that occurred to my mind. I afterwards compared my Spectator with the original; I perceived fome faults, which I corrected: but I found that I wanted a fund of words, if I may fo exprefs myself, and a facility of recollecting and employing them, which, I thought I should by that time have acquired, had I continued to make verfes. The continual need of words of the fame meaning, but of different lengths for the measure, or of different sounds for the rhyme, would have obliged me to feek for a variety of fynonymes, and have rendered me mafter of them. From this belief, I took fome of the tales of the Spectator, and turned them into verfe; and after a time, when I had fufficiently forgotten then, I again converted them into profe.

Sometimes alfo I mingled all my fummaries together; and a few weeks after, endeavoured to arrange them in the beft order, before I attempted to form the periods and complete the clays. 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 fometimes the fatisfaction to think, that, in certain particulars of little importance, I had been fortunate enough to improve the order of thought or the style; and this encouraged me to hope that I fhould fucceed, in time, in writing the English language, which was one of the great objects o my ambition.

The time which I devoted to thefe exercife and to reading, was the evening after my day. abour was finifhed, the morning before it bega

and Sundays when I could efcape attending divine fervice. While I lived with my father, he had infifted on my punctual attendance on public worship, and I ftill indeed confidered it as a duty, but a duty which I thought I had no time to practife.

When about fixteen years of age, a work of Tryon fell in my hands, in which he recommends vegetable diet. I determined to obferve it. My brother being a bachelor, did not keep house, But boarded with his apprentices in a neighbouring family. My refufing to eat animal food was found inconvenient, and I was often fcolded for my fingularity. I attended to the mode in which Tryon prepared fome of his dishes, particularly how to boil potatoes and rice, and make hafty puddings. I then faid to my brother, that if he would allow me per week half what he paid for my board, I would undertake to maintain myself. = The offer was inftantly embraced, and I foon - found that of what he gave me I was able to fave half. This was a new fund for the purchase of books; and other advantages refulted to me from the plan. When my brother and his workmen' left the printing-house to go to dinner, I remained behind; and dispatching my frugal meal, which frequently confifted of a bifcuit only, or a flice of bread and a bunch of raifins, or a bun from the naftry cook's, with a glass of water, I had the reft If the time, till their return, for study; and my progress therein was proportioned to the clearness f ideas, and quickness of conception, which are he fruits of temperance in eating and drinking.

It was about this period, that, having one day been put to the blufh for my ignorance in the art of calculation, which I had twice failed to learn while at fchool, I took Cocker's Treatise of Arithmetic, and went through it by myself with the utmoft eafe. I also read a book of Navigation by Seller and Sturmy, and made myself master of the little geometry it contains, but I never proceeded far in this fcience. Nearly at the fame time I read Locke on the Human Underftanding, and the Art of Thinking by Meffrs. Du Port Royal.

While labouring to form and improve my ftyle, I met with an English Grammar, which I believe was Greenwood's, having at the end of it two little effays on rhetoric and logic. In the latter I found a model of difputation after the manner of Socrates. Shortly after I procured Xenophon's work, entitled, Memorable Things of Socrates, in which are various examples of the fame method. Charmed to a degree of enthufiafm with this mode of difputing, I adopted it, and renouncing blunt contradiction, and dire&t and positive argument, I affumed the character of a humble queftioner. The perusal of Shaftsbury and Collins had made me a fceptic; and being previously fo as to many doctrines of Christianity, I found Socrates's method to be both the fafeft for myself, as well as the most embarraffing to thofe against whom I employed it. It foon afforded me fingular pleafure; I inceffantly practifed it; and became very adroit in obtaining, even from perfons of fuperior understanding, conceffions of which they did not

foresee the confequences. Thus I involved them in difficulties from which they were unable to extricate themselves, and fometimes obtained victories, which neither my cause nor my arguments merited.

I

This method I continued to employ for fome years; but I afterwards abandoned it by degrees, retaining only the habit of expreffing myself with modeft diffidence, and never making use, when I advanced any propofition which might be controverted, of the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that might give the appearance of being obftinately attached to my opinion. rather faid, I imagine, I fuppofe, or it appears to me, that such a thing is fo or fo, for such and fuch reafons; or it is fo, if I am not mistaken. This habit has, I think, been of confiderable advantage to me, when I have had occafion to imprefs my opinion on the minds of others, and perfuade them to the adoption of the measures I have fuggefted. And fince the chief ends of conversation are, to inform or to be informed, to please or to perfuade, I could wish that intelligent and well-meaning men would not themselves diminish the powers they poffefs of being ufeful, by a pofitive and prefumptuous manner of expreffing themselves, which scarcely ever fails to disgust the hearer, and is only calculated to excite oppofition, and defeat every purpose for which the faculty of fpeech has been bestowed upon man. fhert, if you wish to inform, a pofitive and dogmatical manner of advancing your opinion may provoke contradiction, and prevent your being heard with attention. On the other hand,

In

if, with a defire of being informed, and of benefitting by the knowledge of others, you exprefs yourlelves as being ftrongly attached to your own opinions, modeft and fenfible men, who do not love difputation, 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, and work conviction on those whom you may be defirous of gaining over to your views. Fope judiciously obferves,

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

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

For want of modefty is want of sense.

If you ask why I lay with lefs propriety, I must give you the two lines together:

Immodeft words amit of no defence,

For want of decency is want of sense. Now want of fenfe, when a man has the misfortune to be fo circumftanced, is it not a kind of excufe for want of modefty? And would not the verfes have been more accurate, if they had been conftructed thus:

Immodeft words admit but this defence,

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

In 1720, or 1721, my brother began to print new public paper. It was the second that