Ben continued with his father, assisting him in his humble toils, till
his twelfth year; and had he possessed a mind less active might have
remained a candle-maker all the days of his life. But born to diffuse
a light beyond that of tallow or spermaceti, he could never reconcile
himself to this inferior employment, and in spite of his wishes to
conceal it from his father, discontent would still lower on his brow,
and the half-suppressed sigh steal in secret from his bosom.
With equal grief his father beheld the deep-seated disquietude of his
son. He loved all his children; but he loved this young one above all
the rest. Ben was the child of his old age. The smile that dimpled his
tender cheeks reminded him of his mother when he first saw her, lovely
in the rosy freshness of youth. And then his intellect was so far
beyond his years; his questions so shrewd; so strong in reasoning; so
witty in remark, that his father would often forget his violin of
nights for the higher pleasure of holding an argument with him. This
was a great trial to his sisters, who would often intreat their mother
to make Ben hold his tongue, that their father might take down his
fiddle, and play and sing hymns with them: for they took after him in
his passion for music, and sung divinely. No wonder that such a child
should be dear to such a father. Indeed old Josias' affection for Ben
was so intimately interwoven with every fibre of his heart, that he
could not bear the idea of separation from him; and various were the
stratagems which he employed to keep this dear child at home. One
while, to frighten his youthful fancy from the sea, for that was the
old man's dread, he would paint the horrors of the watery world, where
the maddening billows, lashed into mountains by the storm, would lift
the trembling ship to the skies; then hurl her down, headlong plunging
into the yawning gulphs, never to rise again. At another time he would
describe the wearisomeness of beating the gloomy wave for joyless
months, pent up in a small ship, with no prospects but barren sea and
skies--no smells but tar and bilge water--no society but men of
uncultivated minds, and their constant conversation nothing but
ribaldry and oaths. And then again he would take him to visit the
masons, coopers, joiners, and other mechanics, at work: in hopes that
his genius might be caught, and a stop put to his passion for
wandering. But greatly to his sorrow, none of these things held out
the attractions that his son seemed to want. His visits among these
tradesmen were not, however, without their advantage. He caught from
them, as he somewhere says, such an insight into mechanic arts and the
use of tools, as enabled him afterwards when there was no artist at
hand, to make for himself suitable machines for the illustration of
his philosophical experiments.
But it was not long before this obstinate dislike of Ben's to all
ordinary pursuits was found out; it was found out by his mother.
"Bless me," said she one night to her husband, as he lay sleepless and
sighing on his son's account, "why do we make ourselves so unhappy
about Ben for fear he should go to _sea!_ let him but go to _school_,
and I'll engage we hear no more about his running to sea. Don't you
see the child is never happy but when he has a book in his hand? Other
boys when they get a little money never think of any thing better to
lay it out on than their backs or their bellies; but he, poor fellow,
the moment that he gets a shilling, runs and gives it for a book; and
then, you know, there is no getting him to his meals until he has read
it through, and told us all about it."
Good old Josias listened very devoutly to his wife, while she uttered
this oration on his youngest son. Then with looks as of a heart
suddenly relieved from a heavy burden, and his eyes lifted to heaven,
he fervently exclaimed--"O that my son, even my little son Benjamin,
may live before God, and that the days of his usefulness and glory may
be many!"
How far the effectual fervent prayer of this righteous father found
acceptance in heaven, the reader will find perhaps by the time he has
gone through our little book.