Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/86

76 ſoon ſupplant this man," ſpeaking of Keimer, "and get a fortune in the buſineſs at Philadelphia." He was wholly ignorant at the time of my intention of eſtabliſhing myſelf there, or any where elſe. Theſe friends were very ſerviceable to me in the end, as was I alſo, upon occaſion, to ſome of them; and they have continued ever ſince their eſteem for me.

Before I relate the particulars of my entrance into buſineſs, it may be proper to inform you what was at that time the ſtate of my mind as to moral principles, that you may fee the degree of influence they had upon the ſubſequent events of my life.

My parents had given me betimes religious impreſſions; and I received from my infancy a pious education in the principles of Calviniſm. But ſcarcely was I arrived at fifteen years of age, when, after having doubted in turn of different tenets, according as I found them combated in the different books that I read, I began to doubt of revelation itſelf. Some volumes againſt deiſm fell into my hands. They were ſaid to be the ſubſtance of ſermons preached at Boyle's lecture. It happened that they produced on me an effect preciſely the reverſe of what was intended by the writers; for the arguments of the deiſts, which were cited in order to be refuted, appeared to me much more forcible than the refutation itſelf. In a word, I ſoon became a perfect deiſt. My arguments perverted ſome other young perſons; particularly Collins and Ralph. But in the ſequel, when I recollected that they had both uſed me extremely ill, without the ſmalleſt remorſe; when I conſidered the behaviour of Keith, another free-thinker, and my own conduct towards Vernon and Miſs Read, which at times gave me much uneaſineſs, I was led to ſuſpect that this doctrine,