We learn one or two things about Benjamin from the foregoing, which
the reader may ponder with benefit to himself. In the first place, he
must have been very observing. He understood the construction of a
printing-press so well, that he could put an old one into running
order, youth as he was, when its proprietor was unable to do it. This
is more remarkable, because he was not obliged to study the mechanism
of a printing-press in order to work it. Doubtless many a person
operates this and other machines without giving any particular
attention to their structure. But a class of minds are never satisfied
until they understand whatever commands their attention. They are
inquisitive to learn the philosophy of things. It was so with
Benjamin, and this characteristic proved a valuable element of his
success. It was the secret of his inventions and discoveries
thereafter. It was so with Stephenson, of whom we have spoken before.
As soon as he was appointed plugman of an engine, at seventeen years
of age, he began to study its construction. In his leisure hours, he
took it to pieces and put it together again several times, in order to
understand it. So of William Hutton, whose name is mentioned in
another place. Encouraged by a couplet which he read in Dyce's
Spelling-book--

"Despair of nothing that you would attain,
Unwearied diligence your end will gain,"

he sought to master everything that he undertook. One day he borrowed
a dulcimer, and made one by it. With no other tools than the
hammer-key, and pliers of the stocking-frame for hammer and pincers,
his pocket-knife, and a one-pronged fork that served as spring, awl,
and gimlet, he made a capital dulcimer, which he sold for sixteen
shillings. Here were both observation and perseverance, though not
more finely developed than they were in the character of young
Benjamin Franklin.

Another important truth is learned from the foregoing, namely, that
Benjamin was not proud. A sight of him passing up Market Street, with
three large rolls of bread, is proof of this; or his appearance in the
street and Quaker church in his everyday garb, because his best suit
was "coming round by sea," is equally significant. How many boys of
his age would have stayed away from church until the "best clothes"
arrived! How many would seek for some concealment of their poverty, if
possible, in similar circumstances! But these were small matters to
Benjamin, in comparison with finding e