Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/74

64 which ſhe anſwered, that it was impoſſible to avoid vain thoughts.

I was once permitted to viſit her. She was cheerful and polite, and her converſation agreeable. Her apartment was neat; but the whole furniture conſiſted of a mattreſs, a table, on which were a crucifix and a book, a chair, which ſhe gave me to ſit on, and over the mantlepiece a picture of St. Veronica diſplaying her handkerchief, on which was ſeen the miraculous impreſſion of the face of Chriſt, which ſhe explained to me with great gravity. Her countenance was pale, but ſhe had never experienced ſickneſs; and I may adduce her as another proof how little is ſufficient to maintain life and health.

At the printing-houſe I contracted an intimacy with a ſenſible young man of the name of Wygate, who, as his parents were in good circumſtances, had received a better education than is common with printers. He was a tolerable Latin ſcholar, ſpoke French fluently, and was fond of reading. I taught him, as well as a friend of his, to ſwim, by taking them twice only into the river; after which they ſtood in need of no farther aſſiſtance. We one day made a party to go by water to Chelſea, in order to ſee the College, and Don Saltero's curioſities. On our return, at the requeſt of the company, whoſe curioſity Wygate had excited, I undreſſed myſelf, and leaped into the river. I ſwam from near Chelſea the whole way to Blackfriars Bridge, exhibiting, during my courſe, a variety of feats of activity and addreſs, both upon the ſurface of the water as well as under it. This ſight occaſioned much aſtoniſhment and pleaſure to thoſe to whom it was new. In my youth I took great delight in this exerciſe. I knew, and could execute, all the evolutions and poſitions of