From the facility he discovered in learning the rudiments of his native language, his parents believed him endowed

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN..

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, a native of Boston, was born on the seventeenth of January, 1706. The paternal branch of his ancestors inhabited the county of Northampton in England. They were proprietors of a small freehold estate near the village of Eaton, where, according to the traditions of that place, the family had been established for more than three centuries. They pursued generally some trade, and were very honourably distinguished in their neighbourhood, for industry, honesty, and mechanical ingenuity. His father, who was of the persuasion of the Puritans, emigrated in 1682 to the colony of Massachusetts, the common refuge of those of his sect, who fled from the persecutions of their native country; but unaccustomed to agriculture or commerce, the usual occupations of the colonists, he had recourse for a livelihood to the business of chandler and soap-boiler, which, during the remainder of his life, he pursued with little success, and lived in an innocent and unambitious poverty. Of his mother, whom he mentions with affection, he has left no very important intelligence: her name was Folger; she was a native of Boston, and was descended from one of the prineipal settlers of New England.

From the facility he discovered in learning the rudiments of his native language, his parents believed him endowed