He might have added to these lines, one that he has coupled elsewhere, in my opinion, with less propriety. It is this:
For want of modesty is want of sense.
If you ask why I say with less propriety, I must give you the two lines together:
Immodest words admit of no defence,
For want of decency is want of sense.
Now want of sense, when a man has the misfortune to be so circumstanced, is it not a kind of excuse for want of modesty? And would not the verses have been more accurate if they had been constructed thus:
Immodest words admit but this defence,
That want of decency is want of sense.
But I leave the decision of this to better judges than myself.
In 1720, or 1721, my brother began to print a new public paper. It was the second that made its appearance in America, and was entitled, "The New England Courant." The only one that existed before was the "Boston News Letter." Some of his friends, I remember, would have dissuaded him from this undertaking, as a thing that was not likely to succeed; a single newspaper being, in their opinion, sufficient for all America. At present, however, in 1771, there are no less than twenty-five. But he carried his project into execution, and I was employed in distributing the copies to his customers, after having assisted in composing and working them off.