A History of the University of Pennsylvania from Its Foundation to A. D. 1770

Front matter

A History of the University of Pennsylvania

from Its Foundation to A. D. 1770

Including Biographical Sketches of the Trustees, Faculty, the First Alumni and Others

Errata

Page 9, | line 6 | Life of, by, | and not | Life of.

32 | 30 | associators | " | associations

37 | 31 | studium | " | studiam

53 | 9 | Fourth | " | Tenth

81 | 33 | Parton | " | Paxton

118 | 29 | Lawrence | " | Laurence

126 | 1 | Rowning | " | Bowning

" | 23 | do | " | Bonning

208 | 20 | viri | " | vivi.

" | 34 | visitor | " | writer

393 | 38 | 1 July 1690 o. s. | " | 1 July 1690 n.s.

Preface

Some years ago the late Provost, Dr. Pepper, sought my interest in writing a History of the University of Pennsylvania from its beginning to the present generation, and asked me to undertake it. The honor of his urgency in the matter was so flattering that I eventually agreed to respond to his call, and soon made preparations for the work, which was to be carried on within my own time and opportunities. The progress of this was a great pleasure to me, and its course proved both entertaining and instructive as the material for its compilation was both rich and ample.

My labors had to be carries on in the interval hours of a busy life, but in a year of two its claims seemed to press; and finally, even after some weeks respite abroad, I found myself unable to proceed by the year 1769, when health dictated by arresting the work there.

Complete as it is to this point I now submit it to he friends of the University. These early years of its operations here set forth in full illustrate its formative period, which is the most instructive in its life. The detail it is hoped, truly portrays the Men and Movements of the ante-Revolutionary period in the Province of Pennsylvania: and as the Movements of that colonial period, all in some degree, shed their light on the colony's greatest educational undertaking; so the Men concerned in it were the representatives of the contemporary thought, and moved with influence in those circles which shaped the destinies of the Province, as well also those of the Nation that was then approaching its adult years.

If this picture of those times (for the University was necessarily a part of them) will serve to enlighten and interest its Alumni, and form any inspiration to its Matriculates, in the personal portrayals of the men who built the foundations upon which the present great superstructure rests, the writer will be gratified.

Having been himself at one time a pupil in the old Academy building, his interest has been enhanced in the course of the present work by the memory of his attendance on tuition in the venerable birthplace, now no more, of the great educational institution whose continuing years have left a record of such great interest, and which to-day holds out such enlarging promises, the fruitage of the seed laid there in 1749 by the "voluntary society of founders," as the Trustees were termed by the first Provost.

Thos. H. Montgomery.

Some of the Works Referred to

Some of the Works Referred to in the Following Pages.

Aberdeen University.—Mss. Abstracts and Minutes from Records.

Alden, Timothy.—A Collection of American Epitaphs. New York, 1814.

Allen, Ethan.—Historical Notices of St Anne's Parish, Annapolis. Baltimore, 1857.

Allibone, S. Austin.—A Critical Dictionary of English Literature. Philadelphia, 1858.

Allison & Penrose.—Philadelphia, a History of Municipal Development. Philadelphia, 1887.

"American Magazine or Monthly Chronicle for the British Colonies." 1757.

Arnold, Matthew.—Address on Foreign Education, read in University Chapel, 1886.

Ayres, Anne.—Life and Work of William Augustus Muhlenberg, D. D. New York, 1881.

Bancroft, George.—History of the United States. 13th ed. Boston, 1846.

Barton, Thomas.—Sermon on Unanimity and Publick Spirit. 1755.

Beardsley, E. Edwards.—Life and Correspondence of Samuel Johnson, D. D. 1874.

——Life and Correspondence of Samuel Seabury, D. D. 1881.

Bigelow, John.—The Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin. New York and London, 1887.

Bowring, John.—Compendious System of Natural Philosophy. London, 1744.

Brown, John.—Sermon, on publication of the Brief. 6 March 1763.

Brown, David Paul.—The Forum. Philadelphia, 1886.

Buchanan, Edward Y.—Early History of Trinity Church, Oxford. Two Discourses. Philadelphia, 1885.

Burnaby, Andrew.—Travels through the Middle Settlements in North America, in the Years 1759 and 1760. London, 1798.

Burd Papers, the.—Extracts from Chief Justice William Allen's Letter Book, by Lewis Burd Walker. 1897.

Burnet, Gilbert.—History of my own Times. 1734.

Carson, Joseph.—History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. 1869.

Coates, Mary.—Family Memorials, Philadelphia, 1885.

Collections of the Protestant Episcopal Historical Society. New York, 1851.

Delaware County Historical Society, Proceedings.

Dexter, Franklin B.—Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History. 1885.

Duyckinck, Evart A. & George L.—Cyclopædia of American Literature. New York, 1856.

Fisher, J. Francis.—Sketch of James Logan. In Sparks' Works of Benjamin Franklin, 1840.

Fisher, Sidney G.—Church Colleges, their History, Position and Importance. Philadelphia, 1895.

Ford, Paul Leicester.—Bibliography of Benjamin Franklin. Brooklyn, 1889.

Forster, J. Montgomery.—Memoir of Rev. Joseph Montgomery. 1879.

Franklin, Benjamin.—Proposals relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania. 1749.

——Cool Thoughts on the Present Situation of our Public Affairs. 1764.

——Narrative of the late Massacres in Lancaster County of a Number of Indians, friends of the Province. 1764.

——Remarks on a late protest against the appointment of Mr. Franklin as Agent for the Province of Pennsylvania. 1764.

——Observations relative to the intentions of the original founders of the Academy in Philadelphia. 1789.

Franklin, William Temple.—Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin. London, 1818.

"Gentlemen's Magazine," the.

Gledstone, James P.—Life and Travels of George Whitefield. London, 1871.

Gordon, Thomas F.—History of Pennsylvania. 1829.

Graydon, Alexander.—Memoirs of a Life chiefly passed in Pennsylvania. 1811.

Hildeburn, Charles R.—Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania. 1886.

Hopkinson, Francis.—Errata on the Art of Printing incorrectly … Examples taken from a Latin Grammar lately printed, etc. Philadelphia, 1763.

——The Psalms of David, etc., etc. For the use of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in the City of New York. New York, 1766.

——Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings. Philadelphia, 1793.

Hosack, David.—Inaugural Discourse delivered at the opening of Rutgers Medical School in the City of New York, 1826.

Hunt, Isaac.—Letters from Transylvania. 1764.

Jay, Sir James.—Letter to the Governors of the College of New York respecting the Collection for the Colleges of Philadelphia and New York. London, 1771.

Jenkins, Howard M.—Family of William Penn. 1899.

Johnson, Samuel.—Elementa Philosophica, containing chiefly Noetica or Things Relating to the Mind or Understanding, etc. Philadelphia, 1752.

——American Annotations on Bishop Berkeley's Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge.

Keith, Charles P.—The Provincial Councillors of Pennsylvania. 1883.

Kingsley, William L.—Yale College; a Sketch of Its History. 1879.

Krauth, Charles V.—Treatise, etc., with Prolegomena and Annotations. Philadelphia, 1886.

Lewis, William.—Commercium Philosophico-technicum. London, 1736–'66.

Logan, Deborah.—Penn and Logan Correspondence. 1870.

Martin, John Hill.—Bench and Bar of Philadelphia. 1883.

"Maryland Gazette," The.

McMaster, John B. & Stone, Frederick D.—Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution. Philadelphia, 1888.

Mears, Anne deB.—Old York Road and Its Early Associations. Philadelphia, 1890.

Mifflin, John.—History of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the American War. London, 1794.

Morgan, John.—A Discourse upon the Institution of Medical Schools in America. Delivered at the Public Anniversary Commencement held in the College of Philadelphia, May 30 and 31, 1765. Philadelphia, 1765.

Morton, Thomas G.—The History of the Pennsylvania Hospital, 1751–1895. Philadelphia, 1895.

Newman, F. W.—The English Universities, from the German of V. A. Huber. London, 1843.

Newman, John Henry.—Office and Work of Universities. London, 1856.

"New York Gazette," The.

New York Historical Society, Collections of.

"New York Mercury," The.

Overseers of the Public School of Friends, Mss. and Minutes.

Palfrey, John G.—A History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty. 1859–1864.

Parton, James.—Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. New York, 1864.

"Pennsylvania Gazette, The."

"Pennsylvania Journal, The."

"Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography," the

Perry, William Stevens.—Historical Collections of the American Colonial Church. 1871.

——History of the American Episcopal Church. 1885.

Philipps, Thomas.—Way of Teaching Languages. 1723.

Porter, Noah.—American Colleges and the American Public. 1878.

Proud, Robert.—History of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, 1797.

"Quarterly Theological Magazine," Philadelphia. 1814.

Quincy, Josiah.—History of Harvard University. Cambridge, 1849.

Reed, William B.—Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed. Philadelphia, 1847.

Ridgely, H. W.—Old Brick Churches of Maryland. New York, 1894.

"Royal Gazette, The."

Sargent, John.—The Mine and other Poems. 1784.

Scharf & Westcott.—History of Philadelphia. 1884.

Smith, Horace W.—Life and Correspondence of the Rev. William Smith, D. D., etc. Philadelphia, 1880.

Smith, Rev. William.—Some thoughts on Education with Reasons for Erecting a College in this Province, and fixing the same at the City of New York. 1752.

——A General Idea of the College of Mirania. 1753.

——A Poem on visiting the Academy of Philadelphia, June, 1753.

——Personal Affliction and frequent Reflection upon human Life, of great use to lead man to the Remembrance of God. Philadelphia, 1754.

——Discourses on Several Public occasions during the War in America. London, 1759. 2nd ed., 1762.

——An Historical Account of the Expedition against the Ohio Indians in the year 1764. 1765.

——Works. 1803.

Sparks, Jared.—The Works of Benjamin Franklin. 1840.

Sprague, William B.—Annals of the American Episcopal Pulpit. New York, 1859.

Stewart, Andrew.—Short Introduction to Grammar for the use of the College and Academy in Philadelphia, etc. 1762.

Stiles, Ezra.—In Gratulatione Nobilissimi et Amplissimi viri B. Franklinii, &c., &c. 1818.

——Mss. Diary.

Stillé, Charles J.—Life and Times of John Dickinson. 1891.

——A Memoir of the Rev. William Smith, D. D. 1869.

Thacher, James.—American Medical Biography. 1828.

Thorn, Walter.—History of Aberdeen. Aberdeen, 1811.

Tyerman.—Life of Rev. George Whitefield. 1876.

University of Pennsylvania. Biographical Catalogue of the Matriculates of the College, etc. 1749–1893. Philadelphia, 1894.

——Mss. Minutes of the Academy and College.

Watson, John F.—Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. 1870.

Westcott, Thompson.—Historic Mansions of Philadelphia. Revised ed. Philadelphia, 1895.

White, Andrew.—History of the Warfare of Science and Theology. 1896.

White, William.—Commentaries suited to occasions of Ordination. New York, 1833.

——Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church. New York, 1836.

——Memoir of the Life of Dr. Bird Wilson. 1839.

Whitehead, William.—A Charge to the Poets. 1762.

Wickersham, James P.—History of Education in Pennsylvania. 1886.

William and Mary College, Historical Sketch of. Baltimore, 1870.

Williamson, Hugh.—History of North Carolina. Philadelphia, 1812.

Wister, Charles J., Jr.—Memoir of Charles J. Wister, 1866.

Wood, George B.—History of the University of Pennsylvania. 1827. Also edited in 1896 by Frederick D. Stone.

Wordsworth, Christopher.—Social Life at the English Universities. London, 1874.

Chapter 1

Benjamin Franklin laid the first stone of an institution which was destined to outgrow in usefulness and in influence any other of the creations of his fertile brain, when he announced in a communication to the printers of his Pennsylvania Gazette which appeared on 24 August, 1749, the prospectus of his scheme for the higher education of youth in his adopted city in the following sentences:

In the settling of new countries, the first care of the planters must be to provide and secure the necessaries of life; this engrosses their attention, and affords them little time to think of any thing farther. We may therefore excuse our ancestors, that they established no Academy or college in this province, wherein their youth might receive a polite and learned education. Agriculture and mechanic arts, were of the most immediate importance; the culture of minds by the finer arts and sciences, was necessarily postpon'd to times of more wealth and leisure.

Since those times are come, and numbers of our inhabitants are both able and willing to give their sons a good education, if it might be had at home, free from the extraordinary expence and hazard in sending them abroad for that purpose; and since a proportion of men of learning is useful in every country, and those who of late years come to settle among us, are chiefly foreigners, unacquainted with our language, laws and customs; it is thought a proposal for establishing an Academy in this province, will not now be deemed unseasonable. Such a proposal the publick may therefore shortly expect. In the meantime, please to give the following letter of the younger Pliny to Cornelius Tacitus, a place in your paper, as it seems apropos to the design above mentioned.

Pliny junior to Cornelius Tacitus.

I Rejoice that you are safely arrived in Rome; for tho' I am always desirous to see you, I am more particularly so now. I purpose to continue a few days longer at my house in Tusculum, in order to finish a work which I have upon my hands: For I am afraid, should I put a stop to this design, now that it is so nearly compleated, I shall find it difficult to resume it. In the meanwhile, that I may lose no time, I send this letter before me, to request a favour of you, which I hope shortly to ask in person. But before I inform you what my request is, I must let you into the occasion of it. Being lately in Comum, the place of my nativity, a young lad, son to one of my neighbors, made me a visit. I asked him whether he studied oratory and where? He told me he did, and at Medolianum. And why not here? Because (said his father, who came with him) we have no masters. "No! said I, surely it nearly concerns you, who are fathers (and very opportunely several of the company were so) that your sons should receive their education here, rather than anywhere else: For where can they be placed more agreeably than in their own country, or instructed with more safety, and less expence, than at home, and under the eye of their parents? Upon what very easy terms might you, by a general contribution, procure proper masters, if you would only apply towards the raising a salary for them, the extraordinary expence it costs you for your sons' journies, lodgings, and whatsoever else you pay for upon account of their being abroad; as pay indeed you must in such a case for every thing? Tho' I have no children myself, yet I shall willingly contribute to a design so beneficial to (what I look upon as a child, or a parent) my country; and therefore I will advance a third part of any sum you shall think proper to raise for this purpose. I would take upon myself the whole expence, were I not apprehensive that my benefaction might hereafter be abused, and perverted to private ends; as I have observed to be the case in several places where publick foundations of this nature have been established. The single means to prevent this mischief is, to have the choice of the masters entirely in the breast of the parents, who will be so much the more careful to determine properly, as they shall be obliged to share the expence of maintaining them. For tho' they may be careless in disposing of another's bounty, they will certainly be cautious how they apply their own; and will see that none but those who deserve it shall receive my money, when they must at the same time receive theirs too. Let my example then encourage you to unite heartily in this useful design, and be assured, the greater the sum my share shall amount to, the more agreeable it will be to me. You can undertake nothing that will be more advantageous to your children, nor more acceptable to your country. They will, by this means, receive their education where they receive their birth, and be accustomed, from their infancy, to inhabit and affect their native soil. May you be able to procure professors of such distinguished abilities, that the neighboring towns shall be glad to draw their learning from hence; and as you now send your children to foreigners for education, may foreigners in their turn flock hither for their instruction." I thought proper thus to lay open to you the rise of this affair, that you might be the more sensible how agreeable it will be to me, if you undertake the office I request. I entreat you, therefore, with all the earnestness a matter of so much importance deserves, to look out, amongst the great numbers of men of letters, which the reputation of your genius brings to you, proper persons to whom we may apply for this purpose; but without entering into any agreement with them on my part. For I would leave it entirely free to the parents to judge and choose as they shall see proper: All the share I pretend to claim is, that of contributing my care and my money. If, therefore, any one shall be found, who thinks himself qualified for the undertaking, he may repair thither; but without relying upon anything but his merit. Farewell.

Chapter 2

These proposals were the consummation of many years' reflection over the wants of the Province, which he had made his home, in the matter of better and larger educational facilities, for the growing generations. The early settlers of Pennsylvania had brought with them the culture of their home training, but as Franklin expresses it, the demands of the urgent present forbade them laying preparations for a like training to their children. His own native city had as its immediate neighbor the town of Cambridge, where Harvard College had already existed for one hundred and twelve years. In its training and its influence he had no share; "his father, burdened with a numerous family, was unable without inconvenience to support the expense of a college education," he records in his autobiography.

I was put to the grammar school at eight years of age; my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the church. My early readiness in learning to read [he continues], (which must have been very early, as I do not remember when I could not read,) and the opinion of all his friends, that I should certainly make a good scholar, encouraged him in this purpose of his. My uncle Benjamin, too, approved of it, and proposed to give me all his short-hand volumes of sermons, I suppose as a stock to set up with, if I would learn his character. I continued, however, at the grammar school not quite one year, though in that time I had risen gradually from the middle of the class of that year to be the head of it, and farther was removed into the next class above it in order to go with that into the third at the end of the year. But my father, in the meantime, from a view of the expense of a college education, which having so large a family he could not well afford, and the mean living many so educated were afterwards able to obtain reasons that he gave to his friends in my hearing altered his first intention, took me from the grammar-school, and sent me to a school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a then famous man, Mr. George Brownell, very successful in his profession, generally, and that by mild, encouraging methods. Under him I acquired fair writing pretty soon; but I failed in the arithmetic, and made no progress in it. At ten years old I was taken home to assist my father in his business, which was that of a tallow chandler and sope-boiler.

This is the brief but expressive story of Franklin's own education, and how Harvard came to lose another matriculant and an alumnus whose name would have adorned its long roll. However, in 1753, it conferred on him the honor of Magister Artium, as had Yale in the same year, and William and Mary in 1756. To these degrees higher collegiate honors were bestowed on the man who though not a collegian was the creator of a university, as St. Andrews in 1759 made him Juris Utriusque Doctor, and Oxford in 1762 enrolled him as Juris Civilis Doctor. And yet the child of his own creation never enrolled his name as the possessor of one of its Degrees.

For two years he continued thus employed in his father's business; but his "bookish inclination at length determined his father to make him a printer" though he had already one son (James) of that profession.

I liked it much better than that of my father, but still had a hankering for the sea. To prevent the apprehended effect of such an inclination, my father was impatient to have me bound to my brother. I stood out some time, but at last was persuaded, and signed the indenture, when I was but twelve years old. His father's little library consisted chiefly of books in polemic divinity, most of which I read. * * * Plutarch' s Lives there was, in which I read abundantly, and I still think that time spent to great advantage. I now had access to better books. An acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers enabled me sometimes to borrow a small one, which I was careful to return soon, and clean. Often I sat up in my room reading the greatest part of the night, when the book was borrowed in the evening and to be returned early in the morning, lest it should be missed or wanting. [He became intimately acquainted with] another bookish lad in the town, John Collins by name, with whom I was intimately acquainted. * * * About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. It was the third. I had never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and wished if possible to imitate it.

But his apprenticeship to his brother, notwithstanding all these waysides of literary pleasure and self education was made irksome to him; either his brother's tyranny or jealousy, perhaps both, oppressed his ingenious energy, and he sought means to leave him and he says:

I was sensible that if I attempted to go openly, means would be used to prevent me. My friend Collins therefore undertook to manage a little for me. He agreed with the Captain of a New York sloop for my passage * * * So I sold some of my books to raise a little money, was taken on board privately, and as we had a fair wind, in three days I found myself in New York, near 300 miles from home, a boy of but 17, without the least recommendation to or knowledge of, any person in the place, and with very little money in my pocket. Here, [he says,] I offered my service to the printer in that place old Mr. William Bradford, who had been the first printer in Pennsylvania, removed from thence upon the quarrel of George Keith. He could give me no employment, having little to do, and help enough already, but says he: My son at Philadelphia has lately lost his principal hand, Aquila Rose, by death; if you go thither I believe he may employ you.

And the young Bostonian at once set out on his way to the city where he made his home the remainder of his long and eventful life, and which in its oldest institutions, whether of philanthropy, of benevolence, of education, of science, or of business, testifies to his genius of organization and his fertility of resources.

Chapter 3

The story of Franklin's landing in Philadelphia on that October Sunday morning in 1723, the same day in the week when in 1706 he first drew breath in Boston, is well known but always interesting. His walk up Market Street, with his three penny worth of rolls, "with a roll under each arm and eating the other," and back by Chestnut and Walnut Streets to the place of the landing, "to which I went for a draught of the river water, where being filled with one of my rolls, gave the other two to a woman and her child that came down the river with us, and were waiting to go farther."

Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street which by this time had many clean-dressed people in it, who were all walking the same way. I joined them, and thereby was led into the great meeting of the Quakers near the market. I sat down among them, and after looking round awhile and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy thro' labor and want of rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and continued so till the meeting broke up, when one was kind enough to rouse me. This was therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia.

It was a notable day in the annals of our city in which Franklin was introduced to it, and the simple story in his own inimitable phrases seems ever to renew an interest in its perusal. He wrote this narrative nearly half a century afterwards, but the vividness of his memory brought up to his mind the quaint scenes of that day, and the tale is told us as freshly as if written at the time.

On Monday morning he reported bright and early at Andrew Bradford's, and he tells us he there "found in the shop the old man, his father, whom I had seen at New York, and who, traveling on horseback, had got to Philadelphia before me. He introduced me to his son, who received me civilly, gave me a breakfast, but told me he did not at present want a hand." William Bradford undertook to introduce him to the "new printer, lately set up, one Keimer" who "not discovering that he was the other printer's father," babbled about his plans and said "he expected soon to get the greatest part of the business into his own hands," whereat Bradford "drew him on by artful questions and starting little doubts" to tell more of his plans, and Franklin "who stood by and heard all, saw immediately that one of them was a crafty old sophister, and the other a mere novice." He lodged at Bradford's the while helping Keimer and doing small jobs for the former. But this first interview laid the seeds of the distrust between him and that family which was fostered in subsequent years by his successful opposition and intensified by later political controversies.

By promises from Sir William Keith, whose duplicit character he had yet to find out, he engaged to go to England to purchase printing apparatus wherewith to furnish a great establishment in Philadelphia; and in November 1724 he sailed thither, only to find the Governor's promises utterly worthless; he remained in London, working as best he might at his trade, and by October 1726 he was again in Philadelphia. For a young man who had not yet attained his majority, this was an education which not alone developed his self reliance but also added knowledge as well as experience to his stock of weapons wherewith to continue his battle with life.

In the year following he tells us he "form'd most of my ingenious acquaintances into a club of mutual improvement, which we called the Junto." These were Joseph Brientnal, a scrivener; Thomas Godfrey, the mathematician; Nicholas Scull, a surveyor; William Parsons, afterwards surveyor general; William Maugridge, "joiner, but a most exquisite mechanic;" Hugh Meredith, "a Welsh Pennsylvanian, thirty years of age, bred to country work," and afterwards his partner for twelve years in the Pennsylvania Gazette; Stephen Potts, "a young countryman of full age, of uncommon natural parts, and great wit and humor, but a little idle;" George Webb, "an Oxford scholar;" Robert Grace, "a young gentleman of some fortune, generous, lively and witty;" and lastly, "William Coleman, then a merchant's clerk, about my age, who had the coolest, clearest head, the best heart, and the exactest morals, of almost any man I ever met with. He became afterwards a merchant of great note, and one of our provincial judges," who also became one of the original trustees of the Academy and College in 1749, and remained Franklin's most faithful coadjutor in this work until his death in 1769.

The Club continued almost as long, and was the best school of philosophy, morality, and politics, that then existed in the province; for our queries, which were read the week preceding their discussion, put us upon reading with attention upon the several subjects, that we might speak more to the purpose; and here, too, we acquired better habits of conversation, everything being studied in our rules, which might prevent us disgusting each other.

From this quiet but influential centre grew in 1743 the institution of the first American Philosophical Society of which Thomas Hopkinson was the first President, which had not long existence, but was revived again by the greater organization of 1769, with Benjamin Franklin as its first President, though he was at the time absent in London representing his adopted province. Thus early did this young man display and exercise his rare leadership, and attract to his side men of thought and ideas; for one but twenty-two years of age to secure the attention of men, mostly his seniors, to weekly meetings for the discussion of useful and informing topics, indicates as great an instance as any displayed by him in later years of his strong executive ability, and his wonderful powers of attraction among all with whom he was associated in any enterprise. We dwell upon the great affairs of those later years in which he had such a directing hand, but these peculiar characteristics of his were being developed and matured a half century before the historian of his country devotes his pages to his later works. Franklin's accounts of all these matters is as engaging as it is frank; and it is this same frankness which also gives us that other and more human side of his early life in which occur those youthful follies and misdoings which seemed to have furnished his enemies with their most pointed weapons.