nklin wrote to his sister Jane, whose son had also
run away to enlist as a privateer. He wished to console her by the
assurance that it was not in consequence of unkind treatment, that the
boys were induced thus to act. He wrote:

"When boys see prizes brought in, and quantities of money
shared among the men, and their gay living, it fills their
heads with notions that half distract them; and puts them
quite out of conceit with trades and the dull ways of getting
money by working. My only son left my house unknown to us
all, and got on board a privateer, from whence I fetched him.
No one imagined it was hard usage at home that made him do
this. Every one that knows me thinks I am too indulgent a
parent, as well as master."

The father of Benjamin Franklin died in Boston, at the great age of
eighty-nine years. He had secured, in a very high degree, the respect
of the people, not only by his irreproachable morals, but by his
unfeigned piety. The Boston News Letter, of January 17, 1745, in the
following brief obituary, chronicles his death:

"Last night died Mr. Josiah Franklin, tallow chandler, and
soap maker. By the force of steady temperance he had made a
constitution, none of the strongest, last with comfort to the
age of eighty-nine years. And by an entire dependence on his
Redeemer, and a constant course of the strictest piety and
virtue, he was enabled to die as he lived, with cheerfulness
and peace, leaving a numerous posterity the honor of being
descended from a person who, through a long life, supported
the character of an honest man."

In the year 1743 Franklin drew up a plan for an Academy in
Philadelphia. In consequence of the troubled times the tract was not
published until the year 1749. It was entitled, "Proposals Relating to
the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania." The suggestions he presented
indicated a wide acquaintance with the writings of the most eminent
philosophers. He marked out minutely, and with great wisdom, the
course of study to be pursued. It is pleasant to read the following
statement, in this programme. Urging the study of History, he writes,

"History will also afford frequent opportunities of showing
the necessity of a _public religion_, from its usefulness to
the public; the advantages of a religious character among
private persons; the mischiefs of superstition and the