RISEN B Y PERSE VERANCE. 



himself high among the most famous writers and philosophers 

 of his time. 



Franklin has himself told us the story of his early life 

 inimitably well The narrative is given in the form of a letter 

 to his son, and does not appear to have been written originally 

 with any view to publication. * From the poverty and obscu- 

 rity,' he says, * in which I was bom, and in which I passed my 

 earliest years, I have raised myself to a state of affluence, and 

 some degree of celebrity in the world. As constant good 

 fortune has accompanied me, even to an advanced period of 

 life, my posterity will perhaps be desirous of learning the 

 means which I employed, and which, thanks to Providence, 

 so well succeeded with me. They may also deem them fit to 

 be imitated, should any of them find themselves in similar 

 circumstances.' It is now many years (1817) since this letter 

 was, for the first time, given to the world by the grandson of 

 the illustrious writer, William Temple Franklin, only a small 

 portion of it having previously appeared, and that merely a 

 re-translation into English from a French version of the 

 original manuscript which had been published at Paris, and 

 which is not wholly trustworthy. 



Franklin was born at Boston, in North America, on the 

 1 7th of January 1 706 ; the youngest, with the exception of 

 iwo daughters, of a family of seventeen children. His father, 

 who had emigrated from England about twenty-four years 

 before, followed the occupation of a soap-boiler and tallow- 

 chandler, — a business to which he had not been bred, and by 

 which he seems with difficulty to have been able to support 

 his numerous family. At first it was proposed to make Ben- 

 jamin a clergyman ; and he was accordingly, having before 

 learned to read, put to the grammar-school at eight years of 



