BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



profitably in reading a great many works, which (circulating 

 libraries, he remarks, not being then in use) he borrowed, on 

 certain terms that were agreed upon between them, from a 

 bookseller, whose shop was next door to his lodgings in 

 Little Britain, and who had an immense collection of second- 

 hand books. His pamphlet, however, was the means of 

 making him known to a few of the literary characters then 

 in London, among the rest to the noted Dr. Mandeville, 

 author of the Fable of the Bees; and to Dr. Pemberton, Sir 

 Isaac Newton's friend, who promised to give him an oppor- 

 tunity, some time or other, of seeing that great man ; but this, 

 he says, never happened. He also became acquainted about 

 the same time with the famous collector and naturalist. Sir Hans 

 Sloane, the founder of the British Museum, who had heard 

 of some curiosities which Franklin had brought over from 

 America ; among tnese was a purse made of asbestos, which he 

 purchased from him. 



While with Mr. Palmer, and afterwards with Mr. Watts, 

 near Lincoln's Inn Fields, he gave very striking evidence of 

 those habits of temperance, self-command, industry, and 

 frugality which distinguished him through after-life, and were 

 undoubtedly the source of much of the success that attended 

 his persevering efforts to raise himself from the humble con- 

 dition in which he passed his earlier years. While Mr. Watts' 

 other workmen spent a great part of every week's wages on 

 beer, he drank only water, and found himself a good deal 

 stronger, as well as much more clear-headed, on his light 

 beverage than they on their strong potations. ' From my 

 example,' says he, *a great many of them left off their 

 muddling breakfast of beer, bread, and cheese, finding they 

 could with me be supplied from a neighbouring house with 



