Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/59

49 ſenſible, and ſincere and affectionate in his friendſhips, but too much inclined to the critic in matters of literature. Ralph was ingenious and ſhrewd, genteel in his addreſs, and extremely eloquent. I do not remember to have met with a more agreeable ſpeaker. They were both enamoured of the muſes, and had already evinced their paſſion by ſome ſmall poetical productions.

It was a cuſtom with us to take a charming walk on Sundays, in the woods that border the Skuylkil. Here we read together, and afterwards converſed on what we read. Ralph was diſpoſed to give himſelf up entirely to poetry. He flattered himſelf that he ſhould arrive at great eminence in the art, and even acquire a fortune. The ſublimeſt poets, he pretended, when they firſt began to write, committed as many faults as himſelf. Oſborne endeavoured to diſſuade him, by aſſuring him that he had no genius for poetry, and adviſed him to ſtick to the trade in which he had been brought up. In the road of commerce, ſaid he, you will be ſure, by diligence and aſſiduity, though you have no capital, of ſo far ſucceeding as to be employed as a factor, and may thus, in time, acquire the means of ſetting tip for yourſelf. I concurred in theſe ſentiments, but at the ſame time expreſſed my approbation of amuſing ourſelves ſometimes with poetry, with a view to improve our ſtyle. In conſequence of this it was propoſed, that, at our next meeting, each of us ſhould bring a copy of verſes of his own compoſition. Our object in this competition was to benefit each other by our mutual remarks, criticiſms, and corrections; and as ſtyle and expreſſion were all we had in view, we excluded every idea of invention, by agreeing that our taſk ſhould be a verſion of the eighteenth pſalm, in which is deſcribed the deſcent of the deity.