he says, voyages abroad, &c. caused him to neglect it altogether. In his old age however he records, that while, with respect to order, he was from the first almost incorrigible, to the fair portion of the other virtues which he attained by this method he owed the whole of his success in public and private life.

He once proposed to have enlarged the scheme with a book containing comments on each precept, to be called the "Art of Virtue," but never completed the design. He tells us however, that his leading moral doctrine would have been, that vice is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but forbidden because it is hurtful. His basis of morality was therefore selfinterest. The great question is, whether he had eyes and heart to view that interest in a sufficiently elevated point of view.

The Junto agreed, about this time, to unite their separate stock of books, and thus to form a library, to which the members should have com mon access, the place of their meeting (or hiredroom) being the repository. By this means, it was thought, they would be able more readily to refer to authorities during their friendly debates, and every member would have the advantage of perusing the books of all the rest. But the scheme did not work well: each thought his books worthy of more care than they met with; and after a year's trial the plan was relinquished. It suggested however to Franklin the idea of a public library. He proposed to erect fifty subscribers of 40s. into a company, who were also to pay 10s. a year afterwards for fifty years, the proposed period of its duration. By the help of the Junto, the fifty shares were quickly taken up the scheme became popular; and the company afterwards increasing to one hundred shareholders, they obtained a charter. This institution, we are told, was the parent of all those numerous subscription libraries which now prevail in North America, and which Franklin, with an excusable vanity,

describes as having materially improved the conversation of the Americans, diffused universal knowledge amongst the farmers and tradesmen, and contributed, in no small degree, to that assertion of the civil rights of the colonies which resulted in their final independence.

And

At this time there was not a good bookseller's shop in any of the American colonies south of B03ton; there were printers and stationers in New York and Philadelphia, but they sold only paper, ballads, almanacks, &c. : people disposed to read used to be under the necessity of sending for their books from England. The new library was open one day in the week, for the purpose of lending books to the subscribers, on their promissory notes to pay double the value if they were not duly returned. Franklin observes, in after-life, that the objections he met with in soliciting the subscriptions, made him feel the impropriety of presenting himself as the proposer of any useful project that might be supposed to raise his reputation above his neighbour. "I therefore," says he, "put myself as much as I could out of sight, and stated it as a scheme of a number of friends who had requested me to go about and propose it to such as they thought lovers of reading. In this way my affairs went on more smoothly, and I ever after practised it on such occasions, and from my frequent success can heartily recommend it. The present little sacrifice of vanity will afterwards be amply repaid. If it remains awhile uncertain to whom the merit belongs, some one more vain than yourself would be encouraged to claim it, and then even envy will be disposed to do you justice, by plucking those assumed feathers, and restoring them to their right owner." Franklin's personal advantages from this library were not small; he imported the books, and freely used them for private study; thus at once accelerating his fortune and his mental improvement, and repairing the loss of that learned education which was once intended for him. His circumstances

from the period of which we are writing, became daily easier; and reflecting often on what his father used to impress upon him in youth-"Seest thou a man diligent in his calling; he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men,”—he lived in his advanced age to realize this proverb in a remarkable manner. "I did not think," says he, "that I should ever literally stand before kings, which however has since happened; for I have stood before five, and even had the honour of sitting down with one, the king of Denmark, to dinner."

Franklin describes his wife as equally frugal and diligent with himself. She assisted him in his business, folding and stitching pamphlets, tending the shop, and making small purchases for him in the way of trade. He kept no idle servants, his table was plain and simple, and his furniture homely. His breakfast, for instance, was bread and milk; and he ate it out of a twopenny earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon, indulging himself with no tea. But one morning our philosopher discovered a china bowl with a silver spoon, upon his breakfast table, which cost twenty-three shillings. These were bought for him, without his knowledge, by Mrs Franklin, who had only the sound apology to make, that she thought her husband deserved a silver spoon and china bowl as well as any of his neighbours! This, he says, was the first appearance of plate and china in his house.

In 1732 he published his Almanack, which was continued about twenty-five years under the name of "Richard Sanders," and commonly called Poor Richard's Almanack. The work was replete with useful information, and particularly suited to the thin and rising population of the colonies. It soon came into general demand, and Franklin vended annually ten thousand copies. In his own precise and clear way, he filled all the spaces that occurred between the remarkable days in the Calendar with proverbial sentences, inculcating particularly honesty and frugality, adapted to the circumstances of

all readers. "It is hard for an empty sack to stand upright," was one of these proverbs. "God helps them that help themselves; "he that lives upon hope will die fasting;" "at the working man's door hunger looks in, but dares not enter,' -were others. In the Almanack of 1757, he brought all these scattered counsels together, and formed them into a connected discourse, as the harangue of a wise old man to the people attending an auction, and entitled them, "The Way to Wealth." This piece has been printed in all the principal languages of Europe, in a variety of forms. We subjoin the whole in our Appendix*, nothing of a more characteristic nature having proceeded from our author's pen.

In the conduct of his newspaper, as a vehicle of public instruction, Franklin also acted with his usual good sense and promptitude; as far as it was compatible with the free discussion of public measures, he carefully excluded personal attacks. To the pleas of some zealots for a different course, his reply was curious. They would urge, he says, the liberty of the press, and that a newspaper, like a stage-coach, should afford a place to all who would pay for it. His answer was, that he would furnish copies of the objectionable pieces for the private distribution of the parties (thus preserving their good will) but not intrude on his subscribers what might be private scandal, or might be deemed so. His selections from the Spectator and other works were very attractive to readers of such limited education and means of knowledge as surrounded him; while his own original contributions evinced the rapid growth of his intellect. He particularizes a Socratic dialogue, and a discourse on self-denial, as amongst his most successful essays. The subjects were characteristic of the writer; the former being designed to prove, that no vicious man could be, strictly, a man of sense; and the latter, that virtue was not secure until its prac

* See Appendix, No. 1

tice became habitual, and free from the dominion of contrary desires.

He was a strong advocate for women of the middle classes being taught the practice of reading, writing, and accounts, in preference to music, dancing, and unsuitable accomplishments. Of the importance of this he supplies an instance from his own observation. A journeyman of his was sent by him to Charlestown, Carolina, where a printer was much wanted, provided with a press, type, &c. on an agreement of partnership, according to which, Franklin was to have one-third of the final profits of the trade. He was a well-educated young man, but ignorant of accounts, and while he lived, they were never regularly remitted; but at his death, his wife (educated in Holland) gave the clearest statement of all the past transactions he had ever managed, and conducted the business in future with the greatest punctuality and success; so that, after bringing up a large family respectably, she was finally able to buy the printinghouse for her son.

In 1733, he began to turn his attention to the acquirement of languages, and became familiar with the French, Italian, and Spanish, successively. From these he proceeded to regain and extend his knowledge of Latin, in which he never had more than one year's instruction, he observes, in the early part of life. Here the unexpected facility which he derived from his acquaintance with the European languages, urged him to suspect that boys are wrongly put to Latin first. It is, as he states, as if we were placed on the top of a flight of stairs, at once, for the sake of walking down them easily; whereas, if we begin at the lower, we shall most easily reach the top. But surely he argues too precisely from his own case. His object was simply the acquirement of certain languages, and he brought to their study a mind unusually disciplined. Boys are easily taught the classical languages, and especially Latin, as a means of mental discipline, and because the form and