When about sixteen years of age I happened to meet with another book, written by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable diet. I determined to go into it. My brother, being yet unmarried, did not keep house, but boarded himself and his apprentices in another family. My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconvenience, and I was frequently chid for my singularity. I made myself acquainted with Tryon's manner of preparing some of his dishes, such as boiling potatoes or rice, making hasty pudding, and a few others, and then proposed to my brother if he would give me, weekly, half the money he paid for my board, I would board myself. He instantly agreed to it, and I presently found that I could save half what he paid me. This was an additional fund for buying of books. But I had another advantage in it. My brother and the rest going from the printing-office to their meals, I remained there alone; and despatching presently my light repast, which was often no more than a biscuit, or a slice of bread and a handful of raisins, a tart from the pastry-cook's, and a glass of water, I had the rest of the time till their return for study, in which I made the greater progress, from that clearness of head and quick apprehension which generally attends temperance in eating and drinking. Now it was that, being on some occasion made ashamed of my ignorance in figures, which I had twice failed learning when at school, I took _Cocker's_ book on arithmetic, and went through the whole by myself with the greatest ease. I also read _Sellers_ and _Sturny's_ book on navigation, which made me acquainted with the little geometry it contained; but I never proceeded far in that science. I read about this time _Locke on the Human Understanding_, and the _Art of Thinking_, by Messrs. du Port Royal.