have done? Reader, you know very well, without my telling you. What
Franklin did was this: he shared his purse with his friend till his ten
pounds were all gone; and having at once got to work at his trade, he
kept on dividing his wages with Ralph until he had advanced him
thirty-six pounds--half a year's income--not a penny of which was ever
repaid. And this he did--the cold-blooded wretch!--because he could not
help loving his brilliant, unprincipled comrade, though disapproving his
conduct and sadly needing his money.

Having returned to Philadelphia, he set up in business as a printer and
editor, and, after a very severe effort, he got his business well
established, and at last had the most profitable establishment of the
kind in all America. During the most active part of his business life he
always found some time for the promotion of public objects. He founded a
most useful and public-spirited club; a public library, which still
exists, and assisted in every worthy scheme. He was most generous to his
poor relations, hospitable to his fellow-citizens, and particularly
interested in his journeymen, many of whom he set up in business.

The most decisive proof, however, which he ever gave that he did not
overvalue money, was the retirement from a most profitable business for
the purpose of having leisure to pursue his philosophical studies. He
had been in business twenty years, and he was still in the prime of
life--forty-six years of age. He was making money faster than any other
printer on this continent. But being exceedingly desirous of spending
the rest of his days in study and experiment, and having saved a
moderate competency, he sold his establishment to his foreman on very
easy terms, and withdrew. His estate, when he retired, was worth about a
hundred thousand dollars. If he had been a lover of money, I am
confident that he could and would have accumulated one of the largest