adding,

"I had still an opinion of its propriety and its utility,
when rightly conducted; and I regularly paid my annual
subscription for the support of the only Presbyterian
minister."

Rumors soon reached Franklin's good father of Boston, of his son's
free-thinking, and he wrote to his son in much alarm. In Franklin's
reply, he said,

"All that should be expected from me, is to keep my mind
open to conviction; to hear patiently and examine
attentively whatever is offered me for that end. And if
after all I continue in the same errors, I believe your
usual charity will induce you rather to pity and excuse,
than to blame me. In the meantime, your care and concern for
me, is what I am very thankful for. My mother grieves that
one of her sons is an Arian, and another an Arminian. What
an Arminian or an Arian is, I cannot say that I very well
know. The truth is, I make such distinctions very little my
study. I think vital religion has always suffered when
orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. And the Scriptures
assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined what
we thought but what we did."

Franklin, having no revealed religion to guide him, and having no
foundation for his faith, but the ever-changing vagaries of his own
fantastic imagination, could have no belief to-day, of which he had
any certainty that he would hold the same to-morrow. He was
continually abandoning one after another of the articles of his
fantastical creed, and adopting others in their place. At length he
settled down upon the following simple belief, which with very
considerable tenacity, but without any attempt to promulgate it, he
adhered to for many years. It consisted of the six following articles
which we give in briefest language.

1. "There is one God.

2. "He governs the world.

3. "He ought to be worshipped.

4. "Doing good is the service most acceptable to him.

5. "Man is immortal.

6. "In the future world the souls of men will be dealt with
justly."

It is very evident that Franklin had no great confidence in his
theological opinions. He studiously avoided all writing upon the
subject, and as far as possible all conversation. Still, with his keen
sense of humor, he could not refrain from occasionally plunging a
pretty sharp dagger's thrust into the palpable imperfections of the
variou