faith and
conscience and the opportunities of the New World. He wished to live
where he might be free to enjoy his own opinions and to promote a colony
where all men should have these privileges.

The house in which Franklin was born is described as follows:

Its front upon the street was rudely clapboarded,
and the sides and rear were protected from the
inclemencies of a New England climate by large,
rough shingles. In height the house was about
three stories; in front, the second story and
attic projected somewhat into the street, over the
principal story on the ground floor. On the lower
floor of the main house there was one room only.
This, which probably served the Franklins as a
parlor and sitting-room, and also for the family
eating-room, was about twenty feet square, and had
two windows on the street; and it had also one on
the passageway, so as to give the inmates a good
view of Washington Street. In the center of the
southerly side of the room was one of those noted
large fireplaces, situated in a most capacious
chimney; on the left of this was a spacious
closet. On the ground floor, connected with the
sitting-room through the entry, was the kitchen.
The second story originally contained but one
chamber, and in this the windows, door, fireplace,
and closet were similar in number and position to
those in the parlor beneath it. The attic was also
originally one unplastered room, and had a window
in front on the street, and two common attic
windows, one on each side of the roof, near the
back part of it.

Soon after this unprophetic event Josiah Franklin and Abiah his wife
went to live at the sign of the Blue Ball, on what was then the
southeast corner of Hanover and Union Streets. The site of the birth of
Franklin was long made notable as the office of the Boston Post, a
political paper whose humor was once proverbial. The site is still
visited by strangers, and bears the record of the event which was to
contribute so powerful an influence to the scientific and political
history of the world.

Wendell Phillips used to say that there were two kinds of people in the
world--one who went ahead and did something, and another, who showed how
th