was a
work which obtained much celebrity in those days and was published by
Mr. Palmer. It was of the general character of Butler's Analogy, and
was intended to prove that the morality enjoined by Jesus Christ, was
founded in the very nature of man; and that the principles of that
morality were immutable, even though deists should succeed in
destroying the public faith in the divine authority of Christianity.
It was eminently an amiable book, written with great charity and
candor, and without any dogmatic assumptions.

It chanced to fall to Franklin to set up the type. As was customary
with him, he made himself thoroughly acquainted with the treatise of
which he thus became the compositor. His mind was in such a state in
reference to the claims of that Christianity which certainly did not
commend the mode of life he was living, that it excited not only
antagonistic but even angry emotions. So thoroughly were his feelings
aroused, that he wrote and published a pamphlet of thirty-two pages,
in refutation of the theory of Mr. Wollaston.

Franklin dedicated his work, which was entitled "A dissertation
on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain," to James Ralph.
Fortunately, the treatise has descended to us unmutilated. He
commences with the observation:

"I have here given you my present thoughts upon the general
state of things in the universe."

The production was certainly a very able one to come from the pen of a
young printer of but nineteen years. Mr. Palmer, while recognizing its
ability, pronounced its principles to be atrocious and demoralizing.
The production of such a work, literary, philosophical and religious,
by probably the youngest companion of the journeymen printers, caused
them all to open their eyes with astonishment, and he was regarded at
once as a great man among them.[7]

[Footnote 7: In this extraordinary document our young deist writes,
"There is said to be a first mover, who is called God, who is all
wise, all good, all powerful. If he is all good, whatsoever he doeth
must be good. If he is all wise, whatever he doeth must be wise. That
there are things to which we give the name of _Evil_, is not to be
denied--such as theft, murder, etc. But these are not in reality
evils. To suppose anything to exist or to be done contrary to the will
of the Almighty is to suppose him not Almighty. There is nothing done
but God either does or permits. Though a creature may do many actions,
whic