the criminals forsook their evil ways. They showed him their letters of impunity: no matter; he estimated these at their just value, namely, as so many pieces of waste paper. Being dismissed without absolution, and without admission to the sacraments, the deluded purchasers complained to Tetzel, who bellowed and threatened; but Luther was undaunted: he openly preached against the pernicious traffic; he attacked the very foundation on which it rested; he denied the power of pope or Church to remit the guilt of sin; and by his famous propositions, as everybody knows, rapidly produced the most gigantic change effected in this world since the origin of Christianity."

The preaching of Luther, in exposing the error of indulgences, and in calling in question various traditional tenets and practices, speedily roused a large part of Germany; and as no symptom of relenting was shown by those in power, an extensive secession from the Romish Church became unavoidable. The year 1521 is to be regarded as the epoch of the Reformation in Germany; and from this period it became a political as well as religious movement-in a word, a movement in favour of civil and religious freedom. In consequence of a general protest being signed by the reforming party against a decree of the Diet of Spires, in 1529, they received, in 1541, the name of Protestants. Eleven years earlier, in 1530, a declaration of the principles of the reformers, drawn up by Melancthon, was presented to the Emperor of Germany at a diet held at Augsburg, and there solemnly read before the assembly; this famous declaration is known in history as the Confession of Augsburg. The Reformation spread from country to country with singular rapidity: the ancient church was deposed and one of a reformed character established in its place-in Switzerland and Geneva in 1535; in Sweden and Denmark in 1536; in England in 1547; and in Scodat. in 1560. In Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France, the efforts of the reformers were less successful, and in these countries the Roman Catholic Church has been established, or at least popular, till the present day.

CONCLUDING SUMMARY.

Christianity now exists, in one or other of its various forms, in all civilized countries, and numbers, as is believed, 260,000,000, out of 900,000,000, the entire population of the globe. Although originating in Asia, and flourishing for some time in the adjacent regions of northern Africa (Church of Alexandria, for example), it prevails only to a small extent in these continents, and is principally confined to Europe and the countries which have been peopled by European emigrants. Everywhere, it is the religion of civilized man, no other creed or form of belief being at all suitable to an advanced intelligence, or so directly calculated to inspire sentiments of refined piety, humanity, and justice. In the hands of uninstructed, ambitious, and intolerant men, its history abounds in the most odious crimes; but latterly, as its professors have fallen under the influence of a civilization to which it has itself largely contributed, and as the true principles of the Gospel have been better understood, our religion has not been outraged by indecent excesses either at home or abroad; while, by the earnest but unostentatious efforts of its supporters, of various denominations, it has been made favourably known in the most remote parts of the earth.

The forms in which Christianity is professed are very numerous, but the whole are comprehended in three leading systems-the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Churches, and the Protestant or Reformed Churches.†

With but one exception, all acknowledge the doctrine of the Trinity, the fall of man, salvation by the expiatory death of Christ, the resurrection, and a state of final rewards and punishments. Differences on other matters may be traced to two distinct causes of controversy 1. Whether the rule of faith and practice is absolutely confined to the Holy Scriptures, or embraces a traditional revelation, sanctioned by councils and cherished by the

the decisions of the Council of Trent (terminated 1563). Ac cording to these decisions, the Romish creed embraces the foltraditions; that the Holy Scriptures form only a part of revelalowing points:-An admission of apostolical and ecclesiastical tion, and are to be interpreted only according to the sense in which they are held by the Church: that there are seven sacraments, necessary for the salvation of mankind, though not for every one-baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, extreme unction, clerical orders, and matrimony; that in the mass living and the dead; and that in the holy sacrament of the there is offered a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the eucharist, there is really, truly, and substantially, the body and the blood, together with the soul and divinity, of Christ (transubstantiation); that there is a place of purgation, or purgatory, into which souls proceed after death; that the saints, reigning together with Christ, are to be honoured and invoked; that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their relics are to be had in veneration that the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and also of the other saints, ought to be had and retained, and that due honour and veneration are to be given to them; that the power of indulgences was left by Christ to the Church, and that the use of them is most wholesome to the Christian pe: ple; that the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church is the mother of all churches, and that out of the Catholic faith none can be saved. To these principal matters of belief are added-the efficacy of prayers for the dead; auricular confession; celibacy of the clergy: the use of Latin in the public ministrations; signing with the cross; the rosary as an implement of devotion, &c. The Roman Catholic Church is an episcopacy, or government by a hierarchy of bishops. The supreme control rests in the pope and his council at Rome, and thence radiates a system of management. most complete and effective, over all parts of Christendom. The church includes three distinci orders of clergy-bishops, priests and deacons; all others, such as cardinals (popes expectant), archbishops, deans, vicars, &c., belonging to one or other of these classes. The church claims the mark of true apostolicity, that is, an unbroken line of descent priests is the engrafting them into this apostolic line of succes from the apostles and their divine Master. The ordination of sion. Bishops alone ordain or communicate holy orders. In no church is the ritual of public worship so highly adorned, or rendered more imposing, by the dresses of the officiating priests, the waving of censers, crucifixes, pictures, images, and music. Although celebrated in an unknown tongue, it is observable that the public worship excites the greatest appearance of attention and decorum, as well as all the outward demonstrations of piety. The influence of the devotional feelings is said to be the object aimed at by the various outward insignia; the church (if we understand the argument) holding it to be of equal consequence whether the heart is touched, and feelings of piety and veneration are excited, by the exhibition of a crucifix or the preaching of a sermon. The Roman Catholic Church, though now only a remnant of its former self, is still the most numerous of the various Christian bodies: it Mediteranean islands, Spain, Portugal, the greater part of the includes within its pale, France, Belgium, Poland, Italy, the people of Austria and Ireland; about a half of the Prussians and Swiss, and the inhabitants of various German states: large numbers in the South American states and Mexico; also a part of the population of the United States, and nearly all the Lower Canadians; and a considerable number of the inhabitants of England and Scotland, besides those of inferior countries. Altogether the number of Roman Catholics is said to amount to 139,000,000.

and several of a subordinate rank:-1. The Constantinopolitan or Orthodox Greek Church, comprising all who acknowledge the supremacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople. 2. The tue of an ordinance of Peter the Great, in 1700, was constituted Russian Greek Church, which prevails over Russia, and in virthe national church, having for its head the Russian emperor; Byzantine or Monosphyte Churches, which have renounced it is governed by a council at St. Petersburgh. 3. The Ant communion both with the Constantinopolitan Church and Church of Rome, and differ from both in doctrine and ritual: these churches include the Syrian, Coptic. Abyssinian. Nestorian, Indo-Syrian, and Armenian Christians. 4. The Greek and other Eastern Christians, including the Maronites in Syria, who are in communion with the Church of Rome. The whole of these Eastern Churches are said to include 62,000,000 of members.

The Eastern Church is divided into four leading communions,

The

Whatever be their peculiar differences, all recognise two sources of doctrine, the Holy Scriptures and Tradition, and are hierarchial episcopates in their form of government. church service is in Greek. The rites and ceremonies of the Greek church are exceedingly numerous, trivial, and burdensome. In all the services, except the communion, prayers and adorations are offered to the Virgin (styled the Panagia, allholy), or to some of the multitudinous saints of the Greek calendar, almost as often as to the Deity. Every day in the year is consecrated to some saint, frequently to more than one; and every day of the week is appropriated in the church service ta

church? 2. And who has the right to interpret the rule of faith-the church or individuals? On the exact determination of these points, rests a complex series of divisions, which at present appear to be as far from settlement to the mutual satisfaction of parties, as they were

some pecuniar object of adoration "-Conder. This church does not resist the circulation of the Scriptures, and its clergy may be married men.

The Protestant Churches are either those which split off from the Church of Rome at the Reformation, or others which have since sprung from the reformed bodies. Protestantism owns two fundamental principles-that the Bible contains the sole rule of faith, and that it is the right of every one without respect of person, to judge of that rule with all the aids which divine grace, reason, and conscience, can inspire. At the same time, it may be noticed, that generally in practice each church possesses certain standards of belief to which it is expected its members will adhere. Rejecting traditional revelation and the decrees of all councils but those of an early date, Protestants admit only two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's supper. They reject transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the mass; deny the lawfulness of monastic vows, the holiness of celibacy, the merit of good works, the virtue of indulgences, the invocation of saints; reject the worship of images, auricular confession, extreme unction, purgatory, prayers for the dead, and the spiritual authority of the pope. Protestantism exists in three main divisions-Lutherans, Arminians, and Calvinists each differing from the other in certain points of faith and church government; but there are, besides, innumerable sects which cannot be included in these bodies-as, for example, Quakers. or the Society of Friends, who reject the lawfulness of clerical functionaries, and disapprove of the sacraments and all ordinary forms of public worship-Baptists, a numerous body, with recognised pastors, who possess a very simple form of church government, repudiate infant baptism, and maintain the pecessity of the baptism or immersion of adult believers-Moravians, a large and unobtrusive body, who. among other good qualities. display extraordinary ardour in the prosecution of missionary labours Methodists, a numerous body in England, chiefly distinguished for their devotional fervour, the reformation of manners, and the instruction of the young in religious duties by means of Sunday-schools-and Unitarians, an intelligent and respectable body, but differing widely in doctrine from all other classes of Christians: who maintain, as their name imports, the absolute unity of God, in opposition to the doctrine of the Trinity, acknowledge no fixed creed or standard of faith except the Bible, and reject the doctrine of original sin, the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, and the eternity of future punishments. Unitarianism has made considerable progress in America during the last half century; and possesses a number of churches in Britain, Ireland, Geneva, Germany, and other parts of Christendom.

The total number of Protestants of all churches and sects is believed to be about 60,000,000. Protestantism is professed in two chief forms-Episcopacy, or the government of the church by bishops, whose spiritual authority is derived from the apostles through the efficacy of ordination, both before and since the Reformation; and Presbytery, which rejects a hierarchy of bishops, and admits only the government of the church by a body of ministers ail equal in rank. The body called Independents, or Congregationalists, only admit of each church being governed by its own members, on a primitive and simple model. At the head of the Protest

in the sixteenth century; and we may rationally con clude, that, humanly speaking, little or no advance to reconciliation an be effected, till education has dispelled the mists of prejudice, and enabled men to perceive and judge of abstract matters more equably.

ant Episcopal churches may be placed the Church of England, whose doctrines are contained in the well-known Thirty-Nine Articles and in the Book of Common Prayer. The Church of England has for its basis a denial of the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, and rejects the doctrine of purgatory, the doctrines concerning indulgences and pardons, the worship or veneration of images and relics, the invocation of saints, the sacraments of confirmation, penance, orders, matrimony, and extreme unction, transubstantiation, and the sacrifice of 34 mass. It retains confirmation as a religious ceremonial, ordination to the priestly office, the sign of the cross in baptism, burial service, kneeling at the communion, absolution of the sick. the whole hierarchical routine of officials-bishops. priests, deacons, prebends, archdeacons, rectors, vicars. &c.. and nume rous fasts and festivals. In its calendar affixed to the Book of Common Prayer, there are retained the names of about seventy saints of the middle ages, such as Hilary, Prisca, Valentine, Dunstan, &c. Practically, the church pays no attention to these, or to most of the authorized fasts, festivals, vigils, &c.

According to law, the reigning sovereign, whether king or queen, is the head of the church, and has the appointment of its bishops, who hold the dignity of spiritual peers, and are members of the legislature. From its strict connection with the state, the Church of England labours under the misfortune of possessing no power in itself to amend its formularies, which consequently remain what they were in the reign of Edward VI., yet this great disadvantage is felt to be comparatively unimportant, on account of the extraordinary beauty and simplicity of the language of the prayers and litanies, as well as the elementary nature of the whole service, which admits of no alteration by officiating ministers. Latterly, a number of its clergy have manifested a strong desire to restore many forgot ten ante-Reformation usages in the Church service-a circumstance which has given much offence to those of moderate views. Both in the United States of America and in Scotland, there are Episcopal communions deriving ordination from the Church of England, and having the same forms of worship. The Scotch Episcopal communion, in which the bishops officiate as ministers of congregations, and which is altogether depen dent on the contributions of its adherents, is acknowledged to present the purest model of the Episcopacy which prevailed in the early ages of the Church.

Presbyterianism is established in Scotland, Holland. and some of the Swiss Cantons, and exists to a large extent in North America. Presbyterians generally follow the doctrines of John Calvin, rejecting the use of crucifixes, the sign of the cross, altars, liturgies, &c., and recognising no saints' days. Christmas and Easter are recognised by Presbyterians in Holland, but not by those in Scotland. The clergy, being equal in rank, are governed by provincial and general courts, consti tuted from their own body. Scotland possesses a numerous body of Presbyterian dissenters or seceders from the establish ment; and, latterly, these have added to former causes of dif ference, by declaring their hostility to all connection between Church and State, and that Christianity, as was the case prior to the era of Constantine, should be entirely independent of civil government, and ts ministers supported exclusively by voluntary contributions

PARENTAGE AND BOYHOOD.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born at Boston, in New England, North America, on the 17th of January, 1706, and was the youngest but two of a family of seventeen children, two daughters being born after him. His ancestors, as far as they can be traced back (at least three hundred years), were petty freeholders at Eaton, in Northamptonshire; but if we may judge by the surname of the family-the ancient Norman appellative for a country gentleman-we may conclude they had originally been of some consequence. After the Reformation, the immediate progenitors of Benjamin continued zealously attached to the Church of England till towards the close of the reign of Charles the Second, when his father Josias, along with his uncle Benjamin, became dissenters. These men were both bred to the trade of silk-dyeing. Josias married early in life; and about the year 1682 he emigrated, with his wife and three children, to America, on account of the persecutions to which he was exposed for his dissenting principles. On arriving in New England, he embraced the occupations of soap-boiler and tallow-chandler, of which businesses he previously knew nothing, but only from their being at the time the likeliest to provide maintenance for his increasing family. He appears to have been a man of great penetration and solid judgment; prudent, active, and frugal; and although kept in comparative poverty by the expenses of his numerous family, was held in great esteem by his townsmen. In no respect was his practical good sense more conspicuous than in the education of his children; and his illustrious son frequently alludes, in terms of thankfulness and gratitude, to the many exemplary precepts and sound moral lessons he received while under the paternal roof. The following passage may be read with no little instruction by the heads and members of all families similarly circumstanced:-"He was fond of having at his table, as often as possible, some friends, or well-informed neighbours, capable of rational conversation; and he was always careful to introduce useful or ingenious topics of discourse, which might tend to form the minds of his children. By this means he early attracted our attention to what was just, prudent, and beneficial in the conduct of life. He never talked of the

'meats which appeared on the table; never discussed whether they were well or il dressed, of a good or bad flavour, high-seasoned or otherwise, preferable or inferior to this or that dish of a similar kind. Thus accustomed from my infancy to the utmost inattention to these objects, I have since been perfectly regardless of what kind of food was before me; and I pay so little attention to it even now, that it would be a hard matter for me to recollect, a few hours after I had dined, of what my din ner had consisted. When travelling, I have particularly experienced the benefit of this habit; for it has often happened to me to be in company with persons, who, having a more delicate because a more exercised taste, have suffered in many cases considerable inconvenience; while, as to myself, I have had nothing to desire." Benjamin was at first designed to be a clergyman, and at eight years of age was put to the grammar-school with that view, having previously been taught to read. His uncle Benjamin, who had likewise emigrated, encou raged this project. This individual appears to have been an equally eccentric and ingenious man. He cultivated the Muses with a success that gave himself, at least, entire satisfaction. But what he was most proud of was a species of short-hand of his own invention, wherewith he had carried off from the conventicles in England several volumes of sermons whole and entire ; and these he designed for his nephew's stock in trade, when he should set up as preacher. But young Franklin had not been a year at school when his father perceived that his circumstances were quite inadequate to the expenses necessary to complete his son's education for the clerical profession. He accordingly removed him from the more learned seminary, and placed him under an humbler teacher of reading and writing for another twelvemonth, preparatory to binding him to some handicraft trade.

APPRENTICESHIP.

When his term at school was expired, being then ten years of age, he was taken home to assist his father in his business; but he soon testified such repugnance to the cutting of wicks for candles, running errands, waiting in the shop, with other drudgery of the same nature, that, after a tedious and ill-borne trial of two years, his father became afraid of his running off to sea (for which he confesses to have had a predilection), as an elder brother had done, and resolved to put him to some other occupation. After much deliberation, therefore, he was sent on trial for a few days to his cousin (a son of Benjamin), who was a cutler; but that relative being desirous of a larger apprenticeship-fee than his uncle could spare, he was recalled. His brother James, a short time previous to this period, had returned from England, whither he had been sent to learn the printing business, and set up a press and types on his own account at Boston. To him, therefore, after no little persuasion, Benjamin at last agreed to become apprentice, and he was indentured accordingly for the term of nine years; that is, until he should reach the age of twenty-one.

The choice of this profession, as it turned out, was a lucky one; and it was made after much careful and correct observation on the part of the parent. He had watched his son's increasing fondness for books, and thirst for information, and that, too, of a solid and instructive sort; and he therefore judiciously resolved to place him in a favourable situation for gratifying this propensity in the youthful mind; while he would, at the same time, be instructed in a profession by which he

could always independently maintain himself, in whatever quarter his fortunes might lead him, within the bounds of the civilized world. Franklin thus speaks of his early and insatiable craving after knowledge :

From my earliest years I had been passionately fond of reading, and I laid out in books all the money I could procure. I was particularly pleased with accounts of voyages. My first acquisition was Bunyan's collection, in small separate volumes. These I afterwards sold, in order to buy an historical collection by R. Burton, which consisted of small cheap volumes, amounting in all to about forty or fifty. My father's little library was principally made up of books of practical and polemical theology. I read the greatest part of them. There was also among my father's books Plutarch's Lives, in which I read continually, and I still regard as advantageously employed the time devoted to them. I found, besides, a work of De Foe's, entitled An Essay on Projects, from which, perhaps, I derived impressions that have since influenced some of the principal events of my life." It seems to have been lucky for himself and mankind that the last-named author's most celebrated work, Robinson Crusoe, did not fall into his hands at this period.

By his assiduity Franklin soon attained great proficiency in his business, and became very serviceable to his brother. At the same time, he formed acquaintance with various booksellers' apprentices, by whose furtive assistance he was enabled to extend the sphere of his reading. This gratification, however, was for the most part enjoyed at the expense of his natural rest. How often," says he, "has it happened to me to pass the greater part of the night in reading by my bedside, when the book had been lent me in the evening, and was to be returned the next morning, lest it might be missed or wanted!" His studious habits and intelligent conversation also attracted the notice of a wealthy merchant who was in the habit of coming about the office, who invited him to his house and gave him the use of an excellent library.

It is a singular peculiarity of all minds of an active and aspiring character, that they uniformly endeavour to do whatever others have done, and from which they themselves have derived enjoyment or benefit. Franklin, from the delight he took in the perusal of books, at last bethought him of trying his own hand at composition; and as has happened, we believe, with a great proportion of literary men of all ages, his first efforts were of a poetical nature. His brother, having come to the knowledge of his attempts, encouraged him to proceed, thinking such a talent might prove useful in the establishment. At the suggestion of the latter, therefore, he finished two ballads, which, after being printed, he was sent round the town to sell; and one of them, the subject of which was a recent affecting shipwreck, had, he says, a prodigious run. But his father having heard of the circumstance, soon let down the pegs of the young poet's vanity, by analyzing his verses before him in a most unmerciful style, and demonstrating, as Franklin says, what "wretched stuff they really were." This sharp lesson, which concluded with a warning that versifiers were almost uniformly beggars, effectually weaned him from his rhyming propensities.

Franklin immediately afterwards betook himself to the composition of prose, and the first opportunity of exercising his pen and his faculties in this way occurred in the following manner:-He had a young acquaintance of the name of Collins, who was like himself passionately fond of books, and with whom he had frequent and long arguments on various subjects. In narrating this circumstance, Franklin comments, in passing, on the dangerous consequences of acquiring a disputatious habit, as tending to generate acrimony and discord in society, and often hatred between the best of friends. He dismisses the subject with the following singular enough

observation:-"I have since remarked, that men of sense seldom fall into this error-lawyers, fellows of universities, and persons of every profession educated at Edinburgh, excepted!" But to proceed: Franklin and his companion having as usual got into an argument one day, which was maintained on both sides with equal pertinacity, they parted without bringing it to a termination. and as they were to be separated for some time, an agreement was made that they should carry on their dispute by letter. This was accordingly done; when, after the interchange of several epistles, the whole correspondence happened to fall into the hands of Franklin's father. After perusing it with much interest, his natural acuteness and good sense enabled him to point out to his son how inferior he was to his adversary in elegance of expression, arrangement, and perspicuity. Feeling the justice of his parent's remarks, he forthwith studied most anxiously to improve his style; and the plan he adopted for this purpose is equally interesting and in structive.

"Amidst these resolves," he says, " an odd volume of the Spectator fell into my hands. This was a publication I had never seen. I bought the volume, and read it again and again. I was enchanted with it, thought the style excellent, and wished it were in my power to imitate it. With this view I selected some of the papers, made short summaries of the sense of each period, and put them for a few days aside. I then, without looking at the book, endeavoured to restore the essays to their due form, and to express each thought at length, as it was in the original, employing the most appropriate words that occurred to my mind. I afterwards compared my Spectator with the original. I perceived some faults, which I corrected; but I found that I chiefly wanted a fund of words, if I may so express myself, and a facility of recollecting and employing them, which I thought I should by that time have acquired, had I continued to make verses. The continual need of words of the same meaning, but of different lengths, for the measure, and of different sounds for the rhyme, would have obliged me to seek for a variety of synonyms, and have rendered me master of them. From this belief, I took some of the tales of the Spectator, and turned them into verse; and after a time, when I had sufficiently forgotten them, I again converted them into prose. Sometimes, also, I mingled my summaries together; and, a few weeks afterwards, endeavoured to arrange them in the best order, before I attempted to form the periods and complete the essays. This I did with a view of acquiring method in the arrangement of my thoughts. On comparing afterwards my performance with the original, many faults were apparent, which I corrected; but I had sometimes the satisfaction to think, that, in certain particulars of little importance, I had been fortunate enough to improve the order of the thought or style; and this encouraged me to hope that I should succeed in time in writing decently in the English language, which was one of the greatest objects of my ambition."

But it was not only by such rigorous self-imposed tasks that this extraordinary man, even at so early an age, endeavoured to chasten his mind, and make every animal propensity subservient to his sense of duty. He also began to exercise those acts of personal self-denial which the heyday of youth, the season for animal enjoyment, feels as the most intolerable of all restrictions. Having met with a work recommending a vegetable diet, he determined to adopt it. Finding, after some days' trial, that he was ridiculed by his fellow-boarders for his singularity, he proposed to his brother to take the half of what was now paid by that relative for his board, and therewith to maintain himself. No objection was, of course, made to such an arrangement; and he soon found that of what he received he was able to save one-half This," says he, "was a ne fund for the purchase of

books, and other advantages resulted to me from the plan. When my brother and his workmen left the printing-house to go to dinner, I remained behind; and despatching my frugal meal, which frequently consisted of a biscuit only, or a slice of bread and a bunch of raisins, or a bun from the pastry-cook's, with a glass of water, I had the rest of the time till their return for study; and my progress therein was proportioned to that clearness of ideas and quickness of conception which are the fruits of temperance in eating and drinking."

Another remarkable instance of the resolute way in which he set about making himself master of whatever acquirement he found more immediately necessary to him at the moment, is the following:-Having been put to the blush one day for his ignorance in the art of calculation, which he had twice failed to learn while at school, he procured a copy of Cocker's Arithmetic, and went through it all, making himself completely master of it before turning his mind to any thing else! He soon after, also, gained some little acquaintance with geometry, by perusing a work on navigation. He mentions, likewise, his reading about this time Locke's Essay on the Understanding, and the Art of Thinking, by Messrs. du Port Royal. Having found, in some essay on rhetoric and logic, a model of disputation after the manner of Socrates, which consists in drawing on your opponent, by insidious questions, into making admissions which militate against himself, he became excessively fond of it. he says, and practised it for some years with great success, but ultimately abandoned it, perceiving that it could be made as available to the cause of wrong as that of right, while the prime end of all argument was to convince or inform.

About three years after Franklin went to his apprenticeship, that is to say, in 1721, his brother began to print a newspaper, the second that was established in America, which he called the New England Courant: the one previously established was the Boston News Letter. The new publication brought the most of the literati of Boston about the printing-office, many of whom were contributors; and Franklin frequently heard them conversing about the various articles that appeared in its columns, and the approbation with which particular ones were received. He became ambitious to participate in this sort of fame; and having written out a paper, in a disguised hand, he slipped it under the door of the printingoffice, where it was found next morning, and submitted, as usual, to the critics when they assembled. "They read it," he says; "commented on it in my hearing; and I had the exquisite pleasure to find that it met with their approbation; and that in the various conjectures they made respecting the author, no one was mentioned who did not enjoy a high reputation in the country for talent and genius. I now supposed myself fortunate in my judges, and began to suspect that they were not such excellent writers as I had hitherto supposed them. Be this as it may, encouraged by this little adventure, I wrote and sent to press, in the same way, many other pieces which were equally approved-keeping the secret till my slender stock of information and knowledge for such performances was pretty completely exhausted." He then discovered himself, and had the satisfaction of finding he was treated with much more respect by his brother and his friends than heretofore.

ment with great spirit and ability. To avoid having it said that the elder brother was only screening himself behind one of his apprentices, Benjamin's indenture was delivered up to him discharged, and private indentures entered into for the remainder of his time. This underhand arrangement was proceeded in for several months, the paper continuing to be printed in Benjamin's name; but his brother having one day again broken out into one of his violent fits of passion, and struck him, he availed himself of his discharged indentures, well knowing that the others would never be produced against him, and gave up his employment. Franklin afterwards regretted his having taken so unfair an advantage of his brother's situation, and regarded it as one of the first errata of his life. His brother felt so exasperated on the occasion, that he went round all the printing-offices, and represented Benjamin in such a light that they all refused his services.

PROCEEDS TO PHILADELPHIA.

Finding he could get no employment in Boston, as well as that he was regarded with dislike by the government, he resolved to proceed to New York, the nearest town in which there was a printing-office. To raise sufficient funds for this purpose, he sold part of his library; and having eluded the vigilance of his parents, who were opposed to his intention, he secretly got on board of a vessel, and landed at New York on the third day after sailing.

Thus, at the age of seventeen, Franklin found himself three hundred miles from his native place, from which he was in some sort a runaway, without a friend, or recommendation to any one, and with very little money in his pocket. To complete his dilemma, he found, on applying, that the only printer then in the town could give him no employment. That person, however, recommended him to go to Philadelphia, where he had a son, who, he thought, would give him work; and he accordingly set off for that place. His journey was a most disastrous one both by water and land, and he frequently regretted leaving home so rashly. He reached his destination at last, however, and in a plight which certainly did not bode over-auspiciously for his future fortunes. His own graphic description of his condition and appearance, on his first entrance into Philadelphia, is at once interesting and amusing :

"I have entered into the particulars of my voyage, and shall in like manner describe my first entrance into this place, that you may be able to compare beginnings so unlikely with the figure I have since made. I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come by sea. I was covered with dirt; my pockets were filled with shirts and stockings; I was unacquainted with a single soul in the place, and knew not where to seek a lodging. Fatigued with walking, rowing, and having passed the night without sleep, I was extremely hungry, and all my money consisted of a Dutch dollar, and about a shilling's worth of coppers, which I gave to the boatmen for my passage. At first they refused it because I had rowed, but I insisted on them taking it. A man is sometimes more generous when he has little than when he has much money, probably because he is, in the first place, desirous of concealing his poverty.