Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/163

153 to have any immediate relation to their advantage.

I was born in Boſton, New-England, and owe my firſt inſtructions in literature to the free grammar-ſchools eſtabliſhed there. I have therefore conſidered thoſe ſchools in my will.

But I am alſo under obligations to the ſtate of Maſſachuſetts, for having, unaſked, appointed me formerly their agent, with a handſome ſalary, which continued ſome years: and although I accidentally loſt in their ſervice, by tranſmitting governor Hutchinſon's letters, much more than the amount of what they gave me, I do not think that ought in the leaſt to diminiſh my gratitude. I have conſidered that, among artiſans, good apprentices are moſt likely to make good citizens; and having myſelf been bred to a manual art, printing, in my native town, and afterwards aſſiſted to ſet up my buſineſs in Philadelphia by kind loans of money from two friends there, which was the foundation of my fortune, and of all the utility in life that may be aſcribed to me—I wiſh to be uſeful even after my death, if poſſible, in forming and advancing other young men, that maybe ſerviceable to their country in both theſe towns.

To this end I devote two thouſand pounds ſterling, which I give, one thouſand thereof to the inhabitants of the town of Boſton, in Maſſachuſetts, and the other thouſand to the inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia, in truſt, to and for the uſes, intents, and purpoſes, herein after mentioned and declared.

The ſaid ſum of one thouſand pounds ſterling, if accepted by the inhabitants of the town of Boſton, ſhall be managed under the direction of the ſelect men, united with the miniſters of the oldeſt epiſcopalian, congregational, and