CONTENTS. LANDLORD'S TALE. PAUL REVERE'S RIDE SICILIAN'S TALE. KING ROBERT OF SICILY FRANKLIN was the most widely known American of his time, when he began this account of his life in 1771. He continued it in 1784 and 1788. The following pages contain almost all the first part of the autobiography, and more than a third of the whole. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. FROM the poverty and obscurity in which I was 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 favorable. Notwithstanding, if this condition 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 |