eminently unfavorable to the development of the philosophic reasonings which distinguished him in after life, and were even at this early age perceptible in the course of his reading as well as his youthful actions.

His invincible repugnance to his occupation, and his desire to follow the sea, increased rather than diminished, and his father deemed it prudent after the trial of one or two other kinds of business, to apprentice him to that of printing under his brother James, who had just returned from London with a press and types to establish himself in Boston. Franklin still retained his fondness for the sea, and declined for some time to enter into the contract. His objections were at last overcome by the persuasion of his parent, and he signed the indenture which bound him as an apprentice to his brother when but twelve years of age.

The new occupation he had selected, or rather which had been selected for him, provided him with the means of obtaining a more ready access to books than he had hitherto enjoyed. His acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers, frequently obtained for him the loan of some small volume, which he was careful to return clean and at the appointed time. To what profit he turned this advantage may be judged from his own language. "Often," he remarks, "I sat up in my chamber the greatest part of the night, when the book was borrowed in the evening to be returned in the morning lest it should be found missing." What the character of this reading was, he has not told us, but from the fact that he soon after appeared as the author of some very poor verses, we are inclined to the opinion that it was rather entertaining than substantial.

ÆT. 12.]

IMPROVES HIS STYLE.

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The manner in which he was led to correct his style in prose writing, is not only worthy of note as illustrative of the development of his mental powers under such serious obstacles, but likewise as furnishing a lesson of perseverance worthy of imitation by those who aim to overcome early disadvantages by careful and continued attention. He appears to have had a companion named John Collins, with whom he was fond of engaging in disputation, and to whom he gave the credit of possessing a style more fluent and pleasing than his own. On one occasion their dispute was interrupted before terminated, and was afterwards continued by a series of papers on both sides. These papers fell into the hands of his father, who tallow chandler though he was, certainly possessed strong natural sense. He at once perceived the strong points and the errors in his son's composition, and without entering into the subject in dispute, took occasion to talk to him about his manner of writing; observing that though he had advantage of his antagonist in correct spelling and pointing, (which he attributed to the printing house) he fell far short in elegance of expression, in method and perspicuity, of which he convinced him by several instances. Franklin saw the justice of his remarks, and thence grew more attentive to his manner of writing, and determined to endeavor to improve in style.

"About this time," he remarks, "I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. I had never before seen any of them; I bought it, and read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With that view I took some of the papers, and making short hints of the sentiments in

each sentence, laid them by a few days, and without looking at the book tried to complete the papers again."

In this manner he devoted each leisure hour torn from the laborious duties of his trade, to the improvement of his style, and the attainment of those elementary branches of education, now within the reach of almost every child, however humble, in most of the United States.

The advantage derived from these exercises is thus with great modesty related by himself. "By comparing my work with the original, I discovered my faults and corrected them; but I sometimes had the pleasure to fancy that in particulars of small consequence, I had been fortunate enough to improve the merit or the language, and this encouraged me to think, that I might in time, come to be a tolerable English writer, of which I was extremely ambitious."

One great merit consequent upon the perusal of Addison's writings and works of a kindred character, was the abandonment of a disputatious manner which had infused itself into his conversation and writings, and which he mainly attributed to the reading of the works on polemic divinity, found in his father's library. After the opportunities afforded by many years of observation, he pronounces it "a very bad habit, making people often extremely disagreeable in company, by the contradictions that is necessary to bring it into practice;" and adds, "persons of good sense, I have since observed, seldom fall into it." Having arrived at some proficiency in his style, he felt a great desire to ascertain its effects upon the public, and with this view, wrote an article in a disguised hand for his brother's newspaper, which was

ÆT. 16.] EARLY EFFORTS AS A WRITER.

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submitted to the inspection of several gentlemen who contributed to it, and pronounced worthy of insertion.

"Hearing," says Franklin, "their conversation, and their accounts of the approbation their papers were received with, I was excited to try my hand among them; but being still a boy, and suspecting that my brother would object to printing any thing of mine in his paper, if he knew it to be mine, I contrived to disguise my hand, and writing an anonymous paper, I put it at night under the door of the printing house. It was found in the morning, and communicated to his writing friends when they called in as usual. They read it, commented on it in my hearing, and I had the exquisite pleasure of finding it had met with their approbation, and that in their different guesses at the author none were named but men of some character among us for learning and ingenuity. I suppose that I was rather lucky in my judges, and they were not really so very good as I then believed them. to be.

"Encouraged, however, by this attempt, I wrote and sent in the same way to the press several other pieces, that were equally approved, and I kept my secret till all my fund of sense for such performances was exhausted, and then discovered it, when I began to be considered with a little more attention by my brother's acquaintances."

This discovery of his talents as a journal writer, exercised a very important influence over the immediate, and perhaps ultimate destiny of Franklin. The consideration he received at the hands of his brother's friends, had a tendency to upturn the strict relations his brother sought to maintain between them as master and indentured apprentice. Whilst the

master on his part manifested a peevishness and authority ill becoming a near relative and employer, Franklin, beyond doubt, arrogated somewhat more to himself than he was justly entitled to claim, by reason of the possession of his imagined superior mental qualifications. This led to frequent altercations, the infliction of occasional punishments, and the final determination of the apprentice to leave his master's employ-which his brother, by cancelling his indentures, in order to enable him to appear as the conductor of the newspaper carried on by himself, but which the Government had taken umbrage at, and ordered him to discontinue-enabled him to accomplish. Franklin, with that candor which characterizes his entire personal narration, confesses that he was not justified in this step, and styles it in true printer's phrase, "the first errata" of his life.

Unable to obtain employment in his native town on account of the representations made of him by his brother, and fearing lest if he attempted openly to leave, he might be prevented by his father and brother, he managed through the intervention of his friend Collins, to leave clandestinely, in a vessel bound for New York, under the pretence that he had "had an intrigue with a female of bad character," whose parents would compel him to marry her if his intended departure was discovered. At New York he met with no better success, but was told by the only printer there, at that period, that his son, who resided at Philadelphia, had recently lost his most valuable workman, and that he would doubtless employ him. Franklin accordingly left New York, and after a series of mishaps was landed at Market street wharf in Phil