LIFE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, AUTOBIOGRAPHY.* CHAPTER I. Origin and Genealogy of his Family. His Birth. His Mother. — Employments in his Boyhood. Anecdote. Character of his Father. -Epitaph on his Father and Mother.— Fond of reading. Apprenticed to his Brother to learn the Printer's Trade.- Writes Ballads. Intimacy with Collins. Practises Composition.-Adopts a vegetable Diet. Studies the Socratic Method of Disputation. Concerned in publishing a Newspaper. — Disagrees with his Brother.- Leaves Boston and takes Passage in a Sloop for New York. I HAVE ever had a pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made among the remains of my relations, when you were with me in England, and the journey I undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to learn the circumstances of my life, many of which you are unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a few weeks' uninterrupted leisure, I sit down to write them. Besides, there are some other inducements that excite me to this *The first part of the Autobiography, constituting the first five Chapters of this edition, was written in the form of a letter to his son, William Franklin, then governor of New Jersey. It was begun while the author was on a visit to the family of the Bishop of St. Asaph, at Twyford, in the year 1771.- EDITOR. VOL. I. NO. 1. 1 A undertaking. From the poverty and obscurity 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. This good fortune, when I reflect on it, which is frequently the case, has induced me sometimes to say, that, if it were left to my choice, I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end; requesting only the advantage authors have of correcting in a second edition the faults of the first. So would I also wish to change some incidents of it, for others more favorable. Notwithstanding, if this condition was denied, I should still accept the offer of re-commencing the same life. But as this repetition is not to be expected, that, which resembles most living one's life over again, seems to be to recall all the circumstances of it; and, to render this remembrance more durable, to record them in writing. In thus employing myself I shall yield to the inclination, so natural to old men, of talking of themselves and their own actions; and I shall indulge it without being tiresome to those, who, from respect to my age, might conceive themselves obliged to listen to me, since they will be always free to read me or not. And, lastly, (I may as well confess it, as the denial of it would be believed by nobody,) I shall perhaps not a little gratify my own vanity. Indeed, I never heard or saw the introductory words, "Without vanity I may say," &c., but some vain thing immediately followed. |