he wished to avoid, for he had a manly obliging disposition; and having informed himself of Tryon's mode of preparing several dishes, of such articles as were in common use and easily procured, particularly potatoes, rice, corn-meal for hasty-pudding, and some others, he then told his brother that if he would give him, every week, half the money paid for his board, he would board himself. The proposal was instantly accepted, and the benefits he derived from this arrangement shall be stated in his own words :

"I presently found," says he, "that I could save half what he paid me. This was an additional fund for buying books; but I had another advantage in it. My brother and the rest going from the printing-house 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, a handful of raisins, or a tart from the pastry-cook's, and a glass of water), had the rest of the time, till their return, for study; in which I made the greater progress, from that greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension, which generally attend 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 of learning when at school, I took up Cocker's Arithmetic, and went through the whole by myself, with the greatest ease. I also read Seller and Sturney's book on navigation, which made me acquainted with what little geometry it contains."

About the same period he read attentively the great work of Locke On The Human Understanding, and another work having mainly, the character of a treatise on logic, produced by the celebrated society of Port Royal, in France, and entitled, The Art of Thinking.

At this period, also, a treatise on English grammar came in his way, and he had the good sense and industry to avail himself of it, to obtain a more full and systematic understanding of that subject, than he yet possessed; an acquisition indispensable to his becoming, what was then the leading aim of his ambition, a good writer. As the same book also contained short treatises on rhetoric and logic, he possessed himself of what instruction they had to impart on those subjects.

The last-named treatise, indeed, proved to be, to him, by no means unimportant; inasmuch as it wrought a considerable change in one of his mental habits. The treatise on logic closed with a dispute, regularly drawn out in the form of a dialogue, and conducted in the Socratic method; that is, the method of conducting a discussion, which the ancient Athenian philosopher, Socrates, was accustomed to pursue. It may gratify some of the youthful readers, for whom this narrative of the life of Franklin is principally intended, to say a few words of the method referred to.

In ancient times, when the art of printing was not known, the great task of instruction was performed for the most part orally. Sometimes the teacher communicated his knowledge in systematic discourses, the pupils being mere listeners; and sometimes a conversational method was adopted, the teacher being the principal speaker, but permitting and inviting his pupils to put questions, and giving them categorical answers.

Socrates, the most successful teacher, as well as the wisest man, of his time, was not only accustomed to use the form of dialogue, and to give it the freest conversational turn, but he had, also, a peculiar method of leading his disciples and followers to the most strenuous exercise of their own faculties, in receiving the opinions and the knowledge he wished to impart. Instead of

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making himself the only speaker, he was frequently not even the principal one; but, by a succession of questions, so framed as gradually to open a subject in all its parts and bearings, and, when finally contemplated together, to present a complete analysis of it, he led the minds of his pupils, step by step, to reason out for themselves the conclusions, to which he sought to bring them. The most peculiar and striking feature of this method, as Socrates employed it, was the framing of his questions, or interrogative propositions, in such manner as to draw from the pupil, or the antagonist, in the first instance, concessions, or affirmations, which, as the investigation proceeded, it was soon found, had been unwarily made, and must be materially modified, or abandoned, and the point to which they related be taken up again at the beginning, in order to amend the reasoning by the help of the new lights shed upon the subject, from the various unexpected relations in which it had been presented. In this way, the just conclusions aimed at, were at length reached; while, in the process, besides becoming possessed, in the most exact and perfect manner, of the truths which had been the main objects of pursuit, the pupil had also been taught the value of circumspection and caution; the necessity of discrimination, of not taking too many things for granted, of a patient and faithful examination of each argument in its various bearings and connexions; in short, his mind had been subjected to a most invigorating and wholesome discipline.

Soon after his perusal of the treatise on logic, Benjamin procured an English translation of Xenophon's Memorabilia of Socrates, which contains many specimens of the mode of investigation above described; and, as he declares, becoming charmed with it, he adopted it; dropped his habit of abrupt contradiction and posi

tive argumentation, and assumed the much better manner of the modest inquirer.

As the best things, however, are liable to abuse, so this Socratic method of conducting an argument may, by an acute and skilful disputant, be made the means of obtaining unfair advantages over one, who, though less expert, may, at the same time, have the more just cause, be the sounder thinker of the two, and much the wiser man. Franklin confesses, that in his youthful zeal and fondness for disputation, he sometimes used his new weapon more for the sake of victory, than truth; that in his eager practice of it, he acquired an adroitness that enabled him occasionally to draw persons, superior to himself in knowledge, into admissions, which, involving consequences they did not foresee, gave him sometimes a nominal triumph, which neither himself nor his cause deserved. It is, however, in this case, as in various others which occurred in his experience, gratifying to find, that his clear good sense and general rectitude of mind enabled him at last, to separate the use from the abuse, and rejecting the latter, to retain the modest and deferential manner of discussion, which is, in truth, the most legitimate effect of the method in question, and the one which, among others, its original inventor intended it should chiefly produce.

Franklin states, that after practising it a few years," he laid it aside, retaining only the habit of expressing himself in modest terms, when advancing sentiments open to dispute; never using the word "certainly," or "undoubtedly," or any other having an air of positiveness; but employing the phrase "I conceive," or "I apprehend," or "it seems to me," and the like; a habit which, he takes the occasion to say, he found very advantageous, in his subsequent experience, whenever he sought to obtain the assent of others to his opinions,

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or his measures. In this he was doubtless correct; and he justly deems this point so important, that he presses it with much earnestness. His remarks are so pithy and so well worthy of attention, that they are here repeated :

"As the chief ends of conversation are to inform, or to be informed, to please, or to persuade, I wish wellmeaning and sensible men would not lessen their power of doing good, by a positive assuming manner, that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create opposition, and to defeat most of those purposes for which speech was given to us. In fact, if you wish to instruct others, a positive dogmatical manner in advancing your sentiments, may occasion opposition and prevent a candid attention. If you desire instruction and improvement from others, you should not at the same time express yourself fixed in your present opinions. Modest and sensible men, who do not love disputation, will leave you undisturbed in the possession of your errors. In adopting such a manner, you can seldom expect to please your hearers, or to obtain the concurrence you desire. Pope judiciously observes

"Men must be taught, as if you taught them not;
And things unknown, proposed as things forgot."

He also recommends it to us

"To speak, though sure, with seeming diffidence."

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