here were Plutarch's "Lives," De Foe's "Essays on Projects,"
and Mather's "Essays to do Good." This bookish inclination determined my
father to bind me apprentice to my brother James, a printer in Boston,
and in a little time I became very proficient. I had access to more
books, and often sat up most of the night reading. I had also a fancy to
poetry, and made some little pieces; my brother printed them, and sent
me about the town to sell them.

I now took in hand the improvement of my writing by various exercises in
prose and verse, being extremely ambitious to become a good English
writer. My time for these exercises was at night and on Sundays. At
about 16 years of age, meeting with a book on the subject, I took to a
vegetable diet, and thus not only saved an additional fund to buy books,
but also gained greater clearness of head. I now studied arithmetic,
navigation, geometry, and read Locke "On the Human Understanding," the
"Art of Thinking," by Messrs. du Port Royal, and Xenophon's "Memorable
Things of Socrates." From this last I learned to drop my abrupt
contradiction and positive argumentation, and to put on the humble
inquirer and doubter.

My brother had begun to print a newspaper, "The New England Courant,"
the second that appeared in America. Some of his friends thought it not
likely to succeed, one newspaper being enough for America; yet at this
time there are not less than five-and-twenty. To this paper I began to
contribute anonymously, disguising my hand, and putting my MSS. at night
under the door of the printing-house. These were highly approved, until
I claimed their authorship.

But I soon took upon me to assert my freedom, and determined to go to
New York. A friend of mine agreed with the captain of a sloop for my
passage; I was taken on board privately, and in three days found myself
in New York, near 300 miles from home, a boy of but seventeen, and with
very little money in my pocket. The printer there could not give me
employment, but told me of a vacancy in Philadelphia, 100 miles further.
Thither, therefore, I proceeded, partly by land, and partly by sea, and
landed with one Dutch dollar in my pocket.

There were two printers in the town, both of them poorly qualified.
Bradford was very illiterate, and Keimer, though something of a scholar,
was a mere compositor, knowing nothing of press-work. Keimer gave me
employment. He had been one of the French prophets, and could act their
enthusiasti