The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin/Section Fourty One

Section Fourty One
In 1733, I sent one of my Journeymen to Charleston South Carolina where a Printer was wanting. I furnish’d him with a Press and Letters, on an Agreement of Partnership, by which I was to receive One Third of the Profits, of the Business, paying One Third of the Expense. He was a Man of Learning and honest, but ignorant in Matters of Account; and tho’ he sometimes made me Remittances, I could get no Account from him, nor any satisfactory State of our Partnership while he lived. On his Decease, the Business was continued by his Widow, who being born & bred in Holland, where as I have been inform’d the Knowledge of Accompts makes a Part of Female Education, she not only sent me as clear a State as she could find of the Transactions past, but continu’d to account with the greatest Regularity & Exactitude every Quarter afterwards; and manag’d the Business with such Success that she not only brought up reputably a Family of Children, but at the Expiration of the Term was able to purchase of me the Printinghouse and establish her Son in it. I mention this Affair chiefly for the Sake of recommending that Branch of Education for our young Females, as likely to be of more Use to them & their children in Case of Widowhood than either Music or Dancing, by preserving them from Losses by Imposition of crafty Men, and enabling them to continue perhaps a profitable mercantile House with establish’d Correspondence till a Son is grown up fit to undertake and go on with it, to the lasting Advantage and enriching of the Family.

About the Year 1734, there arrived among us from Ireland, a young Presbyterian Preacher named Hemphill, who delivered with a good Voice, & apparently extempore, most excellent Discourses, which drew together considerable Numbers of different Persuasions, who join’d in admiring them. Among the rest I became one of his constant Hearers, his Sermons pleasing me as they had little of the dogmatical kind, but inculcated strongly the Practice of Virtue, or what in the religious Style are called Good Works. Those however, of our Congregation, who considered themselves as orthodox Presbyterians, disapprov’d his Doctrine, and were join’d by most of the old Clergy, who arraign’d him of Heterodoxy before the Synod, in order to have him silenc’d. I became his zealous Partisan, and contributed all I could to raise a Party in his Favor; and we combatted for him a while with some Hopes of Success. There was much Scribbling pro & con upon the Occasion; and finding that tho’ an elegant Preacher he was but a poor Writer, I lent him my Pen and wrote for him two or three Pamphlets, and one Piece in the Gazette of April 1735. Those Pamphlets, as is generally the Case with controversial Writings, tho’ eagerly read at the time, were soon out of Vogue, and I question whether a single Copy of them now exists. During the Contest an unlucky Occurrence hurt his Cause exceedingly. One of our Adversaries having heard him preach a Sermon that was much admired, thought he had somewhere read that Sermon before, or at least a part of it. On Search he found that Part quoted at length in one of the British Reviews, from a Discourse of Dr Forster’s. This Detection gave many of our Party Disgust, who accordingly abandoned his Cause, and occasion’d our more speedy Discomfiture in the Synod. I stuck by him however, as I rather approv’d his giving us good Sermons compos’d by, others, than bad ones of his own Manufacture; tho’ the latter was the Practice of our common Teachers. He afterwards acknowledg’d to me that none of those he preach’d were his own; adding that his Memory was such as enabled him to retain and repeat any Sermon after one Reading only. On our Defeat he left us, in search elsewhere of better Fortune, and I quitted the Congregation, never joining it after, tho’ I continu’d many Years my Subscription for the Support of its Ministers.

I had begun in 1733 to study Languages. I soon made myself so much a Master of the French as to be able to read the Books with Ease. I then undertook the Italian. An Acquaintance who was also learning it, us’d often to tempt me to play Chess with him. Finding this took up too much of the Time I had to spare for Study, I at length refus’d to play any more, unless on this Condition, that the Victor in every Game, should have a Right to impose a Task, either in Parts of the Grammar to be got by heart, or in Translation, &c. which Tasks the Vanquish’d was to perform upon Honor before our next Meeting. As we play’d pretty equally we thus beat one another into that Language. I afterwards with a little Pains- taking acquir’d as much of the Spanish as to read their Books also. I have already mention’d that I had only one Year’s Instruction in a Latin School, and that when very young, after which I neglected that Language entirely. But when I had attained an Acquaintance with the French, Italian and Spanish, I was surpris’d to find on looking over a Latin Testament, that I understood so much more of that Language than I had imagined; which encouraged me to apply myself again to the Study of it, & I met with the more Success, as those preceding Languages had greatly smooth’d my Way. From these Circumstances I have thought that there is some Inconsistency in our common Mode of Teaching Languages. We are told that it is proper to begin first with the Latin, and having acquir’d that it will be more easy to attain those modern Languages which are deriv’d from it; and yet we do not begin with the Greek in order more easily to acquire the Latin. It is true, that if you can clamber & get to the Top of a Stair-Case without using the Steps, you will more easily gain them in descending: but certainly if you begin with the lowest you will with more Ease ascend to the Top. And I would therefore offer it to the Consideration of those who superintend the Educating of our Youth, whether, since many of those who begin with the Latin, quit the same after spending some Years, without having made any great Proficiency, and what they have learned becomes almost useless, so that their time has been lost, it would not have been better to have begun them with the French, proceeding to the Italian &c. for tho’ after spending the same time they should quit the Study of Languages, & never arrive at the Latin, they would however have acquir’d another Tongue or two that being in modern Use might be serviceable to them in common Life.