him a few days later on obtaining a job to print some paper money for New Jersey.  Thereupon Franklin contrived a copperplate press for this job—­the first that had been seen in the country—­and cut the ornaments for the bills.  Meantime Franklin, with one of the apprentices, had ordered a press and types from London, that they two might set up an independent office.  Shortly after the New Jersey job was finished, these materials arrived in Philadelphia, and Franklin immediately opened his own printing office.  His partner “was, however, no compositor, a poor pressman, and seldom sober.”  The office prospered, and in July, 1730, when Franklin was twenty-four years old, the partnership was dissolved, and Franklin was at the head of a well-established and profitable printing business.  This business was the foundation of Franklin’s fortune; and better foundation no man could desire.  His industry was extraordinary.  Contrary to the current opinion, Dr. Baird of St. Andrews testified that the new printing office would succeed, “for the industry of that Franklin,” he said, “is superior to anything I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at work when I go home from the club, and he is at work again before the neighbors are out of bed.”  No trade rules or customs limited or levied toll on his productiveness.  He speedily became by far the most successful printer in all the colonies, and in twenty years was able to retire from active business with a competency.

One would, however, get a wrong impression of Franklin’s career as a printer, if he failed to observe that from his boyhood Franklin constantly used his connection with a printing office to facilitate his remarkable work as an author, editor, and publisher.  Even while he was an apprentice to his brother James he succeeded in getting issued from his brother’s press ballads and newspaper articles of which he was the anonymous author.  When he had a press of his own he used it for publishing a newspaper, an almanac, and numerous essays composed or compiled by himself.  His genius as a writer supported his skill and industry as a printer.

The second part of the double subject assigned to me is Franklin as philosopher.  The philosophy he taught and illustrated related to four perennial subjects of human interest—­education, natural science, politics, and morals.  I propose to deal in that order with these four topics.

Franklin’s philosophy of education was elaborated as he grew up, and was applied to himself throughout his life.  In the first place, he had no regular education of the usual sort.  He studied and read with an extraordinary diligence from his earliest years; but he studied only the subjects which attracted him, or which he himself believed would be good for him, and throughout life he pursued only those inquiries for pursuing which he found within himself an adequate motive.  The most important element in his training was reading, for which he had a precocious desire