From Boyhood to Manhood: Life of Benjamin Franklin

Part 1

FROM BOYHOOD TO MANHOOD

LIFE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

By William M. Thayer

Author of "From Farm House to White House," "From Log Cabin to White House," "From Pioneer Home to White House," "From Tannery to White House," etc., etc.

ILLUSTRATED

1889.

PREFACE

The life of Benjamin Franklin is stranger than fiction. Its realities surpass the idealities of novelists. Imagination would scarcely venture to portray such victories over poverty, obscurity, difficulties, and hardships. The tact, application, perseverance, and industry, that he brought to his life-work, make him an example for all time. He met with defeats; but they inspired him to manlier efforts. His successes increased his desire for something higher and nobler. He was satisfied only with going up still higher. He believed that "one to-day is worth two to-morrows"; and he acted accordingly, with the candle-shop and printing office for his school-room, and Observation for his teacher. His career furnishes one of the noblest examples of success for the young of both sexes to study. We offer his life as one of the brightest and best in American history to inspire young hearts with lofty aims.

The first and principal source of material for this book was Franklin's "Autobiography." No other authority, or treasure of material, can take the place of that. Biographies by Sparks, Sargent, Abbott, and Parton have freely consulted together with "Franklin in France," and various eulogies and essays upon his life and character.

That Franklin was the real father of the American Union, is the view which the author of this biography presents. It is the view of Bancroft, as follows:--

"Not half of Franklin's merits have been told. He was the true father of the American Union. It was he who went forth to lay the foundation of that great design at Albany; and in New York he lifted up his voice. Here among us he appeared as the apostle of the Union. It was Franklin who suggested the Congress of 1774; and but for his wisdom, and the confidence that wisdom inspired, it is a matter of doubt whether that Congress would have taken effect. It was Franklin who suggested the bond of the Union which binds these States from Florida to Maine. Franklin was the greatest diplomatist of the eighteenth century. He never spoke a word too soon; he never spoke a word too much; he never failed to speak the right word at the right season."

The closing years of Franklin's life were so identified with the Union of the States, and the election and inauguration of Washington as the first President, that his biography becomes a fitting companion to the WHITE HOUSE SERIES.

CONTENTS

I. FROM OLD ENGLAND TO NEW ENGLAND.

Persecution Driving Franklin and Others Away--Discussion about Emigrating--Josiah Franklin--His Trade--Benjamin Franklin--Doctor Franklin's Account of His Ancestors--Meetings of Dissenters Broken Up--Why Josiah Decided to Go--Account of Their Family Bible--The Final Decision--The Franklin Family Influential--Thomas Franklin--The Franklin Poet--Doctor Franklin about His Father--What Boston was Then and Now--Exploring the Wilderness--Influence of Franklins in Boston.

II. THE FIFTEENTH GIFT.

Birth of Benjamin Franklin on Sunday--The Fifteenth Child--God's Gift--Proposition to Baptize Him the Same Day--Discussion over It--Baptized on That Day by Doctor Willard--The Church Record--House in Which He was Born--Josiah's Children--Death of Wife and Second Marriage--The Folger Family--Name for Uncle Benjamin--Personal Beauty--Words of Parton--Josiah Took Up Trade of Tallow-chandler--The Business and Place Described--Sons Apprenticed--Josiah a Good Musician--Condition of the World When Benjamin was Born in 1706.

III. PAYING TOO DEAR FOR THE WHISTLE.

Seven Years Old--First Money to Spend as He Pleased--Advice Gratis--Boy with Whistle--Benjamin Buys a Whistle--Going into the Concert Business--Scene in the Family--Tormented by John for Paying All His Money--Ben Breaks Down--Father and Mother Takes His Part--The Lesson He Learned--What He Wrote about It at Seventy-two Years of Age--When Boys Pay Too Dear for the Whistle--Dickens--Keeping the Secret--How the Secret Came Out.

IV. IN SCHOOL.

Uncle Benjamin and His Poetry--His Family--His Letter about Ben--Plans for School and Doctor Willard--Goes to School at Eight Years of Age--Description of His Father--Of His Mother--Inscription on Their Monument--Nathaniel Williams, Teacher--Description of School-house--His Scholarship High--His Teacher Praises Him--Led the School--Prophecies about Him--Webster--Rittenhouse--Stephenson.

V. OUT OF SCHOOL.

Poverty Forces Him to Leave School--His Mother's View--Hard Time for Ministers--Brownell's School of Penmanship--How Ben Could Help His Father--Boys Put to Work Young Then--His Obedience--A Well-Disciplined Boy--Incident of His Manhood to Rebuke a Landlord--Robert Peel and Harry Garland--The Eight Hall Brothers--His Progress.

VI. FROM SCHOOL TO CANDLE-SHOP.

Arrival of Uncle Benjamin--Opposed to Taking His Nephew Out of School-- Thinks Ben is Very Talented--Prospects of the Business--Benjamin's Talk with His Mother--Blessings of Industry--Doctor Franklin's Proverbs--Became Wiser Than His Father--Tallow-Chandler at Ten Years of Age--His Father Saw His Dissatisfaction--Josiah, the Runaway Son, Returns--Wanted to Go to Sea--The Proposition Vetoed--Uncle Benjamin Against It.

VII. CHOOSING A TRADE AND STEALING SPORT.

Love of a Trade Necessary to Success--Following "Natural Bent"--Square Boys in Round Holes--Smeaton--Benjamin Pleased with a New Plan-- Examining Different Trades--The Cutler, Brazier, etc.--Chooses Cutler's Trade--Enters Shop on Trial--Disagreement on Terms--The Good It Did Him--Sport on the Water--An Evil Proposition--Stealing Stones--The Wharf Built--The Thieves Detected--How Benjamin's Father Found Him Out--Benjamin's Confession and Promise--The End.

VIII. BECOMING PRINTER-BOY.

Part 2

James Franklin Returns from England a Printer--His Father's Talk About Learning That Trade--Benjamin Likes It--Arrangement with James-- Printing in Its Infancy Then--Censorship over Printing--Bound to His Brother--Form of Indenture--William Tinsley--White Slavery--Poor Children Sold at Auction--A Printer-boy and How He Liked--Time for Reading--Budget!--The Printing-office, Where and What--Being on Time--After a Book Before Breakfast--Washington's Punctuality-- Franklin's Like It.

IX. TABLE-TALK EDUCATION.

What Franklin Said of Table-talk--What Heard at Table Now--Its Moulding Influence--That of His Grandfather--The Franklins Good in Conversation--Extract from Parton--Letter of Franklin to His Wife in 1758--Pythagoras--Cicero--Josiah Franklin--His Wise Counsels--Origin of His Temperance Principles--No Temperance Cause Then--The Washburne Family--The Way the Twig is Bent.

X. LEADER OF SPORTS AND THOUGHTS.

Love of Reading and Fun--The Best Swimmer, etc.--Invention to Promote Swimming--His Secret of Success--The Trial of the Apparatus--Hard on the Wrists--Another Experiment Proposed--Swimming Promoted by a Kite--Delight of the Boys--What Franklin Said of It in Manhood--The Seed Thought of Drawing Lightning from a Cloud with a Kite--His Experiment and Joy--What He Wrote about It--Advocate of Liberal Female Education--Correspondence with Collins--His Father's Opinion--How Benjamin Tried to Improve--How He Gained Time--Wise Maxims in Age--Maxims--C.G. Frost and One Hour a Day--What Spare Moments Did for Benjamin.

XI. STARTING A NEWSPAPER.

Only Three Newspapers in America--Created a Stir--What Newspaper Business is in Boston Now--How to Estimate It--Benjamin Manages the Printing of It--His Interest in It--Its Warm Reception--Proposition to Board Himself--What He Gained by It--His Object Self-improvement-- James Selfish, Benjamin Generous--Their Talk about the Plan--What His Bill-of-Fare Was--How Come to Adopt Vegetable Diet--More Maxims-- Cocker's Arithmetic--His Success.

XII. THE RUSE, AND WHAT CAME OF IT.

What Parton Says of Courant--The Knot of Liberals--Ben's First Anonymous Article, and His Ruse--Discussion over It by the Courant Club--Decided to Publish It--Benjamin Puts It in Type--It Created a Sensation--The Second Article, Better Than First--Excitement over It Still Greater--Ben's Exultation--James' Astonishment--Surprise of the "Knot"--Ben a Favorite Now--How the Autobiography Tells the Story-- Decided Ben's Career--Canning and Microcosm--Examples of Industry, Tact, etc.--Boy without a Name.

XIII. BOOKS OF HIS BOYHOOD.

Four Classes of Readers--Ben after Diamonds--Hungry Mind--Words of Thomas Hood--What Franklin Said--First Book Pilgrim's Progress--Talk with His Father--What Franklin Said of Narrative--Plutarch's Lives--Easy to Do Good--What They Were--Incident by Parton--Plan to Buy Burton's Historical Collections--Describes Them--Boyle's Lectures--Kind Offer of Matthew Adams--Borrowing Books of Booksellers' Clerks--Great Favor--Books Very Scarce Then--Greenwood's English Grammar--Talk with Collins--Other Books Read--Habit of Taking Notes--Letter of Franklin about It--Professor Atkinson's Words--Garfield Had Same Habit.

XIV. LEARNING THE ART OF COMPOSITION.

Began to Write Poetry at Seven--Had Practised Putting Thoughts Together--James Praised His Pieces--Proposition to Write, Print, and Sell Verses--Wrote Two--Sold Well--His Father's Severe Rebuke-- After-talk with James--Best Writers Deficient at First--Reporting to James--Benefit to Ben--One of His Verses Preserved--What Franklin Said of It in Manhood--How He Used the Spectator--Determined to Improve--His Own Description of His Literary Work--How He Acquired Socratic Method--Rhetoric and Logic--How a Single Book Made Wesley, Martin, Pope, Casey, Lincoln, and Others What They Were--A Striking Case.

XV. THE "COURANT" IN TROUBLE.

The Startling News from the Assembly--A Discussion--A Sarcastic Letter the Cause--James and Benjamin Summoned before the Council--James Defiant--Benjamin Dismissed--How Mather Assailed the Courant--How James Answered Him--James in Prison--Benjamin Editing the Paper-- Quotation from Parton--Persecution of Printers in the Old Country--A Horrible Case--James Released, and Still Defiant--Inoculation a Remedy for Small Pox--The Mercury Denouncing James' Imprisonment--James Still for Freedom of the Press--Secured It for All Time.

XVI. THE BOY EDITOR.

Attacking the Government--The Council Exasperated--Action of the Courant Club--Plan to Evade Order of the Council--Benjamin, the Boy-editor--His Address in Courant--Quotations from Courant of January 14, 1723--Not Libelous--Extract from Parton's Life--When Newspapers Ceased to be Carried Free--How Long Ben Was in Printing Office--Remarks by Mr. Sparks--What He Says of General Court--How the Experience Developed Benjamin--Right Boy in Right Place--Extract from Courant about Bears.

XVII. THE YOUNG SKEPTIC.

Reading Shaftesbury's Work--Discussion with Collins--Ben's Orthodoxy in Peril--Benjamin a Thinker--Saying Grace over the Pork Barrel--Reading from Collins--Several Paragraphs Repugnant to Orthodoxy--Shaftesbury Attacking Miracles--Ben's Influence over John--Charged with Being Atheist--His Confession--Letter to His Father--Letter to Sister--Seeing His Folly--His Prayer--Sad Experience with Infidel Books--Similar to Lincoln's and Garfield's--Lincoln's Farewell.

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