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"Ben Franklin"
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography: Page 50
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beneficial to us, in their own natures, all the circumstances of things
considered. And this persuasion, with the kind hand of Providence, or some
guardian angel, or accidental favorable circumstances and situations, or all
together, preserved me, thro' this dangerous time of youth, and the hazardous
situations I was sometimes in among strangers, remote from the eye and advice of
my father, without any willful gross immorality or injustice, that might have
been expected from my want of religion. I say willful, because the instances I
have mentioned had something of necessity in them, from my youth, inexperience,
and the knavery of others. I had therefore a tolerable character to begin the
world with; I valued it properly, and determin'd to preserve it.
We had not been long return'd to Philadelphia before the new types arriv'd from
London. We settled with Keimer, and left him by his consent before he heard of
it. We found a house to hire near the market, and took it. To lessen the rent,
which was then but twenty-four pounds a year, tho' I have since known it to let
for seventy, we took in Thomas Godfrey, a glazier, and his family, who were to
pay a considerable part of it to us, and we to board with them. We had scarce
opened our letters and put our press in order, before George House, an
acquaintance of mine, brought a countryman to us, whom he had met in the street
inquiring for a printer. All our cash was now expended in the variety of
particulars we had been obliged to procure, and this countryman's five
shillings, being our first-fruits, and coming so seasonably, gave me more
pleasure than any crown I have since earned; and the gratitude I felt toward
House has made me often more ready than perhaps I should otherwise have been to
assist young beginners.
There are croakers in every country, always boding its ruin. Such a one then
lived in Philadelphia; a person of note, an elderly man, with a wise look and a
very grave manner of speaking; his name was Samuel Mickle. This gentleman, a
stranger to me, stopt one day at my door, and asked me if I was the young man
who had lately opened a new printing-house. Being answered in the affirmative,
he said he was sorry for me, because it was an expensive undertaking, and the
expense would be lost; for Philadelphia was a sinking place, the people already
half-bankrupts, or near being so; all appearances to the contrary, such as new
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