An Introduction to the History of ScienceLibby, Walter
History
An Introduction to the History of Science
Libby, Walter
Science -- History
Unable to find work in New York, he arrived after some difficulties in
Philadelphia in October, 1723. He had brought no recommendations from
Boston; his supply of money was reduced to one Dutch dollar and a
shilling in copper. But he that hath a Trade hath an Estate (as Poor
Richard says). His capital was his industry, his skill as a printer, his
good-will, his shrewd powers of observation, his knowledge of books, and
ability to write. Franklin, recognized as a promising young man by the
Governor, Sir William Keith, as previously by Governor Burnet of New
York, had a growing sense of personal freedom and self-reliance.
But increased freedom for those who deserve it means increased
responsibility; for it implies the possibility of error. Franklin,
intent above all on the wise conduct of life, was deeply perturbed in
his nineteenth and twentieth years by a premature engagement, in which
his ever-passionate nature had involved him, by his failure to pay over
money collected for a friend, and by the unsettled state of his
religious and ethical beliefs. Encouraged by Keith to purchase the
equipment for an independent printing-office, Franklin, though unable to
gain his father's support for the project, went to London (for the
ostensible purpose of selecting the stock) at the close of the year
1724.
He remained in London a year and a half, working in two of the leading
printing establishments of the metropolis, where his skill and
reliability were soon prized. He found the English artisans of that time
great guzzlers of beer, and influenced some of his co-workers to adopt
his own more abstinent and hygienic habits of eating and drinking. About
this time a book, _Religion of Nature Delineated_, by William Wollaston
(great-grandfather of the scientist Wollaston) so roused Franklin's
opposition that he wrote a reply, which he printed in pamphlet form
before leaving London in 1726, and the composition of which he
afterwards regretted.
He returned to Philadelphia in the employ of a Quaker merchant, on whose
death he resumed work as printer under his former employer. He was given
control of the office, undertook to make his own type, contrived a
copper-plate press, the first in America, and printed paper money for
New Jersey. The substance of some lectures in defense of Christianity,
in courses endowed by the will of Robert Boyle, made Franklin a Deist.
At the same time his views on moral questions were clarified, and he
came to recognize that truth, sincerity, and integrity were of the
utmost importance to the felicity of life. What he had attained by his
own independent thought rendered him ultimately more careful rather than
more reckless. He now set value on his own character, and resolved to
preserve it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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