45 
in a library, and let him run, day after day and week after week, 
nibbling here and tasting there, as whim or fancy dictates. 
Franklin’s early surroundings were of a humble character, and 
his chances of brilliant success in life, as seen from a worldly point 
of view, were slim and discouraging. Asa boy he played in the 
street, went barefooted in summer, fished from the wharves at flood 
tide, and snow-balled on the Common in winter; and he got into 
petty scrapes, just as other youngsters of that period did, and just 
as they ever will do, so long as boys are boys, because boyhood is 
brimful of human nature. He was no exception to the general run 
of youthful humanity, any further than that he was a bright, clever lad, 
with a good memory, and that he was fond of reading and always 
hated shams. He would never have been picked out of a group of 
urchins as one ordained to help mold the destiny of a new nation, or ‘ 
as one likely to stand before kings. But is it not written, ‘‘Seest 
thou a man diligent in business? he shall stand before kings’’ ? 
Early accustomed to habits of strict frugality, Franklin also im- 
bibed those peculiar notions which laid the foundation of a remark- 
able and distinguished career. Brought up to work, he was not 
afraid of labor when apprenticed as a boy in the printing-office of 
his brother James, the owner and editor of Zhe Mew-England Cou- 
rant, where he often did a man’s stint. His early advantages at 
school were very limited, being confined to a period of less than 
two years, and that, too, before he was eleven years of age. An 
apprenticeship in a printing office at any time is a good school of 
instruction, though one hundred and seventy-five years ago Franklin 
did not find it anagreeable one. His experience at that time, how- 
ever, stood him in good stead on many later occasions. 
The question naturally comes up, ‘‘ What special influences were 
brought to bear on the young apprentice during the plastic period 
of his life which made him afterward the great philosopher and the 
sagacious statesman, and above all the apostle of common sense ?”’ 
Thisis answered in part by himself in his charming Aufobiography, 
where he speaks of his fondness for reading, and of the difficulty he 
experienced during his younger days in getting the right kind of 
books. He mentions by title Defoe’s Lssays on Projects, and Cot- 
ton Mather’s Essays to do Good, otherwise called Bonifacius, as two 
works which had a lasting influence on his after-life. Defoe’s book 
is a very rare work, so rare, indeed, that its very existence has been 
doubted, and it has been even asserted positively that no such book 
