Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/18

8 wife, making in all ſeventeen. I remember to have ſeen thirteen ſeated together at his table, who all arrived to years of maturity, and were married. I was the laſt of the ſons, and the youngeſt child, excepting two daughters. I was born at Boſton in new England. My mother, the ſecond wife, was Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter Folger, one of the firſt coloniſts of New England, of whom Cotton Mather makes honourable mention, in his Eccleſiaſtical Hiſtory of that province, as "a pious and learned Engliſhman" if I rightly recollect his expreſſions. I have been told of his having written a variety of little pieces; but there appears to be only one in print, which I met with many years ago. It was publiſhed in the year 1675, and is in familiar verſe, agreeably to the taſte of the times and the country. The author addreſſes himſelf to the governors for the time being, ſpeaks for liberty of conſcience, and in favour of the anabaptiſts, quakers, and other ſectaries, who had ſuffered perſecution. To this perſecution he attributes the wars with the natives, and other calamities which afflicted the country, regarding them as the judgments of God in puniſhment of ſo odious an offence, and he exhorts the government to the repeal of laws ſo contrary to charity. The poem appeared to be written with a manly freedom and a pleaſing ſimplicity. I recollect the ſix concluding lines, though I have forgotten the order of words of the two firſt; the ſenſe of which was, that his cenſures were dictated by benevolence, and that, of conſequence, he wiſhed to be known as the author; becauſe, ſaid he I hate from my very ſoul diſſimulation:

From Sherburne, where I dwell, I therefore put my name, Your friend, who means you well,