him, he fell into bad company, soon spent his being witnesses how I was treated. He guineas, found no means of being introduced came up immediately into the printing house among the players, grew necessitous, pawned-continued the quarrel; high words passhis clothes and wanted bread. Walking ed on both sides; he gave me the quarter's the street, very hungry, and not knowing warning we had stipulated, expressing a what to do with himself, a crimp's bill was wish that he had not been obliged to so long put into his hand, offering immediate enter- a warning. I told him his wish was unnetainment and encouragement to such as cessary, for I would leave him that instant; would bind themselves to serve in America; and so taking my hat walked out of doors, dehe went directly, signed the indentures, was siring Meredith, whom I saw below, to take put into the ship and came over; never writ- care of some things I left, and bring them to ing a line to his friends to acquaint them what my lodgings. was become of him. He was lively, witty, good-natured, and a pleasant companion; but idle, thoughtless, and imprudent to the last degree.

Meredith came accordingly in the evening, when we talked my affair over. He had conceived a great regard for me, and was very unwilling that I should leave the house while he remained in it. He dissuaded me from returning to my native country which I began to think of; he reminded me that Keimer was in debt for all he possessed; that his creditors began to be uneasy; that he kept his shop miserably, sold often without a profit for

John, the Irishman, soon ran away; with the rest I began to live very agreeably, for they all respected me the more, as they found Keimer incapable of instructing them, and that from me they learned something daily. My acquaintance with ingenious people in the town increased. We never work-ready money, and often trusted without keeped on Saturday, that being Keimer's Sabbath, so that I had two days for reading. Keimer himself treated me with great civility and apparent regard, and nothing now made me uneasy but my debt to Vernon, which I was yet unable to pay, being hitherto but a poor economist; he however kindly made no demand of it.

Our printing house often wanted sorts, and there was no letter-foundry in America. I had seen types cast at James's in London, but without much attention to the manner; however, I now contrived a mould, and made use of the letters we had as puncheons, struck the matrices in lead, and thus supplied in a pretty tolerable way all deficiencies. I also engraved several things on occasion; made the ink; I was warehouse-man, and in short, quite a fac-totum.

ing accounts; that he must therefore fail, which would make a vacancy I might profit of. I objected my want of money. He then let me know that his father had a high opinion of me, and from some discourse that had passed between them, he was sure he would advance money to set me up, if I would enter into partnership with him. My time, said he, will be out with Keimer in the spring; by that time we may have our press and types in from London. I am sensible I am no workman: if you like it, your skill in the business shall be set against the stock I furnish, and we will share the profits equally. The proposal was agreeable to me, and I consented; his father was in town and approved of it; the more, as he said, I had great influence with his son-had prevailed on him to abstain long from dram-drinking, and he hoped might But however serviceable I might be, I found break him of that wretched habit entirely that my services became every day of less when we came to be so closely connected. I importance, as the other hands improved in gave an inventory to the father, who carried their business; and when Keimer paid me a it to a merchant; the things were sent for, second quarter's wages, he let me know that the secret was to be kept till they should arhe felt them too heavy, and thought I should rive, and in the mean time I was to get work, make an abatement. He grew by degrees if I could, at the other printing house. less civil, put on more the airs of master, fre- I found no vacancy there, and so remained quently found fault, was captious, and seem- idle a few days, when Keimer, on a prospect ed ready for an out-breaking. I went on ne- of being employed to print some paper movertheless with a good deal of patience, think-ney in New Jersey, which would require cuts ing that his incumbered circumstances were partly the cause. At length a trifle snapped our connexion; for a great noise happening near the court-house, I put my head out of the window to see what was the matter. Keimer being in the street looked up and saw me, called out to me in a loud voice and an angry tone, to mind my business; adding some reproachful words, that nettled me the more for their publicity; all the neighbours who were looking, out on the same occasion

But

and various types, that I only could supply, and apprehending Bradford might engage me and get the job from him, sent me a very civil message, that old friends should not part for a few words, the effect of sudden passion, and wishing me to return. Meredith persuaded me to comply, as it would give more opportunity for his improvement under my daily instructions; so I returned, and we went on more smoothly than for some time before. The New Jersey job was obtained, I

contrived a copper-plate press for it, the first that had been seen in the country; I cut several ornaments and checks for the bills. We went together to Burlington, where I executed the whole to satisfaction; and he received so large a sum for the work as to be enabled thereby to keep himself longer from ruin.

that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists which were quoted to be refuted appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist. My arguments perverted some others, particularly Collins and Ralph: but each of these having wronged me greatly without the least compunction; and recollecting Keiths conduct towards me, (who was another freethinker,) and my own towards Vernon and Miss Read, which at times gave me great trouble; I began to suspect that this doctrine, though it might be true, was not very useful. My London pamphlet,* (printed in 1725,) which had for its motto these lines of Dryden :

-Whatever is, is right. Tho' purblind man
Sees but a part o' the chain, the nearest link;
His eye not carrying to that equal beam,
That poises all above-

At Burlington I made an acquaintance with many principal people of the province. Several of them had been appointed by the assembly a committee to attend the press, and take care that no more bills were printed than the law directed. They were therefore by turns constantly with us, and generally he who attended brought with him a friend or two for company. My mind having been much more improved by reading than Keimer's, I suppose it was for that reason my conversation seemed to be more valued. They had me to their houses, introduced me to their friends, and shewed me much civility; while he, though the master, was a little and which from the attributes of God, his inneglected. In truth, he was an odd creature; finite wisdom, goodness and power, concludignorant of common life, fond of rudely opposed that nothing could possibly be wrong in the ing received opinions; slovenly to extreme dirtiness; enthusiastic in some points of religion, and a little knavish withal. We continued there near three months, and by that time I could reckon among my acquired friends, judge Allen, Samuel Bustill, the secretary of the province, Isaac Pearson, Joseph Cooper, and several of the Smiths, members of assembly, and Isaac Decow, the surveyor general. The latter was a shrewd, sagacious old man, who told me that he began for himself when young, by wheeling clay for the brickmakers, learned to write after he was of age, carried the chain for surveyors, who taught him surveying, and he had now by his industry acquired a good estate; and, said he, I foresee that you will soon work this man out of his business, and make a fortune in it at Philadelphia. He had then not the least intimation of my intention to set up there or any where. These friends were afterwards of great use to me, as I occasionally was to some of them. They all continued their regard for me as long as they lived.

Before I enter upon my public appearance in business, it may be well to let you know the then state of my mind, with regard to my principles and morals, that you may see how far those influenced the future events of my life. My parents had early given me religious impressions, and brought me through my childhood piously in the dissenting way. But I was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting by turns several points, as I found them disputed in the different books I read, I began to doubt of the revelation itself. Some books against Deism fell into my hands-they were said to be the substance of the sermons which had been preached at Boyle's lectures. It happened

world; and that vice and virtue were empty distinctions, no such things existing; appeared now not so clever a performance as I once thought it; and I doubted whether some error had not insinuated itself unperceived into my argument, so as to infect all that followed, as is common in metaphysical reasonings. I grew convinced that truth, sincerity, and integrity, in dealings between man and man, were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life; and I formed written resolutions (which still remain in my journal book) to

* Dr. Franklin in a letter to Mr. B. Vaughan, dated Nov. 9, 1779, gives a further account of this pamphlet, in these words.

"It was addressed to Mr. I. R., that is, James Ralph, then a youth of about my age, and my intimate friend; afterwards a political writer and historian. The purport of it was to prove the doctrine of fate, from the supposed attributes of God, in some such manner as this: that in erecting and governing the world, as he was infinitely wise, he knew what would be best; infinitely good, he must be disposed, and infinitely powerful, he must be able, to execute it: consequently all is right.

"There were only an hundered copies printed, of which I gave a few to friends, and afterwards disliking burnt the rest, except one copy, the margin of which the piece, as conceiving it might have an ill tendency, was filled with manuscript notes by Lyons, author of the Infallibility of Human Judgment, who was at that time another of my acquaintance in London. I was not nineteen years of age when it was written. In 1730, I wrote a piece on the other side of the question, which began with laying for its foundation this fact times made use of PRAYER.' Thence I reasoned, that if all things are ordained, prayer must, among the rest, be things that are ordained, praying must then be useless, ordained. But as prayer can procure no change in and an absurdity. God would therefore not ordain praying if every thing else was ordained. But praying This pamphlet was never printed, and the manuscript exists, therefore all things are not ordained, &c. has been long lost. The great uncertainty I found in metaphysical reasonings disgusted me, and I quitted that kind of reading and study for others more satisfactory"

That almost all men, in all ages and countries, have at

practise them ever while I lived. Revelation ances of the contrary, such as new buildings had indeed no weight with me as such; but I and the rise of rents being to his certain knowentertained an opinion, that though certain ledge fallacious; for they were in fact among actions might not be bad, because they were the things that would ruin us. Then he gave forbidden by it, or good because it com- me such a detail of misfortunes now existing, manded them; yet probably those actions or that were soon to exist, that he left me half might be forbidden because they were bad for melancholy. Had I known him before I enus, or commanded because they were benefi- gaged in this business probably I never should cial to us, in their own natures, all the cir- have done it. This person continued to live cumstances of things considered. And this in this decaying place, and to declaim in the persuasion, with the kind hand of Providence, same strain, refusing for many years to buy or some guardian angel, or accidental favour- a house there, because all was going to deable circumstances and situations, or all toge-struction; and at last I had the pleasure of ther, preserved me through this dangerous seeing him give five times as much for one as time of youth and the hazardous situations I he might have bought it for when he first bewas sometimes in among strangers, remote gan croaking. from the eye and advice of my father; free I should have mentioned before, that in the from any wilful gross immorality or injustice, autumn of the preceding year, I had formed that might have been expected from my want most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of religion; I say wilful, because the instan- for mutual improvement, which we called the ces I have mentioned had something of neces- JUNTO; we met on Friday evenings. The sity in them, from my youth, inexperience, and rules that I drew up required that every memthe knavery of others: I had therefore a tole-ber in his turn should produce one or more rable character to begin the world with; I queries on any point of morals, politics, or navalued it properly, and determined to pre-tural philosophy, to be discussed by the comserve it. pany; and once in three months produce and We had not been long returned to Phila-read an essay of his own writing, on any subdelphia, before the new types arrived from London. We settled with Keimer, and left him by his consent before he heard of it. We found a house to hire near the market, and took it. To lessen the rent (which was then but twenty-four pounds a year, though I have since known it let for seventy) we took in Thomas Godfrey, a glazier, and his family, who were to pay a considerable part of it to us, and we to board with them. We had scarce opened our letters and put our press in order, before George House, an acquaintance of mine, brought a countryman to us, whom he had met in the street, inquiring for a printer. All our cash was now expended in the variety of particulars we had been obliged to procure, and this countryman's five shillings, be- Thomas Godfrey, a self-taught mathemaing our first fruits, and coming so seasonably, tician, great in his way, and afterwards ingave me more pleasure than any crown Iventor of what is now called Hadley's Quadhave since earned; and from the gratitude I felt towards House, has made me often more ready, than perhaps I otherwise should have been, to assist young beginners.

ject he pleased. Our debates were to be under the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of victory; and to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were after some time made contraband, and prohibited under small pecuniary penalties.

The first members were Joseph Brientnal, a copyer of deeds for the scriveners; a good natured friendly middle-aged man, a great lover of poetry, reading all he could meet with, and writing some that was tolerable; very ingenious in making little nicknackeries, and of sensible conversation.

rant. But he knew little out of his way, and was not a pleasing companion; as, like most great mathematicians I have met with, he expected universal precision in every thing said, or was for ever denying or distinguishing upon trifles, to the disturbance of all conversation; he soon left us.

Nicholas Scull, a surveyor, afterwards surveyor general, who loved books, and sometimes made a few verses.

There are croakers in every country always boding its ruin. Such an one there lived in Philadelphia, a person of note, an elderly man, with a wise look and a very grave manner of speaking; his name was Samuel Mickle. This gentleman, a stranger to me, stopped me one day at my door, and asked me William Parsons, bred a shoemaker, but if I was the young man who had lately open-loving reading, had acquired a considerable ed a new printing house. Being answered in share of mathematics, which he first studied the affirmative, he said he was sorry for me, with a view to astrology, and afterwards because it was an expensive undertaking, and laughed at it; he also became surveyor the expense would be lost, for Philadelphia general. was a sinking place, the people already half William Maugridge, joiner, but a most exbankrupts, or near being so; all the appear-quisite mechanic, and a solid, sensible man.

Hugh Meredith, Stephen Potts, and George Webb, I have characterised before.

Robert Grace, a young gentleman of some fortune, generous, lively, and witty; a lover of punning and of his friends.

stationary; but as yet we did not choose to engage in shop business.

I mention this industry the more particularly and the more freely, though it seems to be talking in my own praise, that those of Lastly, William Coleman, then a mer- my posterity who shall read it, may know the chant's clerk, about my age, who had the cool-use of that virtue, when they see its effects in est, clearest head, the best heart, and the ex- my favour throughout this relation. actest morals of almost any man I ever met George Webb, who had found a female with. He became afterwards a merchant of friend that lent him wherewith to purchase great note, and one of our provincial judges. his time of Keimer, now came to offer himself Our friendship continued without interruption as a journeyman to us. We could not then to his death, upwards of forty years; and the employ him, but I foolishly let him know as a club continned almost as long, and was the secret, that I soon intended to begin a newsbest school of philosophy, morality, and po- paper, and might then have work for him. litics, that then existed in the province; for My hopes of success, as I told him, were our queries, (which were read the week pre- founded on this, that the then only newsceding their discussion,) put us upon reading paper, printed by Bradford, was a paltry thing, with attention on the several subjects, that wretchedly managed, no way entertaining, we might speak more to the purpose: and and yet was profitable to him; I therefore here too we acquired better habits of conver- freely thought a good paper would scarcely sation, every thing being studied in our rules fail of good encouragement. I requested which might prevent our disgusting each Webb not to mention it, but he told it to other; hence the long continuance of the club, Keimer, who immediately, to be beforehand which I shall have frequent occasion to speak with me, published proposals for one himself, further of hereafter. But my giving this ac- on which Webb was to be employed. I was count of it here, is to shew something of the vexed at this, and to counteract them, not beinterest I had, every one of these exerting ing able to commence our paper, I wrote sethemselves in recommending business to us. veral amusing pieces for Bradford's paper, unBrientual particularly procured us from the der the title of the Busy BODY, which Breintquakers, the printing of forty sheets of their nal continued some months. By this means history, the rest being to be done by Keimer; the attention of the public was fixed on that and upon these we worked exceeding hard, paper, and Keimer's proposals, which we burfor the price was low. It was a folio, pro lesqued and ridiculed, were disregarded. He patria size, in pica, with long-primer notes. began his paper however, and before carrying I composed a sheet a day, and Meredith work-it on three quarters of a year, with at most ed it off at press; it was often eleven at night, and sometimes later, before I had finished my distribution for the next day's work; for the little jobs sent in by our other friends now and then put us back. But so determined I was to continue doing a sheet a day of the folio, that one night when having imposed my forms, I thought my day's work over, one of them by accident was broken, and two pages reduced to pi. I immediately distributed, and composed it over again before I went to bed; and this industry, visible to our neighbours, began to give us character and credit; particularly I was told, that mention being made of the new printing office, at the merchants' every night club, the general opinion was that it must fail, there being already two printers in the place, Keimer and Bradford; but Dr. Baird, (whom you and I saw many years after at his native place, St. Andrew's in Scotland,) gave a contrary opinion: "For the industry of that Franklin," said he, "is superior to any thing I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at work when I go home from club, and he is at work again before his neighbours are out of bed." This struck the rest, and we soon after had offers from one of them to supply us with VOL. I.-D

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only ninety subscribers, he offered it me for a trifle; and I, having been ready some time to go on with it, took it in hand directly; and it proved in a few years extremely profitable to me.

I perceive that I am apt to speak in the singular number, though our partnership still continued; it may be that in fact the whole management of the business lay upon me. Meredith was no compositor, a poor pressman, and seldom sober. My friends lamented my connexion with him, but I was to make the best of it.

Our first papers made quite a different appearance from any before in the province; a better type and better printed; but some remarks of my writing on the dispute then going on between governor Burnet and the Massachusetts Assembly, struck the principal people, occasioned the paper and the manager of it to be much talked of, and in a few weeks brought them all to be our subscribers.

Their example was followed by many, and our number went on growing continually. This was one of the first good effects of my having learned a little to scribble; another was, that the leading men seeing a newspa