THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY 119 



to purchase the equipment for an independent print- 

 ing-office, Franklin, though unable to gain his fa- 

 ther's support for the project, went to London (for 

 the ostensible purpose of selecting the stock) at the 

 close of the year 1724. 



He remained in London a year and a half, working 

 in two of the leading printing establishments of the 

 metropolis, where his skill and reliability were soon 

 prized. He found the English artisans of that time 

 great guzzlers of beer, and influenced some of his 

 co-workers to adopt his own more abstinent and hygi- 

 enic habits of eating and drinking. About this time 

 a book, Religion of Nature Delineated, by William 

 Wollaston (great-grandfather of the scientist Wol- 

 laston) so roused Franklin's opposition that he wrote 

 a reply, which he printed in pamphlet form before 

 leaving London in 1726, and the composition of 

 which he afterwards regretted. 



He returned to Philadelphia in the employ of a 

 Quaker merchant, on whose death he resumed work 

 as printer under his former employer. He was given 

 control of the office, undertook to make his own type, 

 contrived a copper-plate press, the first in America, 

 and printed paper money for New Jersey. The sub- 

 stance of some lectures in defense of Christianity, in 

 courses endowed by the will of Robert Boyle, made 

 Franklin a Deist. At the same time his views on 

 moral questions were clarified, and he came to recog- 

 nize that truth, sincerity, and integrity were of the 

 utmost importance to the felicity of life. What he 

 had attained by his own independent thought ren- 

 dered him ultimately more careful rather than more 

 reckless. He now set value on his own character, and 

 resolved to preserve it. 



