3. This was accordingly done, and for a while answered their purpose very well. Finding the advantage and convenience of this little collection, Franklin proposed to render the benefit more general, by commencing a public subscription library. He drew a sketch of the plan and rules that would be necessary, and had them put into the form of articles to be subscribed. By these articles, each subscriber agreed to pay a certain sum for the first purchase of the books, and a yearly contribution for increasing them.
4. The number of readers, at that time, in Philadelphia, was so small, that it was with great difficulty Franklin was able to procure fifty subscribers, willing to pay forty shillings to begin with, and ten shillings a year for a contribution. With this number the library was commenced. The books were imported, and lent out to subscribers. Great advantages were derived from the institution, and it was soon imitated in other places.
5. In this library, Franklin found means of continual improvement. He set apart an hour or two in each day for study, and in this way, in some degree, made up for the loss of a learned education. Reading was his only amusement. His attention to business was as strict as it was necessary. He was in debt for his printing house, and had an increasing family; with two rivals in his business, who had been established before him. Notwithstanding all this, however, he grew more easy in his circumstances every day.
6. His early habits of frugality continued. He often thought of the proverb of Solomon, which his father had impressed on him while a boy—"Seest thou a man diligent in his calling? he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men." Industry appeared a means of obtaining wealth and distinction, and the thought encouraged him to new exertions. We shall see, by and by, that little as his father expected it, the son really came to stand, with honor, in the presence of monarchs.
7. His wife was, fortunately, as well inclined to industry and frugality as he was himself. She assisted him in his business, folding and stitching pamphlets, tending shop, and purchasing old linen rags for the paper-makers. They kept no idle servants, their table was simply furnished, and their furniture was plain and cheap.
8. "My breakfast," says Franklin, "was for a long time bread and milk (no tea), and I ate it out of a twopenny earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon: but mark how luxury will enter families, and make a progress in spite of principle; being called one morning to breakfast, I found it in a china bowl, with a spoon of silver. They had been bought for me, without my knowledge, by my wife, and had cost her the enormous sum of three and twenty shillings; for which she had no other excuse or apology to make, but that she thought her husband deserved a silver spoon and china bowl as well as any of his neighbors. This was the first appearance of plate and china in our house, which afterwards, in a course of years, as our wealth increased, augmented gradually to several hundred pounds in value."
9. It was about this time that Franklin formed the bold and difficult project of arriving at moral perfection. As he knew, or thought he knew, what was right and wrong, he did not see why he might not always do the one and avoid the other. For this purpose, he made a table of the different virtues, with certain rules and precepts annexed to them. Some of these were as follows:
1. Temperance.—Eat not to dulness: drink not to elevation.
2. Silence.—Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself: avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order.—Let all your things have their places: let each part of your business have its time.