will leave you in tranquil poffeffion of your errors. By following fuch a method, you can rarely hope to please your auditors, conciliate their good- will, or work conviction on those whom you may be de firous of gaining over to your views. Pope judiciously obferves,

Men must be taught as if you taught them not, And thines unknown propos'd as things forgot. And in the fame poem he afterwards advises us,

To fpeak, tho' fure, with feeming diffidence. He might have added to thefe lines, one that he has coupled elsewhere, in my opinion, with lefs propriety. It is thus:

For want of decency is want of fenfe.

If you ak why I fay with lefs propriety, I muft give you the two lines to the two lines together:

Í nmodeft words admit of no defence,

For want of decency is want of feuse.

Now want of fense, when a man has the misforutne to be fo circumftanced, it is not a kind of excufe for want of modefty? And would not the verfos have been more accurate, if they had been confructed thus:

Inmodeft words admit but this defence,

That want of decency is want of fenfe. But I leave the decifion of this to better judges than myself.

In 1720, or 1721, my brother began to print a new public paper. It was the fecond that made its appearance in America, and was entitled the New England Courant. The only one that existed be fort was the Bufton News Letter. Some of his friends, I remember, would have diffuaded him, from this undertaking, as a thing that was not likely to fucceed; a fingle newspaper being, in ther

opinion fufficient for all America: At prefent, however, in 1777, there is no less than twenty-five. But he carried his project into execution, and I was employed in diftributing the copies to his customers, after having affifted in compofing and work. ing them off.

Among his friends he had a number of literary characters, who, as an amusement, wrote fhort ef fays for the paper, which gave it reputation and increafed its fale. Thefe gentlemen came frequently to our house. I heard the converfation that paffed, and the accounts they gave of the favourable reception of their writings with the public. I was tempted to try my hand among them; but, being ftill a child as it were, I was fearful that my brother might be unwilling to print in his paper any performance of which he fhould know me to be the author. I therefore contrived to difguife my hand, and having written an anonymous piece, I placed it at night under the door of the printinghoufe, where it was found the next morning. My brother communicated it to his friends, when they came as ufual to fee him, who read it, commented upon it within my hearing, and I had the exquifite pleasure to find that it met with their approbation, and that, in the varicus conjectures they made refpe&ing the author, no one was mentioned who did not enjoy a high reputation in the country for ta lents and genius. I now fuppofed myself fortunate in my judges, and began to fufpect that they were not fuch excellent writers as I had hitherto fuppof ed them. Be that as it may, encouraged by this little adventure, I wrote and fent to the prefs, in the fame way many other pieces, which were equal! ly approved; keeping the fecret till my flender

flock of information and knowledge for fuch performances was pretty completely exhausted, when I made myself known.

My brother, upon his difcovery, began to entertain a little more refpect for me; but he ftill regarded himself as my mafter, and treated me like an apprentice. He thought himself entitled to the fame fervices from me as from any other person. On the contrary, I conceived that, in many inftances, he was too rigorous, and that, on the part of a brother, I had a right to expect greater indulgence. Our difputes were frequently brought before my father; and either my brother was generally in the wrong, or I was the better pleader of the two, for judgment was commonly given in my 'favour. But my brother was paffionate, and often had recourse to blows; a circumftance which I took in very ill part. This fevere and tyrannical treatment contributed, Ibelieve, to imprint on my mind that averfion to arbritary power, which during my whole life I have ever preferved. My apprenticefhip became infupportable to me, and I continually fighed for an opportunity of shortening it, which at length unexpectedly offered.

An article inferted in our paper upon fome political fubject which I have now forgotten, gave ofe nce to the Affembly. My brother was taken into cuftody, cenfured, and ordered into confinement for a month, because, as I prefume, he would not discover the author. I was alfo taken up, and examined before the council; but, though I gave them no fatisfaction, they contented themfelves with reprimanding, and then difmiffed me; confide ing me probably as bound, in quality of apprentice, to keep my mafter's fecrets,

The imprisonment of my brother kindled my refentment, notwithstanding our private quarrels. During its continuance the management of the paper was entrusted to me, and I was bold enough to infert fome pafquerades against the governors; which highly pleafed my brother, while others began to look upon me in an unfavourable point of view, confidering me as a young wit inclined to fatire and lampoon.

My brother's enlargement was accompanied with an arbritary order from the houfe of affembly, "That James Franklin should no longer print the "newspaper entitled the New England Courant." In this conjuncture, we held a confultation of our friends at the printing-houfe, in eider to determine what was proper to be done. Some propoed to evade the order, by changing the title of the paper: but my brother forefeeing inconveniencies that would refult from this ftep, thought it better that it should in future be printed in the name of Benjamin Franklin; and toavoid the cenfure of the affembly, who might charge him with ftill printing the paper himfelf, under the name of his apprentice, it was refolved that my old indentures fhould be given up to me, with a full and entire discharge written on the back, in order to be produced upon an emergency: but that, to fecure to my brother the benefit of my fervice, I fhould fign a new. contract, which fhould be kept fecret during the remainder of the term. This was a very fhallow arrangement. It was, however, carried into immcdiate execution, and the paper continued, in confequence, to make its appearance for fome months. in my naine. At length a new difference arifing between my brother and me, I ventured to be

advantage of my liberty, prefuming that he would not dare to produce the new contract. It was undoubtedly dishonorable to avail myfelf of this circumftance, and I reckon this action as one of the first errors of my life; but I was little capable of eftimating it at its true value, embittered as my mind had been by the recollection of the blows I had received. Exclufively of his paffionate treatment of me, my brother was by no means a man of an ill temper, and perhaps my manners had too much of impertinence not to afford it a very natural pretext.

When he knew that it was my determination to quit him, he wished to prevent my finding employ- ment elsewhere. He went to all the printinghoufes in the town, and prejudiced the mafters against me, who accordingly refufed to employ me. The idea then fuggefted itfelf to me of going to New-York, the nearest town in which there was a printing-office. Farther reflection confirmed me in the defign of leaving Bolton, where I had already rendered myself an object of fufpicion to the governing party. It was probable, from the arbitrary proceedings of the affembly in the affair of my brother, that by remaining I fhould foon have been expofed to difficulties, which I had the greater reafon to apprehend, as from my indifcreet difputes upon the fubject of religion 1 begun to be regarded by pious fouls with horror, either as an apoftate or an atheist. I came therefore to a refolution; but my father, in this inftance, fioing with my brother, I prefumed that if I attempted to depart opchly, meafures would be taken to prevent me. My friend Collins undertook to favour my flight. Hengreed for my paffage with the capt. of a New