Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/22

12 the habit of conſulting him in their private affairs, and he was often choſen arbiter between contending parties.

He was fond of having at his table, as often as poſſible, ſome friends or well-informed neighbours capable of rational converſation, and he was always careful to introduce uſeful or ingenious topics of diſcourſe, which might tend to form the minds of his children. By this means he early attracted our attention to what was juſt, prudent, and beneficial in the conduct of life. He never talked of the meats which appeared upon the table, never diſcuſſed whether they were well or ill dreſſed, of a good or bad flavour, high-ſeaſoned or otherwiſe, preferable or inferior to this or that diſh of a ſimilar kind. Thus accuſtomed, from my infancy, to the utmoſt inattention as to theſe objects, I have always been perfectly regardleſs of what kind of food was before me; and I pay ſo little attention to it even now, that it would be a hard matter for me to recollect, a few hours after I had dined, of what my dinner had conſiſted. When travelling, I have particularly experienced the advantage of this habit; for it has often happened to me to be in company with perſons, who, having a more delicate, becauſe a more exerciſed taſte, have ſuffered in many caſes conſiderable inconvenience; while, as to myſelf, I have had nothing to deſire. My mother was likewiſe poſſeſſed of an excellent conſtitution. She ſuckled all her ten children, and I never heard either her or my father complain of any other diſorder than that of which they died: my father at the age of eighty-ſeven, and my mother at eighty-five. They are buried together at Boſton, where, a few years ago, I placed a marble over their grave, with this inſcription: