Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/28

18 reſolves an odd volume of the Spectator fell into my hands. This was a publication I had never ſeen. I bought the volume, and read it again and again. I was enchanted with it, thought the ſtyle excellent, and wiſhed it were in my power to imitate it. With this view I ſelected ſome of the papers, made ſhort ſummaries of the ſenſe of each period, and put them for a few days aſide. I then, without looking at the book, endeavoured to reſtore the eſſays to their true form, and to expreſs each thought at length, as it was in the original, employing the moſt appropriate words that occurred to my mind. I afterwards compared my Spectator with the original; I perceived ſome faults, which I corrected: but I found that I wanted a fund of words, if I may ſo expreſs myſelf, and a facility of recollecting and employing them, which I thought I ſhould by that time have acquired, had I continued to make verſes. The continual need of words of the ſame meaning, but of different lengths for the meaſure, or of different ſounds for the rhyme, would have obliged me to ſeek for a variety of ſynonymes, and have rendered me maſter of them. From this belief, I took ſome of the tales of the Spectator and turned them into verſe; and after a time, when I had ſufficiently forgotten them, I again converted them into proſe. Sometimes alſo I mingled all my ſummaries together; and a few weeks after, endeavoured to arrange them in the beſt order, before I attempted to form the periods and complete the eſſays. This I did with a view of acquiring method in the arrangement of my thoughts. On comparing afterwards my performance with the original, many faults were apparent, which I corrected; but I had ſometimes the ſatisfaction to