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stances, I began to doubt his sincerity. I found my friend Denham and opened the whole affair to him. He let me into Keith's character, told me there was not the least probability that he had written any letters for me, that no one who knew him, had the smallest dependence on him; and he laughed at the idea of the Governor's giving me a letter of credit, having, as he said, no credit to give. On my expressing some concern about what I should do: he advised me to endeavour getting some employment, in the way of my business. Among the printers here, said he, you will improve yourself, and when you return to America, you will set up to greater advantage.

We both of us happened to know, as well as the stationer, that Riddlesden, the attorney, was a very knave. He had half ruined Miss Read's father, by persuading him to be bound for him. By his letter it appeared there was a secret scheme on foot to the prejudice of Mr. Hamilton, (supposed to be then coming over with us) that Keith was concerned in it, with Riddlesden. Denham, who was a friend of Hamilton's, thought he ought to be acquainted with it; so when he arrived in England, which was soon after, partly from resentment and ill-will to Keith and Riddlesden, and partly from good-will to him; I waited on him, and gave him the letter. He thanked me cordially, the information being of importance to him: and from that time he became my friend, greatly to my advantage afterwards on many occasions.

But what shall we think of a Governor playing such pitiful tricks, and imposing so grossly on a poor ignorant boy! It was a habit he had acquired. He wished to please every body; and having little to give, he gave expectations. He was otherwise an ingenious, sensible man, a pretty good writer, and a good Governor for the people; though not for his constituents the proprietaries, whose instructions he sometimes disregarded. Several of our best laws were of his planning, and passed during his administration.

Ralph and I were inseparable companions. We took lodgings together in Little Britain at 3s. 6d. per week; as much as we could then afford. He found some relations, but they were poor, and unable to assist him. He now let me know his intentions of remaining in London, and that he never meant to return to Philadelphia. He had brought no money with him, the whole he could muster having been expended in paying his passage. I had fifteen pistoles: so he borrowed occasionally of me to subsist, while he was looking out for business. He first endeavoured to get into the play-house, believing himself qualified for an actor; but Wilkes. to whom he applied, advised him candidly not to think of that employ

ment, as it was impossible he should succeed in it. Then he proposed to Roberts, a publisher in Pater-Noster-Row, to write for him a weekly paper like the Spectator, on certain conditions; which Roberts did not approve. Then he endeavoured to get employment as a hackney writer, to copy for the stationers and lawyers about the Temple; but could not find a vacancy.

For myself I immediately got into work at Palmer's, a famous printing-house in Bartholomew Close, where I continued near a year. I was pretty diligent, but I spent with Ralph a good deal of my earnings, in play and public amusements: we had nearly consumed all my pistoles, and now just rubbed on from hand to mouth. He seemed quite to have forgotten his wife and child; and I by degrees my engagements with Miss Read, to whom I never wrote more than one letter, and that was to let her know I was not likely soon to return. This was another of the great errata of my life which I could wish to correct, if I were to live it over again. In fact, by our expences I was constantly kept unable to pay my passage.

At Palmer's I was employed in composing for the second edition of Woollaston's Religion of Nature. Some of his reasonings not appearing to me well founded, I wrote a little metaphysical piece in which I made remarks on them. It was intitled "A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain." I inscribed it to my friend Ralph; I printed a small number. It occasioned my being more considered by Mr. Palmer, as a young man of some ingenuity, though he seriously expostulated with me upon the principles of my pamphlet, which to him appeared abominable. My printing this pamphlet was another erratum. While I lodged in Little Britain, I made an acquaintance with one Wilcox, a bookseller, whose shop was next door. He had an immense collection of second-hand books. Circulating libraries were not then in use; but we agreed that on certain reasonable terms, (which I have now forgotten,) I might take, read, and return any of his books; this I esteemed a great advantage, and I made as much use of it as I could.

My pamphlet by some means falling into the hands of one Lyons, a surgeon, author of a book intitled, "The Infallibility of Human Judgment;" it occasioned an acquaintance between us: he took great notice of me, called on me often to converse on those subjects, carried me to the Horns, a pale ale house in Lane, Cheap

side, and introduced me to Doctor Mandeville, author of the Fable of the Bees, who had a club there, of which he was the soul; being a most facetious, entertaining companion. Lyons too introduced me to Doctor Pemberton, at Batson's coffee-house, who promised to give me an opportunity some time or other, of seeing Sir Isaac Newton, of which I was extremely desirous; but this never happened,

VOL. I.

E

I had brought over a few curiosities, among which the principal was a purse made of the asbestos, which purifies by fire. Sir Hans Sloane heard of it, came to see me, and invited me to his house in Bloomsbury Square, showed me all his curiosities, and persuaded me to add that to the number; for which he paid me handsomely.

In our house lodged a young woman, a milliner, who, I think, had a shop in the cloisters she had been genteelly bred, was sensible, lively, and of a most pleasing conversation. Ralph read plays to her in the evenings, they grew intimate, she took another lodging, and he followed her. They lived together some time, but he being still out of business, and her income not sufficient to maintain them with her child, he took a resolution of going from London, to try for a country school, which he thought himself well qualified to undertake, as he wrote an excellent hand, and was a master of arithmetic and accounts. This however he deemed a business below him, and confident of future better fortune, when he should be unwilling to have it known that he once was so meanly employed, he changed his name, and did ine the honour to assume mine: for I soon after had a letter from him, acquainting me that he was settled in a small village in Berkshire, I think it was, where he taught reading and writing to ten or a dozen boys at 6d. each per week, recommending Mrs. T***, to my care, and desiring me to write to him, directing for Mr. Franklin, schoolmaster at such a place. He continued to write to me frequently, sending me large specimens of an epic poem, which he was then composing, and desiring my remarks and corrections. These I gave him from time to time, but endeavoured rather to discourage his proceeding. One of Young's satires was then just published: I copied and sent him a great part of it, which set in a strong light the folly of pursuing the Muses. All was in vain: sheets of the poem continued to come by every post.

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"Th' abandon'd manners of our writing train
May tempt mankind to think religion vain;
But in their fate, their habit, and their mien,
That Gods there are, is evidently seen:
Heav'n stands absolv'd by vengeance on their
And marks the murderers of fame from men :
Thro' meagre jaws they draw their venal breath,
As ghastly as their brothers in Macbeth:
Their feet thro' faithless leather meets the dirt,
And oftener chang'd their principles than shirt:
The transient vestments of these frugal men
Hasten to paper for our mirth again :

In the mean time, Mrs. T***, having on his account lost her friends and business, was often in distresses, and used to send for me, and borrow what money I could spare to help to alleviate them. I grew fond of her company, and being at that time under no religious restraint, and taking advantage of my importance to her, I attempted to take some liberties with her, (another erratum) which she repulsed, with a proper

Too soon (O merry, melancholy fate!)

They beg in rhyme, and warble thro' a grate;
The man lampoon'd, forgets it at the sight;
'The friend thro' pity gives, the foe thro' spight;
And tho' full conscious of his injur'd purse,
Lintot relents, nor Curll can wish them worse."

"An Author, 'tis a venerable name!
How few deserve it and what numbers claim!
Unbless'd with sense, above their peers refin'd,
Who shall stand up, dictators to mankind?
Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue's cause?
That sole proprietor of just applause.

"Ye restless men! who pant for letter'd praise,
With whom would you consult to gain the bays?
With those great authors whose fam'd works you read?
'Tis well; go, then, consult the laurell'd shade,
What answer will the laurell'd shade return?
Hear it and tremble, he commands you burn
The noblest works, his envy'd genius writ,
That boasts of naught more excellent than wit.
If this be true, as 'tis a truth most dread,
Wo to the page which has not that to plead !
Fontaine and Chaucer dying, wish'd unwrote
The sprightliest efforts of their wanton thought:

Sidney and Waller, brightest sons of fame,
Condemn'd the charm of ages to the flame."

"Thus ends your courted fame—does lucre then,
The sacred thirst of gold, betray your pen?
In prose 'tis blameable, in verse 'tis worse,
Provokes the Muse, extorts Apollo's curse;
His sacred influence never should be sold;
'Tis arrant simony to sing for gold;
'Tis immortality should fire your mind:
Scorn a less paymaster than all mankind.”-

YOUNG, Vol. III. Epist. II. p. 70.

degree of resentment. She wrote to Ralph and acquainted him with my conduct; this occasioned a breach between us; and when he returned to London, he let me know he considered all the obligations he had been under to me as annulled: from which I concluded I was never to expect his repaying the money I had lent him, or that I had advanced for him. This however was of little consequence, as he was totally unable; and by the loss of his friendship, I found myself relieved from a heavy burden. I now began to think of getting a little before-hand, and expecting better employment I left Palmer's to work at Watts's, (near Lincoln's Inn Fields) a still greater printing-house. Here I continued all the rest of my stay in London.

At my first admission into the printing-house I took to working at press, imagining I felt a want of the bodily exercise I had been used to in America, where presswork is mixed with the composing. I drank only water; the other workmen, near 50 in number, were great drinkers of beer. On occasion I carried up and down stairs a large form of types in each hand, when others carried but one in both hands; they wondered to see from this and several instances, that the Water-American as they called me, was stronger than themselves who drank strong beer. We had an alehouse boy, who attended always in the house to supply the workmen. My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner; a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about 6 o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom; but it was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer that he might be strong to labour. I endeavoured to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer, could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the barley dissolved in the water of which it was made; that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread, and therefore if he could eat that with a pint of water, it would give him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank on however, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that vile liquor; an expence I was free from. And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under.

Watts, after some weeks, desiring to have me in the composing room, I left the pressmen; a new bien venu for drink, (being 5s.) was demanded of me by the compositors. I thought it an imposition, as I had paid one to the pressmen; the master thought so too, and forbad my paying it. I stood out two or three weeks, was accordingly considered as an excommunicate, and had so many little pieces of private malice practised on me, by mixing my sorts, transposing and breaking my matter,

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