Four American Leaders | Page 2

of the folly of being
on ill terms with those one is to live with continually." He was stronger
than any of his mates, kept his head clearer because he did not fuddle it
with beer, and availed himself of the liberty which then existed of
working as fast and as much as he chose. On this point he says: "My
constant attendance (I never making a St. Monday) recommended me
to the master; and my uncommon quickness at composing occasioned
my being put upon all work of dispatch, which was generally better
paid. So I went on now very agreeably."
On his return to Philadelphia Franklin obtained for a few months
another occupation than that of printer; but this employment failing
through the death of his employer, Franklin returned to printing,
becoming the manager of a small printing office, in which he was the
only skilled workman and was expected to teach several green hands.
At that time he was only twenty-one years of age. This printing office
often wanted sorts, and there was no type-foundry in America. Franklin
succeeded in contriving a mould, struck the matrices in lead, and thus
supplied the deficiencies of the office. The autobiography says: "I also
engraved several things on occasion; I made the ink; I was warehouse
man and everything, and in short quite a factotum." Nevertheless, he
was dismissed before long by his incompetent employer, who, however,
was glad to re-engage him a few days later on obtaining a job to print
some paper money for New Jersey. Thereupon Franklin contrived a
copperplate press for this job--the first that had been seen in the
country--and cut the ornaments for the bills. Meantime Franklin, with
one of the apprentices, had ordered a press and types from London, that

they two might set up an independent office. Shortly after the New
Jersey job was finished, these materials arrived in Philadelphia, and
Franklin immediately opened his own printing office. His partner "was,
however, no compositor, a poor pressman, and seldom sober." The
office prospered, and in July, 1730, when Franklin was twenty-four
years old, the partnership was dissolved, and Franklin was at the head
of a well-established and profitable printing business. This business
was the foundation of Franklin's fortune; and better foundation no man
could desire. His industry was extraordinary. Contrary to the current
opinion, Dr. Baird of St. Andrews testified that the new printing office
would succeed, "for the industry of that Franklin," he said, "is superior
to anything I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at work when I go
home from the club, and he is at work again before the neighbors are
out of bed." No trade rules or customs limited or levied toll on his
productiveness. He speedily became by far the most successful printer
in all the colonies, and in twenty years was able to retire from active
business with a competency.
One would, however, get a wrong impression of Franklin's career as a
printer, if he failed to observe that from his boyhood Franklin
constantly used his connection with a printing office to facilitate his
remarkable work as an author, editor, and publisher. Even while he was
an apprentice to his brother James he succeeded in getting issued from
his brother's press ballads and newspaper articles of which he was the
anonymous author. When he had a press of his own he used it for
publishing a newspaper, an almanac, and numerous essays composed or
compiled by himself. His genius as a writer supported his skill and
industry as a printer.
The second part of the double subject assigned to me is Franklin as
philosopher. The philosophy he taught and illustrated related to four
perennial subjects of human interest--education, natural science,
politics, and morals. I propose to deal in that order with these four
topics.
Franklin's philosophy of education was elaborated as he grew up, and
was applied to himself throughout his life. In the first place, he had no

regular education of the usual sort. He studied and read with an
extraordinary diligence from his earliest years; but he studied only the
subjects which attracted him, or which he himself believed would be
good for him, and throughout life he pursued only those inquiries for
pursuing which he found within himself an adequate motive. The most
important element in his training was reading, for which he had a
precocious desire which was imperative, and proved to be lasting. His
opportunities to get books were scanty; but he seized on all such
opportunities, and fortunately he early came upon the "Pilgrim's
Progress," the Spectator, Plutarch, Xenophon's "Memorabilia," and
Locke "On the Human Understanding." Practice of English
composition was the next agency in Franklin's education; and his
method--quite of his own invention--was certainly an admirable one.
He