ment, and steam was the constant theme of his discourse whenever he could prevail upon any one to listen to him. Upon one occa. sion he called upon a smith who had worked at his boat, and after dwelling some time upon his favorite topic, concluded with these prophetic words: Well, gentlemen, although I shall not live to see the time, you will, when steamboats will be preferred to all other means of conveyance, and especially for passengers; and they will be particularly useful in the navigation of the river Mis sissippi.' He then retired, when a person present observed, in a tone of deep sympathy, Poor fellow! what a pity he is crazy!' The predictions of the benefits which this country would derive from steam navigation are frequently referred to in his manuscript left to the library company." On the return from his unsuccessful sojourn in Europe, Fitch landed at Boston in a very needy and destitute condition. A relation, Colonel George King, of Sharon, Connecticut, hearing of his friendless situation, sent for and generously offered him a home under his own roof. Here he remained two or three years, and some time in 1796 went out to Kentucky, to obtain possession of some lands which he had purchased while surveying there. For this purpose, writs of ejectment were issued against those illegally occupying them; and just as a better day was dawning upon the career of this most singularly unfortunate man, he was seized with a fever of the country, and died. "In conformity to his wishes, he was buried on the shores of the Ohio, that he might repose 'where the song of the boatmen would enliven the stillness of his resting place, and the music of the steam engine sooth his spirit! What an idea!-yet how natural to the mind of an ardent projector, who had been so long devoted to one darling object, which it was not his destiny to accomplish!—and how touching is the sentiment found in his journal :-The day will come when some more powerful man will get fame and riches from my invention, but nobody will believe that poor John Fitch can do any thing worthy of attention!'" BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Birth.-Intended for the church.-Attends a common school.-Assists his father in the tallow chandlery.-Dislikes the business.-Tries the cutler's trade.Becomes an apprentice in his brother's printing-office.-Evinces great fondness for books.-Is allowed access to a gentleman's library.-Turns poet, and hawks his productions through the streets.-Rising vanity checked.-His friend Collins, and their discussions.-Meets with an odd volume of the Spectator.-Improvement in composition.-Economy, and new system of diet.Masters arithmetic, and studies navigation.-Secretly contributes to his brother's newspaper.-A discovery.-Is viewed as a person of some consequence. -Quarrels with his brother.-First error in life.-Privately leaves for New York.-Destitute condition.-Proceeds to Philadelphia.-Graphic description. -Enters into the printing-office of Keimer.-Makes a distinguished acquaintance.-Dines with Governor Keith.-Informs his parents of his situation.Goes out to England under the supposed patronage of the governor.-Disappointment and imposition.-Thrown upon his own resources, and works in London as a journeyman printer.-Writes a pamphlet.-Attracts the attention of literary men.-Frugality and temperance.-Sets an example.-A friend returning to Philadelphia, is engaged as his clerk.-Voyage.-Forms a plan for future conduct.-Arrival at Philadelphia.-Death of his friend.-Once more thrown upon the world.-Enters again into Keimer's service.-Franklin and Meredith set up a printing-office.-Industry.-Rising credit.-Thinks of establishing a new paper.-Treachery.-Its defeat.-Purchases Keimer's paper.→ Growing popularity.-Buys out his partner.-Opens a stationer's shop.-Marries.-Establishes the first American circulating library.-Publishes "Poor Richard's Almanac."-Studies languages.-Chosen clerk of the general assembly.-Appointed deputy postmaster.-Becomes interested in public affairs. -Suggests various public improvements.-Made an alderman.--Elected burgess to the general assembly.-Interesting electrical discoveries.-Draws down lightning from the clouds.-Increasing honors.-Becomes an eminent statesman.-Signs the declaration of independence.-Sent ambassador to the court of France.-Chosen president of the supreme executive council.-Character.Death.-Anecdotes. THE name we are now to mention is perhaps the most distinguished to be found in the annals of self-education. Of all those, at least, who, by their own efforts, and without any usurpation of the rights of others, have raised themselves to a high place in society, there is no one, as has been remarked, the close of whose history presents so great a contrast to its commencement as that of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. It fortunately happens, too, in his case, that we are in possession of abundant information as to the methods by which he contrived to surmount the many disadvantages of his original condition; to raise himself from the lowest poverty and obscurity to affluence and distinction; and, above all, in the absence of instructors, and of the ordinary helps to the acquisition of knowledge, to enrich himself so plentifully with the treasures of literature and science, as not only to be enabled to derive from that source the chief happiness of his life, but to succeed in placing himself high among the most famous writers and philosophers of his time. We shall avail ourselves, as liberally as our limits will permit, of the ample details, respecting the early part of his life especially, that have been given to the public, in order to present to the reader as full and distinct an account as possible of the successive steps of a progress so eminently worthy of being recorded, both from the interesting nature of the story, and from its value as an example and lesson, perhaps the most instructive to be anywhere found, for all who have to be either the architects of their own fortunes, or their own guides in the pursuit of knowledge. Franklin has himself told us the story of his early life inimitably well. The narrative is given in the form of a letter to his son; and does not appear to have been written originally with any view to publication." From the poverty and obscurity," he says, " in which I was born, and in which I passed my earliest years, I have raised myself to a state of affluence, and some degree of celebrity in the world. As constant good fortune has accompanied me, even to an advanced period of life, my posterity will perhaps be desirous of learning the means which I employed, and which, thanks to Providence, so well succeeded with me. They may also deem them fit to be imitated, should any of them find themselves in similar circumstances." It is not many years since this letter was, for the first time, given to the world by the grandson of the illustrious writer, only a small portion of it having previously appeared, and that merely a re-translation into English from a French version of the original manuscript which had been published at Paris. Franklin was born at Boston, on the 17th of January, 1706; the youngest, with the exception of two daughters, of a family of seventeen children. His father, who had emigrated from England about twenty-four years before, followed the occupation of a soapboiler and tallow-chandler, a business to which he had not been bred, and by which he seems with difficulty to have been able to support his numerous family. At first it was proposed to make Benjamin a clergyman; and he was accordingly, having before learned to read, put to the grammar-school at eight years of age; -an uncle, whose namesake he was, and who appears to have been an ingenious man, encouraging the project by offering to give him several volumes of sermons to set up with, which he had taken down, in a short-hand of his own invention, from the different preachers he had been in the habit of hearing. This person, who |