Benjamin's tastes had at first been for the sea rather than the pulpit; now they inclined rather to intellectual than to other pleasures. At an early age he had made himself familiar with _The Pilgrim's Progress_, with Locke, _On the Human Understanding_, and with a volume of _The Spectator_. Thanks to his father's excellent advice, he gave up writing doggerel verse (much of which had been printed by his brother and sold on the streets) and turned to prose composition. His success in reproducing articles he had read in _The Spectator_ led him to write an article for his brother's paper, which he slipped under the door of the printing shop with no name attached, and which was printed and attracted some attention. After repeated successes of the same sort Benjamin threw off his disguise and contributed regularly to the _Courant_. When, after various journalistic indiscretions, James Franklin in 1722 was forbidden to publish the _Courant_, it appeared with Benjamin's name as that of the publisher and was received with much favour, chiefly because of the cleverness of his articles signed "Dr Janus," which, like those previously signed "Mistress Silence Dogood," gave promise of "Poor Richard." But Benjamin's management of the paper, and particularly his free-thinking, displeased the authorities; the relations of the two brothers gradually grew unfriendly, possibly, as Benjamin thought, because of his brother's jealousy of his superior ability; and Benjamin determined to quit his brother's employ and to leave New England. He made his way first to New York City, and then (October 1723) to Philadelphia, where he got employment with a printer named Samuel Keimer.[1]