h a view. We cannot
discover the least desire to _hoard_ the money he saved. He laid it
out in books, and such things as aided him in self-improvement. He
believed in temperate eating, as we have already said, and the
following maxims of his show the same thing:--

"Who dainties love, shall beggars prove."

"Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them."

"Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy
necessaries."

He saw that he could never possess the books he needed, or command the
time, if his appetite for luxuries was gratified. In his
circumstances, the most marked self-denial was necessary, to gain his
object. At the same time, he believed it would make him more healthy
to be abstemious. There was not an iota of stinginess in his habitual
economy.

Economy of time or money is praiseworthy only when it is done to
command the means of being useful,--which was true of Franklin. When
it is practised to gratify a sordid love of money, it is ignoble and
sinful.

About this time, Benjamin and John Collins had another
interview,--differing somewhat from the one already described, as the
following dialogue will show:--

"What book is this, Ben?" inquired John, taking up one from the table.

"It is an old English Grammar which I came across the other day,"
answered Benjamin. "It has two chapters, near the close, on Rhetoric
and Logic, that are valuable."

"Valuable to you, perhaps, but not to me," said John. "What shall I
ever want of Rhetoric or Logic?"

"Everybody ought to know something about them," answered Benjamin.
"They have already helped me, in connection with the works of
Shaftesbury, to understand some things about religion better. I have
believed some doctrines just because my parents taught me so."

"Then you do not believe all that you have been taught about religion,
if I understand you?"

"No, I am free to say that I do not. There is neither reason nor
wisdom in portions of the creed of the Church."

"Why, Ben, you surprise me. You are getting to be quite infidel for a
boy. It won't do for you to read Logic and Shaftesbury any more, if
you are so easily upset by them."

"Made to understand better by them what is right and what is wrong,"
answered Benjamin. "The fact is, very few persons think for
themselves. They are religious because they are so instructed. They
embrace the religion of their parents without asking themselves what
is true or false."