There are in every country morofe beings, who are always prognofticating ruin. There was one of this stamp at Philadelphia. He was a man of fortune, declined in years, had an air of wisdom, and a very grave manner of speaking. His name was Samuel Mickle. I knew him not; but he ftopped one day at my door, and asked me if I was the young man who had lately opened a new printing-houfe. Upon my answering in the affirmative, he said that he was very forry for me, as it was an extensive undertaking, and the money that had been laid out upon it would be loft, Philadelphia being a place falling into decay; its inhabitants having all, or nearly all of them, been obliged to call together their creditors. That he knew, from undoubted fact, the circumftances which might lead us to fuppofe the contrary, fuch as new buildings, and the advanced price of rent, to be deceitful appearances, which in reality contributed to haften the general ruin; and he gave me fo long a detail of misfortunes, actually exifting, or which were foon to take place, that he left me almost in a state of despair. Had I known this man before I entered into trade, I fhould doubtlefs never have ventured. He continued however to live in this place of decay, and to declaim in the fame ftyle, refufing for many years to buy a house, becaufe all was going to wreck; and in the end I had the fatisfaction to fee him pay five times as much for one as it would have coft him had he purchafed it when he firft began his lamentations.

I ought to have related, that, during the autumn of the preceding year, I had united the majority of well-informed perfons of my acquaintance into a club, which we called by the name of the Junto, and the object of which was to improve our understanding. We met every Friday even

ing.

ing. The regulations I drew up, obliged every member to propofe, in his turn, one or more questions upon fome point of morality, politics or philofophy, which were to be difcuffed by the fociety; and to read, once in three months, an effay of his own compofition, on whatever fubject he pleafed. Our debates were under the direction of a prefident, and were to be dictated only by a fincere defire of truth; the pleasure of difputing, and the vanity of triumph having no share in the business; and in order to prevent undue warmth, every expreffion which implied obftinate adherence to an opinion, and all direct contradiction, were prohibited, under fmall pecuniary penalties. The firft members of our club were Jofeph Breintal, whofe occupation was that of a scrivener. He was a middle-aged man, of a good na tural difpofition, ftrongly attached to his friends, a great lover of poetry, reading every thing that came in his way, and writing tolerably well, ingenious in many little trifles, and of an agreeable converfation.

Thomas Godfrey, a fkilful, though felf-taught mathematician, and who was afterwards the inventor of what now goes by the name of Hadley's dial; but he had little knowledge out of his own line, and was infupportable in company, always requiring, like the majority of mathematicians that have fallen in my way, an unusual precifion in every thing that is faid, continually contradicting, or making trifling diftinctions; a fure way of defeating all the ends of converfation. He very foon left us.

Nicholas Scull, a furveyor, and who became afterwards furveyor-general. He was fond of books, and wrote verfes.

William Parfons, brought up to the trade of а fhoe-maker, but who, having a taste for read

ing, had acquired a profound knowledge of mathematics. He firft ftudied them with a view to aftrology, and was afterwards the first to laugh at his folly. He also became furveyor-general. William Mawgridge, a joiner, and very excellent mechanic; and in other refpects a man of folid understanding.

Hugh Meredith, Stephen Potts, and George Webb, of whom I have already spoken.

Robert Grace, a young man of fortune; generous, animated, and witty; fond of epigrams, but more fond of his friends.

And laftly, William Coleman, at that time a merchant's clerk, and nearly of my own age. He had a cooler and clearer head, a better heart, and more fcrupulous morals, than almoft any other perfon I have ever met with. He became a very refpectable merchant, and one of our provincial judges. Our friendship fubfifted, without interruption, for more than forty years, till the period of his death; and the club continued to exist almost as long.

This was the beft fchool of politics and philofophy that then existed in the province; for our queftions, which were read a week previous to their difcuffion, induced us to peruse attentively fuch books as were written upon the fubjects propofed, that we might be able to speak upon them more pertinently. We thus acquired the habit of converfing more agreeably; every object being difcuffed conformably to our regulations, and in a manner to prevent mutual difguft. To this circumftance may be attributed the long duration of the club; which I fhall have frequent occafion to mention as I proceed.

I have introduced it here, as being one of the means on which I had to count for fuccefs in my bufinefs; every member exerting himself to proG

cure

*

cure work for us. Breintnal, among others, obtained for us, on the part of the Quakers, the printing of forty fheets of their hiftory; of which the reft was to be done by Keimer. Our execution of this work was by no means mafterly; as the price was very low. It was in folio, upon pro patria paper, and in the pica letter, with heavy notes in the fmalleft type. I compofed a fheet a day, and Meredith put it to the prefs. It was frequently eleven o'clock at night, fometimes later, before I had finished my diftribution for the next day's task; for the little things which our friends occafionally fent us, kept us back in this work: but I was fo determined to compofe a fheet a day, that one evening, when my form was impofed, and my day's work, as I thought, at an end, an accident having broken this form, and deranged two complete folio pages, I imme diately diftributed, and compofed them anew before I went to bed.

This unwearied induftry, which was perceived by our neighbours, began to acquire us reputation and credit. I learned, among other things, that our new printing-house being the fubject of converfation at a club of merchants, who met every evening, it was the general opinion that it would fail; there being already two printinghoufes in the town, Keimer's and Bradford's. But Dr. Bard, whom you and I had occafion to fee, many years after, at his native town of St. Andrew's in Scotland, was of a different opinion. "The industry of this Franklin (faid he) is fu"perior to any thing of the kind I have ever wit"neffed. I fee him ftill at work when I return "from the club at night, and he is at it again in "the morning before his neighbours are out of "bed." This account ftruck the reft of the affembly, and fhortly after one of its members came to

our

our house, and offered to fupply us with articles of ftationary; but we wifhed not as yet to embarrafs ourfelves with keeping a fhop. It is not for the fake of applaufe that I enter fo freely into the particulars of my induftry, but fuch of my defcendants as fhall read thefe memoirs may know the use of this virtue, by feeing in the recital of my life the effects it operated in my favour.

George Webb, having found a friend who lent him the neceffary fum to buy out his time of Keimer, came one day to offer himself to us as a journeyman. We could not employ him immediately; but I foolishly told him, under the rofe, that I intended fhortly to publifh a new periodical paper, and that we fhould then have work for him. My hopes of fuccefs, which I imparted to him, were founded on the circumftance, that the only paper we had in Philadelphia at that time, and which Bradford printed, was a paltry thing, miferably conducted, in no refpect amufing, and which yet was profitable. I confequently fuppofed that a good work of this kind could not fail of fuccefs. Webb betrayed my fecret to Keimer, who, to prevent me, immediately publifhed the profpectus of a paper that he intended to inftitute himself, and in which Webb was to be engaged.

I was exafperated at this proceeding, and, with a view to counteract them, not being able at prefent to institute my own paper, I wrote fome humorous pieces in Bradford's, under the title of the Bufy Body*; and which was continued for feveral months by Breintnal. I hereby fixed the attention of the public upon Bradford's paper; and the profpectus of Keimer, which we turned

* A manufcript note in the file of the American Mercury, preferved in the Philadelphia library, fays, that Franklin wrote the first five numbers, and part of the eight.