tribulations were forgotten; and two thousand ministers were silenced in one day for non-conformity. The father of Franklin and one of his uncles adhered to their silenced pastors, and continued non-conformists to the end of their lives the rest of the family remained of the Church of England. These circumstances are worth recording, for they determined the removal of the family to America. The non-conforming clergymen being forbidden by law to hold their "conventicles," as they were called, and being frequently disturbed at their religious meetings, some considerable men of their acquaintance determined to emigrate to New England. The father of Franklin was induced to join them; and, in 1682,- sixty-two years after the settlement at Plymouth, he removed to Boston with his wife and three children. Four children were added to the number after their arrival in America; and ten more were born to the father of Franklin in a second marriage. Benjamin was the youngest of ten sons; and, with the exception of two daughters, the youngest of the family. He was born on the seventeenth of January, (New Style,) 1706, according to the common tradition, in a house in Milk Street, which many persons present will recollect as standing nearly opposite to the Old South Church. It is known that this house was, at one period, the residence of Franklin's father; but, according to an account given by the historian of Boston, (Dr Snow,) Dr Franklin himself informed a person, who was still living in 1824, that he was born in a house which stood at the corner of Union and Hanover Streets, and was afterwards known as a public house, by the sign of the Blue Ball. The father of Franklin, as we have seen, emigrated to America in 1682. The entire population of the British colonies was estimated, twenty years later, at two hundred and sixty thousand. In one hundred years from the time when his parents landed on this continent, Benjamin Franklin signed, at Versailles, the provisional articles of peace between the King of Great Britain and the United States of America, then containing a population of more than three millions. The mother of Benjamin Franklin, the second wife of his father, was Abiah Folgier, of Nantucket, daughter of Peter Folgier, one of the first settlers of New England, and the head of a family in which an aptitude for scientific attainment, scarcely if at all inferior to that possessed by Benjamin Franklin, has been transmitted to the present day. These venerated parents lived together in humble thrift to a good old age, and, before they departed, witnessed the growing honors of their illustrious son. "I never knew either my father or mother," says he, "to have any sickness but that of which they died, — he at eighty-nine, and she at eightyfive years of age. They lie buried together at Boston, where I some years since placed a marble over their grave, with this inscription: "— In the Original. JOSIAH FRANKLIN And ABIAH his wife, Lie here interred. They lived lovingly together in wedlock, And without an estate, or any gainful employment, Maintained a large family comfortably; And brought up thirteen children and seven grandchildren, From this instance, Reader, Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling, And distrust not Providence. He was a pious and prudent man, Their youngest son, In filial regard to their memory, J. F. born 1655, died 1744. Etas 89. In the Retranslation. Here lie Josias Franklin And Abiah his wife : They lived together with reciprocal affection And without private fortune, without lucrative employment, Thirteen children and seven grandchildren. Encourage thee diligently to discharge the duties And to rely on the support of Divine Providence. She discreet and virtuous. Their youngest son, From a sentiment of filial duty, Consecrates this stone To their memory. The humble memorial dutifully erected by Franklin to his parents, in the Granary Burying-ground, being in a state of decay, it was replaced, a year or two since, by a substantial granite obelisk. On its eastern front the name of FRANKLIN appears in relief; beneath which a copy of the original inscription, engraved upon a suitable slab, is sunk into the face of the obelisk. It was on the occasion of the erection of this monument, that I was first led to notice the difference between the original inscription and the version contained in the common editions of the autobiography. The brothers of Benjamin Franklin were all put as apprentices to various trades. Benjamin, at the age of eight years, was placed, in the year 1714, in the grammar school of Boston, the venerable parent of the classical schools of the country, still existing in our midst, and never more prosperous than at the present day. It was, at that time, under the care of the Rev. Nathaniel Williams. It was his father's intention, in placing him at this school, to devote Benjamin, as the tithe of his sons, to the church. His early readiness in learning to read, ("which," says he, "must have been very early, for I do not remember when I could not read,") and the opinion of all his friends that he would certainly make a good scholar, encouraged Franklin's father in the purpose of giving him a learned education. His uncle Benjamin approved the project so warmly, that he promised to give him, to set up with, the volumes containing the reports of sermons which he had taken in short hand, provided he would learn the character. Benjamin remained at the school less than a year; in which time, however, he rose gradually from the middle to the head of the class of that year, and thence to the class above; from which he was to have been still further advanced, at the end of the year. By this time, his father's purpose in reference to his education was changed, in consequence, perhaps, of some change of his circumstances; for the other reasons assigned - viz., the narrowness of his means and his large family, with the little encouragement afforded in that line of life to those educated for it must have existed, in equal force, the year before. In pursuance of this change in his destination, Benjamin, at the age of nine, was taken from the Latin school, and placed at a school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a then famous man, Mr George Brownwell. "He was," says Franklin, "a skilful master, and successful in his profession, employing the mildest and most encouraging methods. Under him, I learned to write a good hand pretty soon; but I failed entirely in arithmetic." Knowing, as we do, the general aptitude of Franklin for learning, and especially the clearness of his head, and the practical turn of his mind, it is surprising to hear him speak of failing in arithmetica simple study, in which, of all others, we should expect him to make early and easy progress, and in which a few years later he tells us he found no difficulty. We are inclined to do justice to the pupil at the expense of the master, and to doubt whether Master Brownwell could have been, as far as arithmetic is concerned, a skilful teacher. It seems impossible that a mind like Franklin's, even at that early age, should have failed to comprehend the rules and operations of arithmetic, had they been presented with even moderate good judgment. Some meagre manual of arithmetic was probably put into his hands, and he was told "to do the sums;" without any attempt, on the part of the book or the teacher, to explain their principles, or open the mind of the pupil, by familiar illustration, to the power of figures, and the nature of arithmetical processes. With this mode of teaching it, Franklin is not the only one who has had cause to lament "that he failed entirely in arithmetic." How justly he states "that he learned to write a good hand" during his year's instruction by Mr. Brownwell, is matter of notoriety; and few points of a practical education are of greater importance. At ten years old, he was taken from this school to help his father in his business. These two years of interrupted schooling, from the age of eight to that of ten, were all the regular education which Franklin ever received. It is an illustrious example how much can be done for the improvement of the mind, with the most scanty means when faithfully improved. Of the benefit which he derived from the Boston schools, Franklin himself, as I have already stated, retained to the close of his life a grateful recollection, evinced by a provision in his will by which his name will be embalmed in the hearts of the boys of Boston to the end of time. That provision must not be omitted on this occasion; it is in the following terms: * "I was born in Boston, New England, and owe my first instructions in literature to the free grammar schools established there. I therefore give one hundred pounds sterling to my executors, to be by them, the survivors or survivor of them, paid over to the managers or directors of the free schools in my native town of Boston, to be by them, or the person or persons who shall have the superintendence and management of the said The principal of the fund is now (1850) $1000. A sum two or three times larger than its interest is required for the annual distribution of medals, and is liberally supplied from the city treasury. |