with commendable patience to the interminable discourses with which the congregation were uniformly favored.

Had Josiah Franklin been a worshipper in God's temple, where the old Prayer-book* was used, with its decent proprieties, its glori

"The English liturgy gains by being compared even with those fine ancient liturgies from which it is to a great extent taken. The essential qualities of devotional eloquence, conciseness, majestic simplicity, and pathetic earnestness of supplication, sobered by a profound reverence, are common between the translations and the originals. But in the subordinate graces of diction the originals must be allowed to be far inferior to the translations. And the reason is obvious. The . technical phraseology of Christianity did not become a part of the Latin language till that language had passed the age of maturity, and was sinking into barbarism; but the technical phraseology of Christianity was found in the Anglo-Saxon and in the Norman-French long before the union of those two dialects had produced a third dialect superior to either. The Latin of the Roman Catholic services, therefore, is Latin in the last stage of decay. The English of our services is English in all the vigor and suppleness of early youth. To the great Latin writers, Terence and Lucretius, to Cicero and Cæsar, to Tacitus and Quintilian, the noblest compositions of Ambrose and Gregory, would have seemed to be, not merely bad writing, but senseless gibberish. The diction of our Book of Common Prayer, on the other hand, has, directly or indirectly, contributed to form the diction of almost every great English writer, and has extorted the admiration of the most accomplished Infidels and of the most accomplished Non-conformists—of such men as David Hume and Robert Hall."-Macaulay's England, vol. iii., p. 430.

DUTY OF CHURCH-GOING.

29

ous anthems, and its soul-stirring litanies,—he would have found his studious son less anxious to escape from the performance of the public duties of religion. We do not intend by this. remark to excuse the printer's boy from all blame, but merely to give an incidental warning against departures from the "old paths." He was always of a serious turn, and in after years, when he had learned a more excellent way of serving God than he had known before, he was most anxious that his family should follow it. Hence we find him writing to his wife: "I think you should go oftener to church;"* and to his daughter: "Go constantly to church, whoever preaches. The act of devotion in the Common Prayer Book is your principal business there."+

But inore of this hereafter.

While Franklin was listening with diligence to improve his style, he found two little sketches on the arts of Rhetoric and Logic, at the end of an old English grammar, which gave him some valuable hints.

Not long after, he procured Xenophon's “Memorable Things of Socrates," which indu

* Sparks, vol. vi., p. 254.

+ Ibid., p. 269.

ced him to lay aside an abrupt habit of contradiction and positive argumentation, that he had acquired, and to express himself in milder and more modest terms,-a much surer way of securing an attentive hearing and of disarming prejudice.

When about sixteen years of age, he read a book recommending a vegetable diet, and the views appeared so sensible that he at once adopted them. His brother James being unmarried, did not keep house, but boarded himself and his apprentices in another family. Benjamin's refusing to eat meat occasioned so much inconvenience, that he proposed to his brother to give him half the money he paid for his board, and he would board himself. James readily agreed to this, and from that time forward, instead of eating with the other printers, our hero dispatched his frugal meal of a bit of bread, a tart, or a bunch of raisins, and a glass of water; and then, with a clear head, and quickened apprehension, he seized his book. An additional fund for the purchase of books was thus secured.*

* A caution ought to be expressed, however, since medical science condemns an exclusively vegetable diet, as tending to develop pulmonary disease.-Ed.

RESTUDIES HIS ARITHMETIC.

31

We referred in the first chapter to Benjamin's slow progress in arithmetic, during his brief career as a school-boy. He now became ashamed of his ignorance in this branch of learning, and taking up an old treatise on the subject, he went through it by himself with the greatest ease. He also studied some small works on geometry and navigation, and Locke's famous "Essay on the Human Understanding."

New and more stormy scenes will be introduced in our next chapter.

CHAPTER THIRD.

The fourth American newspaper begins its career-A curious note-Advice and apprehensions-The printer's boy tries his hand at writing for the paper-"Who can the author be?"— James Franklin in prison—The apprentice assumes the editorial tripod-Quarrels between the brothers A flimsy scheme-An open rupture-Benjamin goes to New YorkMr. Bradford befriends him-Journey to the Quaker City— His entrance described by himself-A meal of dry breadMiss Read's amusement at his strange appearance-The Quaker meeting "I'll show thee a better one"-Getting into business.

N the 21st of August, 1721, James Franklin published the first number of the New England Courant. This was a noteworthy event, as being the fourth newspaper which appeared in America.*

"The first newspaper issued in North America, was printed in Boston, in 1690. Only one copy of that paper was known to be in existence. It was deposited in the State Paper Office in London, and was about the size of an ordinary sheet of letter-paper. It was stopped by the government. The Boston News-Letter was the first regular paper. It was first issued in 1704, and was printed by John Allen, in Bedding Lane. The contents of some of the early numbers were very peculiar. It had a speech of Queen Anne to Parliament, delivered 120 days