46 
was ever written; but the assertion iswrong. It has been said, too, 
that Franklin had in mind, when he wrote this part of his Auzodi- 
ography, Defoe’s Complete English Tradesman, and that he was 
then thinking of this work; but it was not so. The great printer 
in his younger days had handled too much type to make a mistake 
in the title of a book. Eight or nine years before his birth 4z 
Essay upon Projects was published in London, written by the same 
author who afterward wrote that prose epic Aodinson Crusoe, which 
charmed us all so much in our boyhood. In the introduction to 
the Essay the author terms the age in which he wrote ‘‘ the project- 
ing age,’’ and in the body of the work he refers to many schemes 
which have since crystallized into practical projects, and are now con- 
sidered necessary institutions of the present age. Besides other 
subjects he refers to Banks, Highways, Assurances, Pension Offices 
or Savings Banks, Friendly Societies, and Academies, all which 
to-day are recognized as actual problems in business life. In his 
chapter on ‘‘ Assurances ’’ is found the origin of modern Fire Insur- 
ance companies ; and in that on ‘“ Fools,’’ or Idiots, there is more 
than a suggestion of Insane Asylums and other institutions for the 
care and comfort of persons who are mentally unsound. The Essay, 
or collection of Essays, is well written, and in style furnished a good 
model for the readers of that century, although now it would 
hardly be considered an attractive book for boys. It may be as- 
serted, in the light of Franklin’s statement, that this work gave 
the young philosopher a turn of thought which ever afterward he 
followed. In the treatment of the various subjects of the different 
chapters there is a decided flavor of practical wisdom for everyday 
use, which seems to have clung to Franklin during his whole life. 
The other little book mentioned in the Autobiography was first 
published in the year 1710; and, as the author was settled as a 
colleague pastor over the church where the Franklin family after- 
ward attended worship, it seems natural that the work should 
have been introduced at an early period into the Franklin house- 
hold, where it surely found eager readers. The book is scarcely 
ever looked at nowadays, much less is it ever read ; but it contains 
some grains of wheat scattered through the chaff. The following 
extracts from its pages are quite Franklinesque in their character : 
Take a Catalogue of all your more Distant Welatives. ... 
Think ; Wherein may I pursue the Good of such a Relative (page 72)? 
