The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (14 page)

(Thus far written at Passy, 1784.)

("I am now about to write at home, August, 1788, but can not have
the help expected from my papers, many of them being lost in the war.
I have, however, found the following.")
[9]

HAVING mentioned a great and extensive project which I had
conceiv'd, it seems proper that some account should be here
given of that project and its object. Its first rise in my
mind appears in the following little paper, accidentally preserv'd, viz.:

Observations on my reading history, in Library, May 19th, 1731.

"That the great affairs of the world, the wars, revolutions,
etc., are carried on and affected by parties.

"That the view of these parties is their present general interest,
or what they take to be such.

"That the different views of these different parties occasion
all confusion.

"That while a party is carrying on a general design, each man has
his particular private interest in view.

"That as soon as a party has gain'd its general point, each member
becomes intent upon his particular interest; which, thwarting others,
breaks that party into divisions, and occasions more confusion.

"That few in public affairs act from a meer view of the good of
their country, whatever they may pretend; and, tho' their actings
bring real good to their country, yet men primarily considered
that their own and their country's interest was united, and did
not act from a principle of benevolence.

"That fewer still, in public affairs, act with a view to the good
of mankind.

"There seems to me at present to be great occasion for raising
a United Party for Virtue, by forming the virtuous and good men
of all nations into a regular body, to be govern'd by suitable
good and wise rules, which good and wise men may probably be more
unanimous in their obedience to, than common people are to common laws.

"I at present think that whoever attempts this aright, and is
well qualified, can not fail of pleasing God, and of meeting
with success. B. F."

Revolving this project in my mind, as to be undertaken hereafter,
when my circumstances should afford me the necessary leisure,
I put down from time to time, on pieces of paper, such thoughts
as occurr'd to me respecting it. Most of these are lost; but I find
one purporting to be the substance of an intended creed, containing,
as I thought, the essentials of every known religion, and being free
of every thing that might shock the professors of any religion.
It is express'd in these words, viz.:

"That there is one God, who made all things.

"That he governs the world by his providence.

"That he ought to be worshiped by adoration, prayer, and thanksgiving.

"But that the most acceptable service of God is doing good to man.

"That the soul is immortal.

"And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice either
here or hereafter."
[10]

My ideas at that time were, that the sect should be begun and
spread at first among young and single men only; that each person
to be initiated should not only declare his assent to such creed,
but should have exercised himself with the thirteen weeks'
examination and practice of the virtues, as in the before-mention'd model;
that the existence of such a society should he kept a secret,
till it was become considerable, to prevent solicitations
for the admission of improper persons, but that the members
should each of them search among his acquaintance for ingenuous,
well-disposed youths, to whom, with prudent caution, the scheme
should be gradually communicated; that the members should engage
to afford their advice, assistance, and support to each other
in promoting one another's interests, business, and advancement
in life; that, for distinction, we should be call'd The Society of
the Free and Easy: free, as being, by the general practice and habit
of the virtues, free from the dominion of vice; and particularly
by the practice of industry and frugality, free from debt, which
exposes a man to confinement, and a species of slavery to his creditors.

This is as much as I can now recollect of the project,
except that I communicated it in part to two young men, who adopted
it with some enthusiasm; but my then narrow circumstances,
and the necessity I was under of sticking close to my business,
occasion'd my postponing the further prosecution of it at that time;
and my multifarious occupations, public and private, induc'd me
to continue postponing, so that it has been omitted till I have no
longer strength or activity left sufficient for such an enterprise;
tho' I am still of opinion that it was a practicable scheme,
and might have been very useful, by forming a great number of
good citizens; and I was not discourag'd by the seeming magnitude
of the undertaking, as I have always thought that one man of tolerable
abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs
among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off all
amusements or other employments that would divert his attention,
makes the execution of that same plan his sole study and business.

In 1732 I first publish'd my Almanack, under the name of Richard Saunders;
it was continu'd by me about twenty-five years, commonly call'd
Poor Richard's Almanac. I endeavor'd to make it both entertaining
and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such demand, that I reap'd
considerable profit from it, vending annually near ten thousand.
And observing that it was generally read, scarce any neighborhood
in the province being without it, I consider'd it as a proper vehicle
for conveying instruction among the common people, who bought scarcely
any other books; I therefore filled all the little spaces that occurr'd
between the remarkable days in the calendar with proverbial sentences,
chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality, as the means
of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue; it being more
difficult for a man in want, to act always honestly, as, to use
here one of those proverbs, it is hard for an empty sack to stand up-right.

These proverbs, which contained the wisdom of many ages and nations,
I assembled and form'd into a connected discourse prefix'd to the
Almanack of 1757, as the harangue of a wise old man to the people
attending an auction. The bringing all these scatter'd counsels
thus into a focus enabled them to make greater impression.
The piece, being universally approved, was copied in all the
newspapers of the Continent; reprinted in Britain on a broad side,
to be stuck up in houses; two translations were made of it in French,
and great numbers bought by the clergy and gentry, to distribute
gratis among their poor parishioners and tenants. In Pennsylvania,
as it discouraged useless expense in foreign superfluities, some thought
it had its share of influence in producing that growing plenty
of money which was observable for several years after its publication.

I considered my newspaper, also, as another means of communicating
instruction, and in that view frequently reprinted in it extracts
from the Spectator, and other moral writers; and sometimes publish'd
little pieces of my own, which had been first compos'd for reading
in our Junto. Of these are a Socratic dialogue, tending to prove that,
whatever might be his parts and abilities, a vicious man could not
properly be called a man of sense; and a discourse on self-denial,
showing that virtue was not secure till its practice became a habitude,
and was free from the opposition of contrary inclinations.
These may be found in the papers about the beginning Of 1735.

In the conduct of my newspaper, I carefully excluded all libelling
and personal abuse, which is of late years become so disgraceful
to our country. Whenever I was solicited to insert anything
of that kind, and the writers pleaded, as they generally did,
the liberty of the press, and that a newspaper was like a stagecoach,
in which any one who would pay had a right to a place, my answer was,
that I would print the piece separately if desired, and the author
might have as many copies as he pleased to distribute himself,
but that I would not take upon me to spread his detraction;
and that, having contracted with my subscribers to furnish them
with what might be either useful or entertaining, I could not fill
their papers with private altercation, in which they had no concern,
without doing them manifest injustice. Now, many of our printers make
no scruple of gratifying the malice of individuals by false accusations
of the fairest characters among ourselves, augmenting animosity
even to the producing of duels; and are, moreover, so indiscreet
as to print scurrilous reflections on the government of neighboring
states, and even on the conduct of our best national allies,
which may be attended with the most pernicious consequences.
These things I mention as a caution to young printers, and that
they may be encouraged not to pollute their presses and disgrace
their profession by such infamous practices, but refuse steadily,
as they may see by my example that such a course of conduct will not,
on the whole, be injurious to their interests.

In 1733 I sent one of my journeymen to Charleston, South Carolina,
where a printer was wanting. I furnish'd him with a press and letters,
on an agreement of partnership, by which I was to receive one-third
of the profits of the business, paying one-third of the expense.
He was a man of learning, and honest but ignorant in matters
of account; and, tho' he sometimes made me remittances, I could get
no account from him, nor any satisfactory state of our partnership
while he lived. On his decease, the business was continued by
his widow, who, being born and bred in Holland, where, as I have been
inform'd, the knowledge of accounts makes a part of female education,
she not only sent me as clear a state as she could find of the
transactions past, but continued to account with the greatest
regularity and exactness every quarter afterwards, and managed
the business with such success, that she not only brought up reputably
a family of children, but, at the expiration of the term, was able
to purchase of me the printing-house, and establish her son in it.

I mention this affair chiefly for the sake of recommending that branch
of education for our young females, as likely to be of more use
to them and their children, in case of widowhood, than either music
or dancing, by preserving them from losses by imposition of crafty men,
and enabling them to continue, perhaps, a profitable mercantile house,
with establish'd correspondence, till a son is grown up fit to undertake
and go on with it, to the lasting advantage and enriching of the family.

About the year 1734 there arrived among us from Ireland a young
Presbyterian preacher, named Hemphill, who delivered with a
good voice, and apparently extempore, most excellent discourses,
which drew together considerable numbers of different persuasion,
who join'd in admiring them. Among the rest, I became one of his
constant hearers, his sermons pleasing me, as they had little
of the dogmatical kind, but inculcated strongly the practice
of virtue, or what in the religious stile are called good works.
Those, however, of our congregation, who considered themselves
as orthodox Presbyterians, disapprov'd his doctrine, and were join'd
by most of the old clergy, who arraign'd him of heterodoxy before
the synod, in order to have him silenc'd. I became his zealous partisan,
and contributed all I could to raise a party in his favour, and we
combated for him a while with some hopes of success. There was much
scribbling pro and con upon the occasion; and finding that, tho'
an elegant preacher, he was but a poor writer, I lent him my pen
and wrote for him two or three pamphlets, and one piece in the Gazette
of April, 1735. Those pamphlets, as is generally the case with
controversial writings, tho' eagerly read at the time, were soon
out of vogue, and I question whether a single copy of them now exists.

During the contest an unlucky occurrence hurt his cause exceedingly.
One of our adversaries having heard him preach a sermon that was
much admired, thought he had somewhere read the sermon before,
or at least a part of it. On search he found that part quoted
at length, in one of the British Reviews, from a discourse
of Dr. Foster's. This detection gave many of our party disgust,
who accordingly abandoned his cause, and occasion'd our more speedy
discomfiture in the synod. I stuck by him, however, as I rather
approv'd his giving us good sermons compos'd by others, than bad
ones of his own manufacture, tho' the latter was the practice
of our common teachers. He afterward acknowledg'd to me that none
of those he preach'd were his own; adding, that his memory was such
as enabled him to retain and repeat any sermon after one reading only.
On our defeat, he left us in search elsewhere of better fortune,
and I quitted the congregation, never joining it after, tho' I continu'd
many years my subscription for the support of its ministers.

I had begun in 1733 to study languages; I soon made myself so much
a master of the French as to be able to read the books with ease.
I then undertook the Italian. An acquaintance, who was also
learning it, us'd often to tempt me to play chess with him.
Finding this took up too much of the time I had to spare for study,
I at length refus'd to play any more, unless on this condition,
that the victor in every game should have a right to impose a task,
either in parts of the grammar to be got by heart, or in translations,
etc., which tasks the vanquish'd was to perform upon honour,
before our next meeting. As we play'd pretty equally, we thus beat
one another into that language. I afterwards with a little painstaking,
acquir'd as much of the Spanish as to read their books also.

I have already mention'd that I had only one year's instruction
in a Latin school, and that when very young, after which I neglected
that language entirely. But, when I had attained an acquaintance
with the French, Italian, and Spanish, I was surpriz'd to find,
on looking over a Latin Testament, that I understood so much more
of that language than I had imagined, which encouraged me to apply
myself again to the study of it, and I met with more success,
as those preceding languages had greatly smooth'd my way.