... The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and a Sketch of Franklin's Life from the Point where the Autobiography Ends, Drawn Chiefly from His Letters: With Notes and a Chronological Historical Table ...

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Houghton, Mifflin, 1886

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Page 237 - You are a Member of Parliament, and one of that Majority which has doomed my Country to Destruction. — You have begun to burn our Towns, and murder our People. — Look upon your Hands ! — They are stained with the Blood of your Relations ! You and I were long friends : — You are now my Enemy, — and ' I am, yours,
Page 244 - But the work shall not be lost For it will [as he believed] appear once more In a new and more elegant edition Revised and corrected by The Author.
Page 125 - In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.
Page 148 - I declined it from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions; viz., that as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.
Page 122 - 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 in that language with ease : I then undertook the Italian. An acquaintance who was also learning it, used 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 refused to play any more, unless on this condition...
Page 199 - In 1746, being at Boston, I met there with a Dr. Spence, who was lately arrived from Scotland, and show'd me some electric experiments. They were imperfectly perform'd, as he was not very expert; but, being on a subject quite new to me, they equally surpris'd and pleased me.
Page 225 - I bought it by candlelight, and liked it then, but not so well afterwards. If you do not fancy it, send it as a present from me to sister Jenny.
Page 166 - House approved the nomination, and provided the goods for the present, though they did not much like treating out of the provinces ; and we met the other commissioners at Albany about the middle of June. In our way thither, I projected and drew a plan for the union of all the colonies under one government, so far as might be necessary for defense, and other important general purposes.
Page 242 - I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the Representative of our Country; he is a Bird of bad moral Character; he does not get his living honestly...
Page 165 - The money may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly consumed it. But in the other case he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors. He shaves when most convenient to him and enjoys daily the pleasure of its being done with a good instrument.

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