富兰克林自传

1. at his (B.F.'s father) table, he liked to have, as often as he could, some sensible friend or neighbors to converse with, and always took care to start some ingenious or useful topic for discourse which might tend to improve the minds of his children. By this means  he turned our attention to what was good, just, and prudent in the conduct of life, and little related to the victuals (means food) on the table--whether it was good or ill dressed , in or out of season , of good or bad flavor ... so that I was brought up in such a perfect inattention to those matters as to be quite indifferent what kind of food was set before me, so unobservant of it, that to this day I can scarce tell a few hours after dinner of what dishes it consisted. this has been a great convenience to me .

2. he (my father) sometimes take me to see joiners, bricklayers, turners,etc., at their work that he might observe my inclination and endeavor to fix it on some trade that would keep me on land. it has been a pleasure to me to see good workmen handle their tools, and it has been often useful to me to have learned so much by it as to be able to do little job myself in my house 

3. from my infancy, I was passionatly fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was laid out in the purchasing of books 

there was also a book of Defoe's called Essay on projects and another of Dr. Mather's called Essays to do good, which perhaps gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some of the principle future events of my life. 

4. (in his brother's printer) Often i sat up in my room reading the greatest part of the night, when the book was borrowed in the evening and to be returned early in the morning, lest it should be found missing or wanted. 

5. prose writing has been of great use to me in the course of my life and was a principle means of my advancement. 

disputations are apt to become a very bad habit, making people often extremely disaggreable in company , it is productive of disgusts and perhaps enmities where you my have occasion for friendship. 

6. how to improve writing :

 

I bought it (the spectator) , read it over and over. I took some of the papers, and making short hints of the sentiments in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then without looking at the book , tried to complete the papers again by expressing each hinted sentiment at length and as fully as it had been expressed  before, in any suitable words that should occur to me . then I compared my spectator with the original , discovered some of my faults , and corrected them. but i found I wanted a stock of words or a readiness in recollecting and using them which i thought i should have acquired before that time if i had gone on making verses. ..

7. the time i allotted for these exercises and for reading, was at night after work, or before in the morning , or on sundays, when i contrived to be in the printing house alone, avoiding as much as i could the common attendance public worship....

8. vegetable diet 

when at about 16， I happened to meet with a book written by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable diet, I determined  to go into it. and then proposed to 

my brother that if he could give me weekly half the money he paid for my board, I would board myself. I presently found that I could save half what he paid me. this was an addition fund for buying books. and also another advantage in it. when they went for their meals, I remained there alone, and dispatching presently my light repast ( often was no more than a biscuit or a slice of bread, a handful of raisins or a tart from the pastry cook;s, a glass of water) has the rest time to read, in which I made the greater progress from that greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension which generally attend temperance in eating and drinking

9. books:

i procured Xenophon's Memorable things of socrates, wherins there are many examples of the same method, I was charmed with it. adopted it ,dropped my abrupt contraction and positive argumentation, and put on the humble enquirer. 

i took delight in it, practised it continually, and grew very artful and expert in drawing people, even of superior knowledge, into concessions the consequences of which they didnot forsee,....

I continued this method some few years but gradually left it, retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence , never using when I advance anything that may possibly be disputed the words , 'certainly ', 'undoubtedly ', or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion, but rather say 'i conceive or apprehend a thing to be so or so ' ' it appears to me ' or ' i should not think it so or so , for such and such reasons, or 'i imagine it to be so' or 'it is so if i am not mistaken' 

10. if you wish to instruct others, a positive, dogmatical manner in advancing your sentiments may provoke contradiction and prevent a candid attention. 

if you desire instruction and improvement from the knowledge of others, you should not at the same time express yourself as frimly fixed in your persent opinions; modest and sensible men , who do not love disputation will probably leave you undisturbed in the diffidence possession of your error, 

in adopting such a manner seldom expect to please your hearers , or to persuade those whose concurrence your desire .

Men must be taught as if you taught them not,

  And things unknown propos'd as things forgot.

to speak, though sure, with seeming difference

11.

at the age of 17:

i found myself at Newyork, 300 miles from home, without the least recommendation or knowledge of any person in the place, and very little money in my pocket .

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