Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/69

59 Satires. I copied and ſent him a great part of it; in which the author demonſtrates the folly of cultivating the Muſes, from the hope, by their inſtrumentality, of riſing in the world. It was all to no purpoſe; paper after paper of his poem continued to arrive every poſt. Meanwhile Mrs, T*** having loſt, on his ac- count, both her friends and her buſineſs, was frequently in diſtreſs. In this dilemma ſhe had recourſe to me; and to extricate her from her difficulties, I lent her all the money I could ſpare. I felt a little too much fondneſs for her. Having at that time no ties of religion, and taking advantage of her neceſſitous ſituation, I attempted liberties (another error of my life,) which ſhe repelled with becoming indignation. She informed Ralph of my conduct; and the affair occaſioned a breach between us. When he returned to London, he gave me to underſtand that he conſidered all the obligations he owed me as annihilated by this proceeding; whence I concluded that I was never to expect the payment of what money I had lent him, or advanced on his account. I was the leſs afflicted at this, as he was wholly unable to pay me; and as, by loſing his friendſhip, I was relieved at the ſame time from a very heavy burden.

I now began to think of laying by ſome money. The printing-houſe of Watts, near Lincoln’s-Inn Fields, being a ſtill more conſiderable one than that in which I worked, it was probable I might find it more advantageous to be employed there. I offered myſelf, and was accepted; and in this houſe I continued during the remainder of my ſtay in London.

On my entrance I worked at firſt as a preſſman, conceiving that I had need of bodily exerciſe, to which I had been accuſtomed in America,