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 afked me if I was the young man who had lately fat up a new printing-house. Upon my answering in the affirmative, he faid that he was very forry for me, as it was an expenfive 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 haf ten the general ruin; and he gave me so long a detail of misfortunes, actually exifting, or which were foon to take place, that he left me almost in a state of defpair. Had I known this man before I entered into trade, I fhould doubtlefs never have ventured. He however continued to live in this place of decay, and to declaim in the fame ftyle, refufing for many years to buy a houfe, because 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 coft him had he purchafed it when he first 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 underftandings. We met every Friday evening. The regulations I drew up, obliged every member to propofe, in his turn, one or more queftions 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 pleased. Our debates were under the direction of a prefident, and were to be dictated only by a fincere defire of truth; the pleafure of difputing, and the vanity of triumph having no fhare in the bufinefs; and in order to prevent undue warmth, every expreffion which implied obftinate adherence to an opinion and all direct contradiction, were prohi bited under fmall pecuniary penalties.

The first members of our club were Jofeph Breintnal, whofe occupation was that of a fcrivener. He was a middle-aged man, of a good natural 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 unufual precifion in every thing that is faid, continually contradict ing or making trifling diftin&tions; 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 a

fhoe-maker, but who having a tafte for reading, had acquired a profound knowledge of mathematics. He firft ftudied them with a view to aftrology, and was afterwards the firft to laugh at his folly. He also became furveyor-general.

William Mawgridge, a joiner and a very excel-. lent 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; gene. rous, animated and witty; fond of epigrams, but more fond of his friends.

And lastly, 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 almost 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 exift almoft as long.

This was the beft fchool of politics and philofo-phy that then exifted in the province; for our queftions, which were read a week previous to their difcuffion, induced us to perufe attentively fuch books as were written upon the subjects 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 success in my bufinefs; every member exerting himself to procure 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 smallest 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 distribution for the next day's task; for the little things which our friends occa fionally fent us, kept us back in this work: but I was fo determined to compose a sheet 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 immediately 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-houfe 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 printing-houfes 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. Andrews in Scotland, was of a different opinion, "The industry!

of this Franklin (faid he) is fuperior to any thing of the kind I have ever witneffed. 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 houfe, and offered to fupply as with articles of stationary; but we wifhed not is yet to embarrass ourfelves with keeping a fhop. It is not for the fake of applaufe that I enter fo freey into the particulars of my industry, but that uch of my defcendants as fhall read thefe memoirs may know the ufe of this virtue, by feeing in the ecital of my life the effects it operated in my fa

You'.

George Webb, having found a friend who lent im the neceffary fum to buy out his time of Keiner, came one day to offer himself to us as a joureyman. We could not employ him immediately; but I foolishly told him, under the rofe, that I ntended fhortly to publish a new periodical paper, nd that we should then have work for him. My opes of fuccefs, which I imparted to him, were ounded on the circumftance, that the only paper. ve had in Philadelphia at that time, and which Bradford printed, was a paltry thing, miferably conducted, in no refpect amuling, and which yet was profitable. I confequently fuppofed that a good work of this kind could not fail of fuccefs. Webb ctrayed my fecret to Keimer, who, to prevent me, mmediately published the profpectus of a paper hat he intended to inftitute himfelf, 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 pre