was small, it facilitated the correspondence that
improved my newspaper and increased the number demanded, as well as
the advertisements to be inserted, so that it came to afford me a
considerable income. My old competitor's newspaper declined
proportionably, and I was satisfied without retaliating his refusal,
while postmaster, to permit my papers being carried by the riders.
Thus he suffered greatly from his neglect in due accounting; and I
mention it as a lesson to those young men who may be employed in
managing affairs for others, that they should always render accounts
and make remittances with great clearness and punctuality. The
character of observing such a conduct is the most powerful of all
recommendations to new employments and increase of business.
I began now to turn my thoughts a little to public affairs, beginning,
however, with small matters. The city watch was one of the first
things that I conceived to want regulation. It was managed by the
constables of the respective wards in turn. The constable warned a
number of housekeepers to attend him for the night. Those who chose
never to attend, paid him six shillings a year to be excused, which
was supposed to be for hiring substitutes, but was, in reality, much
more than was necessary for that purpose, and made the constableship a
place of profit; and the constable, for a little drink, often got such
ragamuffins about him as a watch that respectable housekeepers did not
choose to mix with them.[n] Walking the rounds, too, was often
neglected, and most of the nights spent in tippling. I thereupon wrote
a paper to be read in Junto, representing these irregularities, but
insisting more particularly on the inequality of this six-shilling tax
of the constables respecting the circumstances of those who paid it,
since a poor widow housekeeper, all whose property to be guarded by
the watch did not perhaps exceed the value of fifty pounds, paid as
much as the wealthiest merchant, who had thousands of pounds' worth of
goods in his stores.
On the whole, I proposed as a more effectual watch the hiring of
proper men to serve constantly in that business; and as a more
equitable way of supporting the charge, the levying a tax that should
be proportioned to the property. This idea, being approved by the
Junto, was communicated to the other clubs, but as arising in each of
them; and though the plan was not immediately carried into execution,
yet, by preparing the minds of people for the change, it paved the way
for the law obtained a few years after, when the members of our clubs
were grown into more influence.
About this time I wrote a paper, (first to be read in Junto, but it
was afterward published,) on the different accidents and
carelessnesses by which houses were set on fire, with cautions against
them, and means proposed of avoiding them. This was much spoken of as
a useful piece, and gave rise to a project which soon followed it, of
forming a company for the more ready extinguishing of fires, and
mutual assistance in removing and securing of goods when in danger.
Associates in this scheme were presently found, amounting to thirty.
Our articles of agreement obliged every member to keep always in good
order, and fit for use, a certain number of leather buckets, with
strong bags and baskets (for packing and transporting of goods), which
were to be brought to every fire; and we agreed to meet once a month
and spend a social evening together, in discoursing and communicating
such ideas as occurred to us upon the subject of fires as might be
useful in our conduct on such occasions.
The utility of this institution soon appeared,[n] and many more
desiring to be admitted than we thought convenient for one company,
they were advised to form another, which was accordingly done; and
this went on, one new company being formed after another, till they
became so numerous as to include most of the inhabitants who were men
of property; and now, at the time of my writing this, though upward of
fifty years since its establishment, that which I first formed, called
the "Union Fire Company," still subsists and flourishes, though the
first members are all deceased but myself and one who is older by a
year than I am. The small fines that have been paid by members for
absence from the monthly meetings have been applied to the purchase of
fire engines, ladders, fire hooks, and other useful implements for
each company, so that I question whether there is a city in the world
better provided with the means of putting a stop to beginning
conflagrations; and, in fact, since these institutions, the city has
never lost by fire more than one or two houses at a time, and the
flames have often been extinguished before the house in which they
began, has been half consumed.
In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the Rev. Mr. Whitefield,[125]
who had made himself remarkable there as an itinerant preacher. He was
at first permitted to preach in some of our churches; but the clergy,
taking a dislike to him, soon refused him their pulpits, and he was
obliged to preach in the fields. The multitudes of all sects and
denominations that attended his sermons were enormous, and it was
matter of speculation to me, who was one of the number, to observe the
extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers, and how much
they admired and respected him, notwithstanding his common abuse of
them by assuring them they were naturally "half beasts and half
devils." It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners
of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about
religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so
that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing
psalms sung in different families of every street.
And, it being found inconvenient to assemble in the open air, subject
to its inclemencies, the building of a house to meet in was no sooner
proposed, and persons appointed to receive contributions, but
sufficient sums were soon received to procure the ground and erect the
building, which was one hundred feet long and seventy broad, about the
size of Westminster Hall;[126] and the work was carried on with such
spirit as to be finished in a much shorter time than could have been
expected. Both house and ground were vested in trustees, expressly for
the use of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might desire
to say something to the people of Philadelphia; the design in building
not being to accommodate any particular sect, but the inhabitants in
general; so that even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a
missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at
his service.
Mr. Whitefield, in leaving us, went preaching all the way through the
colonies to Georgia. The settlement of that province had lately been
begun, but, instead of being made with hardy, industrious husbandmen,
accustomed to labor,--the only people fit for such an enterprise,--it
was with families of broken shopkeepers and other insolvent debtors,
many of indolent and idle habits, taken out of the jails, who, being
set down in the woods, unqualified for clearing land and unable to
endure the hardships of a new settlement, perished in numbers, leaving
many helpless children unprovided for.[127] The sight of their
miserable situation inspired the benevolent heart of Mr. Whitefield
with the idea of building an orphan house[128] there, in which they
might be supported and educated. Returning northward, he preached up
this charity, and made large collections, for his eloquence had a
wonderful power over the hearts and purses of his hearers, of which I
myself was an instance.
I did not disapprove of the design, but, as Georgia was then destitute
of materials and workmen, and it was proposed to send them from
Philadelphia at a great expense, I thought it would have been better
to have built the house here, and brought the children to it. This I
advised; but he was resolute in his first project, rejected my
counsel, and I therefore refused to contribute. I happened soon after
to attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I perceived he
intended to finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he
should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper
money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he
proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers.
Another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of that, and determined
me to give the silver; and he finished so admirably that I emptied my
pocket wholly into the collector's dish, gold and all. At this sermon
there was also one of our club, who, being of my sentiments respecting
the building in Georgia, and suspecting a collection might be
intended, had, by precaution, emptied his pockets before he came from
home. Toward the conclusion of the discourse, however, he felt a
strong desire to give, and applied to a neighbor who stood near him,
to borrow some money for the purpose. The application was
unfortunately to perhaps the only man in the company who had the
firmness not to be affected by the preacher. His answer was: "At any
other time, friend Hopkinson, I would lend to thee freely; but not
now, for thee seems to be out of thy right senses."
Some of Mr. Whitefield's enemies affected to suppose that he would
apply these collections to his own private emolument; but I, who was
intimately acquainted with him, being employed in printing his sermons
and journals, etc., never had the least suspicion of his integrity,
but am to this day decidedly of opinion that he was in all his conduct
a perfectly honest man; and methinks my testimony in his favor ought
to have the more weight as we had no religious connection. He used,
indeed, sometimes to pray for my conversion, but he never had the
satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard. Ours was a mere
civil friendship, sincere on both sides, and lasted to his death.
The following instance will show something of the terms on which we
stood. Upon one of his arrivals from England at Boston, he wrote to me
that he should come soon to Philadelphia, but knew not where he could
lodge when there, as he understood his old friend and host, Mr.
Benezet, was removed to Germantown. My answer was: "You know my house;
if you can make shift with its scanty accommodations, you will be most
heartily welcome." He replied that if I made that kind offer for
Christ's sake I should not miss of a reward; and I returned: "Don't
let me be mistaken; it was not for Christ's sake, but for your own
sake." One of our common acquaintance remarked that, knowing it to be
the custom of the saints, when they received any favor, to shift the
burden of the obligation from off their own shoulders and place it in
heaven, I had contrived to fix it on earth.
The last time I saw Mr. Whitefield was in London, when he consulted me
about his orphan house concern, and his purpose of appropriating it to
the establishment of a college.
He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words and sentences
so perfectly that he might be heard and understood at a great
distance, especially as his auditors, however numerous, observed the
most exact silence. He preached one evening from the top of the
courthouse steps, which are in the middle of Market Street, and on the
west side of Second Street, which crosses it at right angles. Both
streets were filled with his hearers to a considerable distance. Being
among the hindmost in Market Street, I had the curiosity to learn how
far he could be heard, by retiring backward down the street toward the
river; and I found his voice distinct till I came near Front Street,
when some noise in that street obscured it. Imagining then a
semicircle, of which my distance should be the radius, and that it
were filled with auditors, to each of whom I allowed two square feet,
I computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand.
This reconciled me to the newspaper accounts of his having preached to
twenty-five thousand people in the fields, and to the ancient
histories of generals haranguing whole armies, of which I had
sometimes doubted.
By hearing him often, I could distinguish easily between sermons newly
composed and those which he had often preached in the course of his
travels. His delivery of the latter was so improved by frequent
repetitions that every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of
voice, was so perfectly well turned and well placed that, without
being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with
the discourse; a pleasure of much the same kind with that received
from an excellent piece of music. This is an advantage itinerant
preachers have over those who are stationary, as the latter cannot
well improve their delivery of a sermon by so many rehearsals.
His writing and printing from time to time gave great advantage to his
enemies. Unguarded expressions and even erroneous opinions, delivered
in preaching, might have been afterward explained or qualified by
supposing others that might have accompanied them, or they might have
been denied; but _litera scripta manet_.[129] Critics attacked his
writings violently, and with so much appearance of reason as to
diminish the number of his votaries and prevent their increase; so
that I am of opinion if he had never written anything, he would have
left behind him a much more numerous and important sect, and his
reputation might in that case have been still growing, even after his
death; as, there being nothing of his writing on which to found a
censure and give him a lower character, his proselytes would be left
at liberty to feign for him as great a variety of excellences as their
enthusiastic admiration might wish him to have possessed.
My business was now continually augmenting, and my circumstances
growing daily easier, my newspaper having become very profitable, as
being for a time almost the only one in this and the neighboring
provinces. I experienced, too, the truth of the observation that
"after getting the first hundred pounds it is more easy to get the
second," money itself being of a prolific nature.