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ly neglected, he became himself the object of many civilities, which not only ripened into various lasting personal friendships, but helped to prepare the way for that rapid development of public esteem and confidence, which, not very long after, became so universal and so conspicuous. Of the personal friends, whom his stay of not quite three months in Burlington, on this occasion, enabled him to count among his acquisitions, he has mentioned the names of several. Among them, besides various members of the Assembly, with whom his employment brought him into contact, were also the provincial secretary Samuel Bustill, one of the provincial judges by the name of Allen, and Isaac Ducrow the surveyor-general. "The last named person," says Franklin, "was a shrewd, sagacious old man, who told me that he began for himself, when young, by wheeling clay for the brick-makers; 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." Franklin adds that, without having said a word in relation to his own plans, Ducrow remarked to him: "I foresee that you will soon work this man [Keimer] out of his business, and make a fortune in it, at Philadelphia.”

Such were some of the fruits, which the good sense and discretion, the information which had been so assiduously accumulated, and the conciliating manners of a young man but twenty-one years of age, enabled him to gather, in less than three months, in a place where he was previously a stranger, and while working as a trades

man.

ENTRANCE UPON MANHOOD.

133

CHAPTER XIII.

HIS ENTRANCE UPON MANHOOD HIS

PRINCIPLES AND

CHARACTER-NEW ASSOCIATIONS.

FRANKLIN had now reached a stage in the journey of life of deeper interest, and involving cares of a wider range, and graver character than any he had yet encountered. The laws of the land, taking their rule from the statutes of nature, would no longer look upon him as under the guardianship or control of others. Thenceforward they would treat him as a man of full age, himself alone amenable for his conduct in whatever relations he might assume; and he was about to embark in business, not as a servant working for fixed wages, and comparatively exempt from the anxieties of forethought and accountability, but as himself a master and the employer of others, taking his place in the community as one of its members, with the serious responsibilities of life pressing directly upon him.

In his autobiography, when, long years after, he is looking back upon this important stage in his career, he presents an outline of his own character so far as it was then developed, and of the principles and opinions, with which he was about to commence manhood, conduct his private affairs, and perform his part as a member of society. This general estimate of himself, and of his moral condition, with the glance he gives at the history of his opinions and way of thinking on moral and religious sub

jects, is instructive as showing how early and to what an unusual degree he had cultivated the habit of self examination, and how assiduously he had labored to settle his views on points of such weighty concern to every person, who has not forgotten that he is an accountable being; and as showing, also, notwithstanding grave errors and defects, how sincerely he sought for truth, and aimed to act toward his fellow-men, according to the requirements of justice, and the dictates of benevolence.

This account of himself will be best given chiefly in his own words, not merely for the sake of accuracy and the livelier interest they will impart to the subject, but · also for the sake of justice; inasmuch as the frank honesty with which it is rendered, and his faults are recorded, is not only praiseworthy in itself, but formed one of the most salient and beautiful features of his character; and if candidly considered in connection with the tone of confession and self-censure which pervades the statement, will, it is believed, satisfy every fair-minded reader, that his errors of opinion were not the result of a perverse and intractable temper, or unteachable spirit, but the errors of an ingenuous youth, whose consciousness of mental power had been naturally exalted to over-confidence, by his obvious superiority to most of those with whom he had yet had an opportunity to measure himself; and that in the midst of mistakes he did not obstinately shut his mind against more enlightened convictions, but was ready cheerfully to receive truth, as well as eager to find it.

The exhibition, even of the errors, whether of opinion or conduct, of a man of so honest and frank a spirit, can hardly fail to be profitable, both for warning and imitation; especially, when, as in this instance, subsequent and wider observation of human life, and a richer experience,

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led him, on fuller reflection and in the maturity of his faculties, to detect such errors and renounce them.

"Before I enter upon my public appearance in business," says he to his son, to whom his narrative is addressed, "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 they 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, said to be the substance of sermons which had been preached at Boyle's lectures. It happened 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 Keith's conduct toward me [he was another freethinker], and my own toward Vernon and Miss Read, which at times gave me great [mental] trouble-I began to suspect that this doctrine, though it might be true, was not very useful."

He then adverts to the pamphlet, which, as heretofore noticed, he wrote while working as a journeyman printer in London. In that pamphlet, taking for his sole premises God's infinite wisdom, goodness, and power, but wholly overlooking man's free agency, he had nevertheless extended his argument, not only to the works of creation and the ordinances of Providence, but to all human action also; that is, though taking for his premises

the attributes of the Deity only, yet embracing in his argument not only what the Deity does, but what man does also, he drew the sweeping conclusion that there can not possibly be anything wrong in the world; that virtue and vice are only empty names, having no real existence; and that, not merely in the works and government of God, but in human conduct also, "whatever is, is right."

Such was the scope of that crude performance. Of its fallacies, however, he soon became aware. Even before commencing business with Meredith, in less than two years after it was written, its acuteness and cogency had, as he freely confesses, dwindled exceedingly in his own eyes; and after a passing remark upon the unsatisfactory nature of all metaphysical reasoning on such topics, he proceeds as follows:

"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 framed written resolutions, which still remain in my journal-book, to practise them ever while I lived. Revelation had, indeed, no weight with me, as such; but I entertained an opinion that, although certain actions might not be bad, because they were forbidden by it, or good, because it commanded them, yet probably those actions might be forbidden because they were bad for us, or commanded because they were beneficial to us, in their own nature, all circumstances considered."

The sentiment avowed in the forepart of the passage just cited, is worthy of all commendation, and the resolutions mentioned were well fulfilled through a long and honorable life. And the view, expressed in the latter portion of the same passage, of the ground of moral obligation, however defective in itself, is clearly better than the doctrine of the pamphlet; for it admits the reality of the distinction between right and wrong, as well as the

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