Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/12

2 the world. A conſtant good fortune has attended me through every period of life to my preſent advanced age; and my deſcendants may be deſirous of learning what were the means of which I made uſe, and which, thanks to the, aſſiſting hand of Providence, have proved ſo eminently ſucceſsful. They may alſo, ſhould they ever be placed in a ſimilar ſituation, derive ſome advantage from my narrative.

When I reflect, as I frequently do, upon the felicity I have enjoyed, I ſometimes ſay to myſelf, that, were the offer made me, I would engage to run again, from beginning to end, the ſame career of life. All I would aſk ſhould be the privilege of an author, to correct, in a ſecond edition, certain errors of the firſt. I could wiſh, likewiſe, if it were in my power, to change ſome trivial incidents and events for others more favourable. Were this however denied me, ſtill would I not decline the offer. But ſince a repetition of life cannot take place, there is nothing which, in my opinion, ſo nearly reſembles it, as to call to mind all its circumſtances, and, to render their remembrance more durable, commit them to writing. By thus employing myſelf, I ſhall yield to the inclination, ſo natural in old men, to talk of themſelves and their exploits, and may freely follow my bent, without being tireſome to thoſe who, from reſpect to my age, might think themſelves obliged to liſten to me; as they will be at liberty to read me or not as they pleaſe. In fine—and I may as well avow it, ſince nobody would believe me were I to deny it—I ſhall perhaps, by this employment, gratify my vanity. Scarcely indeed have I ever heard or read the introductory phraſe, "I may ſay without vanity" but ſome ſtriking and characteriſtic inſtance of vanity has immediately followed. The