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"Ben Franklin"
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography: Page 69
of 154
set apart an hour or two each day, and thus repair'd in some degree the loss of
the learned education my father once intended for me. Reading was the only
amusement I allow'd myself. I spent no time in taverns, games, or frolicks of
any kind; and my industry in my business continu'd as indefatigable as it was
necessary. I was indebted for my printing-house; I had a young family coming on
to be educated, and I had to contend with for business two printers, who were
established in the place before me. My circumstances, however, grew daily
easier. My original habits of frugality continuing, and my father having, among
his instructions to me when a boy, frequently repeated a proverb of Solomon,
"Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand before kings, he shall
not stand before mean men," I from thence considered industry as a means of
obtaining wealth and distinction, which encourag'd me, tho' I did not think that
I should ever literally stand before kings, which, however, has since happened;
for I have stood before five, and even had the honor of sitting down with one,
the King of Denmark, to dinner.
We have an English proverb that says, "He that would thrive, must ask his wife."
It was lucky for me that I had one as much dispos'd to industry and frugality as
myself. She assisted me cheerfully in my business, folding and stitching
pamphlets, tending shop, purchasing old linen rags for the papermakers, etc.,
etc. We kept no idle servants, our table was plain and simple, our furniture of
the cheapest. For instance, my breakfast was a long time bread and milk (no
tea), and I ate it out of a twopenny earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon. But
mark how luxury will enter families, and make a progress, in spite of principle:
being call'd one morning to breakfast, I found it in a China bowl, with a spoon
of silver! They had been bought for me without my knowledge by my wife, and had
cost her the enormous sum of three-and-twenty shillings, for which she had no
other excuse or apology to make, but that she thought her husband deserv'd a
silver spoon and China bowl as well as any of his neighbors. This was the first
appearance of plate and China in our house, which afterward, in a course of
years, as our wealth increas'd, augmented gradually to several hundred pounds in
value.
I had been religiously educated as a Presbyterian; and tho' some of the dogmas
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