The autobiography ... To which is added J. Sparks' continuation (abridged) / [Benjamin Franklin].

  • Benjamin Franklin
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The autobiography ... To which is added J. Sparks' continuation (abridged) / [Benjamin Franklin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    born, and in which I passed my earliest years, I have raised myself to a state of affluence and some degree of celebrity in the world. As constant good fortune has accompanied me even to an advanced period of life, my posterity will perhaps be desirous of learning the means which I employed, and which, thanks to Providence, so well succeeded with me. They may also deem them fit to be imitated, should any of them find themselves in similar circumstances. This good fortune, when I reflect on it (which is frequently the case), has induced me sometimes to say, that, if it were left to my choice, I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end; requesting only the advantage authors have of correcting in a second edition the faults of the first. So would I also wish to change some incidents of it for others more favourable. Notwithstanding, if this con- dition was denied, I should still accept the offer of recommencing the same life. But as this repetition is not to be expected, that which resembles most living one’s life over again, seems to be to recall all the circumstances of it, and, to render this remembrance more durable, to record them in writing. In thus employing myself, I shall yield to the inclina- tion so natural to old men, of talking of themselves and their own actions ; and I shall indulge it without being tiresome to those who, from respect to my age, might conceive themselves obliged to listen to me, since they will be always free to read me or not. And, lastly (I may as well confess it, as the denial of it would be believed by nobody), I shall, perhaps, not a little gratify my own vanity. Indeed, I never heard or saw the introductory words, “ Without vanity I may say,” etc., but some vain
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